'- V 






,H -f. 



S" '''^- 



't^ V*' 



.,-% '^^ 



A> -^.r. 



^^ '^^ 



..'^' 



.^-^ -. 






"*. v-^' 



COMPENDIUM 



OF 



History and Biography 



OF 



THE CITY OF DETROIT AND 
WAYNE COUNTY, MICHIGAN 



ILLUSTRATED 



**A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be 
remembered with pride by remote generations.'*— Macaulay. 



CHICAGO 
HENRY TAYLOR 6- CO. 

Publishers, Engravers and Book Manufacturers 

1909 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Cuptes Received 

FEB 20 1U09 

CopyriiiiU L.'iiry 
CLASS Oc '^Xc. No. 



COPYRIGHT. I'XB, 

BY 

HENRY TAYLOR & CO. 



f 



(^'' 



PREFACE 



All history is, perforce, a merciless abridgment, and yet too much can never be written con- 
cerning; any nation, any people — since each contribution must have a definite value. In the offering 
of this compendium of history and biography, the publishers lay claim not to any amplification of 
data in the annals of Detroit and Wayne county, but rather to the condensed, narrative presenta- 
tion of the history of a section whose records bear the graceful tales oF romance and the sterner 
burdens of definite accomplishment. In the collation of the generic history, recourse has been had 
to the most reliable authorities, and the publishers have been most fortunate in securing in this 
department of the work the co-operation of Mr, Clarence M. Burton, than whom none has ever 
had more intimate and thorough knowledge of the history of Michigan and whose reputation in 
the field of historic research is especially notable. Mr. Burton has not only given careful revision 
to all subject matter in the general history but has also offered a most valuable personal contribu- 
tion, in the chapters relative to the war of 18(2 and conditions existing at that period. These 
chapters are definitely credited to him in the initiation thereof. The form in which the history is 
presented is believed to have much of individuality and originality, so that the record can not fail 
of cumulative value as a source of information and as offering a concise narrative, interesting to 
the reader who has no desire for mere detail and intimate research. The functions of the bio- 
graphical, industrial and financial departments of the publication are such as offer their own 
justification and add materially to the intrinsic value of the work. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. Page 

Origin of Detroit in Struggle for Supremacy Between England and France— Plans tor Establishing a 
Fortress by Count Pontchartrain — Expedition Under Cadillac — Post Named Fort Pontchartrain 
— Record Concerning Cadillac — Conditions at the Frontier Post — Cadillac Succeeded by Dubuisson 
— Trouble with the Fox Indians — Regime of Alphonse de Tonty — Robert Navarre, Intendant at 
Detroit — Efforts to Increase Population and Military Strength — Beginning of Struggle Between 
France and England — French Lose Stronghold at Louisburg— Montcalm as Governor Gen- 
eral of Canada — Fatal Conflict at the Heights of Abraham and Its Results on Future of Detroit 
— British Gain Control of All Canada. 1 

CHAPTER II. 

The Detroit Post Surrended by the French Commandant — One Hundred and Forty-Eight Years of 
French Misdirection — New Era Ushered In with English Control — Detroit Menaced by Indian 
Unrest and Antagonism — Regime of Captain Henry Gladwin — ^Treaties with the Indians — Con- 
spiracy Under Pontiac, and Attempt to Capture the Detroit Garrison — War with the Indians 
Under Pontiac — Lack of Supplies at Detroit — Murder of Captain Campbell — Indian Victory at 
Bloody Run — Pontiac Sues for Peace — Colonel John Bradstreet Made Commandant — Condi- 
tions Follov.ing Indian Uprising — First Money Circulated in Detroit — Philip Dejean Commissioned 
First Chief .lustice — The Northwest Company — Passage of the Quebec Act — Local Discontent 
with Policy of English Home Government; Lieutenant Governors Appointed — Nefarious Rule of 
Hamilton and Dejean at Detroit 10 

CHAPTER III. 

Detroit's Position at Inception of Revolution — Hamilton's Execrable Policies — Indian Atrocities — Ex- 
peditions from Detroit During Revolution — Settlers Oppose Hamilton's Plans — Expedition of 
Indian Allies Under Girty — Attack on Detroit Planned by Americans — The Wyoming Valley Mas- 
sacre — Expedition Under George Rogers Clark — Hamilton's Expedition from Detroit to Vincennes 
Capitulation of Hamilton 19 

CHAPTER IV. 

Strengthening of the Detroit Post Under DePeyster — Expedition Against the Moravian Villages in 

Ohio 26 

CHAPTER V. 

Problems in Northwest After Close of Revolution — Extravagant Demands of the English — Report of 
Ephraim Douglass — Washington Demands Surrender of Forts in Disputed Territory — Missions 
of Baron Steuben — Lieutenant Colonel Hull — English Refuse Demands and Regain Indian Prestige 
— Harmar's Disastrous Expedition — Commissioners Appointed to Effect Treaties with the Indians 
— Fruitless Results — General Anthony Wayne Advanced Into the West — President Washington's 
Message — Conflict at Fort Recovery — Wayne's Subsequent Movements — Battle of Fallen Timber 
Wayne's Treaty with the Indians 28 

CHAPTER VL 

Northwest Boundary Dispute — John Jay Envoy to England — Jay's Treaty Ratified — Detroit Formally 
Given Into Possession of the United States — Colonel Hamtramck Assumes Command — Wayne 
County Named — Record Concerning General Wayne — Detroit After British Evacuation — St. Clair 
Appointed Governor of Northwest Territory — Other Officials — Ordinance of 17S7 — First and 
Second Legislative Assemblies — Wayne County Representatives— Detroit Incorporated as a 
Town — First Officers — First Fire Department — Conditions in Formative Period — Attitude of Brit- 
ish Officers at Fort Maiden 37 



VI CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VII. Page 
Change in Boundaries of Wayne County — Ohio Admitted to Statehood — Michigan a Part of the 
Territory of Indiana— Forming of the Territory of Michigan — Boundaries of New Territory — 
First Officers — Detroit the Capital — William Hull, Augustus B. Woodward, Frederick Bates 
John Griffln — Civic and Social Conditions in Detroit — Detroit Destroyed by Fire— Effects of the 
Disaster — High-handed Rule of the Federal Appointees — Work of Rehabilitation — Rebellion of 
Citizens Against Conditions — Distribution of Town Lots — Rights of the People Flagrantly In- 
fringed — Governor Hull Establishes an Army — Popular Protest Against Hull's Despotism — Bank 
of Detroit Established — History of the Institution 43 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Woodward Code — Judicial Districts in the Territory — Early Courts — Judge James Witherell — 
First Printing Press in Detroit — Efforts to Separate Legislative and Judicial Departments of Ter- 
ritorial Government — Conditions Leading Up to the War of 1812 — Renewed Alliances Between 
British Agents and the Indians — Tecumseh, the Indian Leader — Battle of Tippecanoe' 58 

CHAPTER rx. 

. (Contributed by C. M. Burton.) 

War Declared Against England, June IS, 1812— Hull Appointed Brigadier General— Rising of Volun- 
teers — Failure to Notify Hull of Formal Declaration of War — Packet "Cuyahoga" Captured by 
the British — Militia Companies in Detroit — Arrival of Hull and His Army — Preliminary Opera- 
tions in Canada— British Capture Fort Mackinac — Hull Delays Attack on Fort Maiden — Van 
Horn's Command Attacked by Indians — British L?arn Plans of Operation — Hull Retires from 
Canada — Battle of Monguagon — Brock Assumes Command of British Forces— Americans Retreat 
from Sandwich — Brock Demands Surrender of Detroit — Hull Refuses and Detroit Is Bom- 
barded — British Forces Cross the Detroit River — Hull's Letters to Brock — Surrender of Detroit 
by Hull — Articles of Capitulation — Captured Officers Taken to Montreal 02 

CHAPTER X. 
(Contributed by C. M. Burton.) 
Hull's Trial by Court Martial — Members of the Court — Hull Sentenced to Be Shot — Execution of 
Sentence Remitted — Efforts to Exonerate Hull in Later Years — The Lewis Cass Account of Sur- 
render of Detroit — Extracts from Hull's Arguments at Time of Trial 73 

CHAPTER XI. 
Progress of War of 1812^British Occupy Detroit — Hull's Memoirs — Attempts to Re-establish Amer- 
ican Prestige — Expedition Under General Winchester — Surrender of Winchester — Massacre of 
Americans by Indians — Efforts of General Harrison — Expedition Against Fort Maiden — Proctor 
Lays Siege Before Fort Meigs and Attacks Fort Stephenson 75 

CHAPTER XIL 
Continuation of War of 1812 — Americans Gain Control of Lake Ontario — Perry Given Command of 
Lake Erie — British Compelled to Evacuate Capital of Upper Canada — Fall of Fort George — 
Perry's Victony on Lake Erie — Description of the Battle — Procter Prepares to Retreat — Speech 
of Protest by Tecumseh— British Evacuation of Detroit — American Armies Invade Canada- 
Pursuit of Procter— Battle of the Thames— Death of Tecumseh— General Cass Assumes Com- 
mand at Detroit— Expedition to the North — Progress of War in the East — Indian Depredations 
About Detroit — Treaty of Ghent 80 

CHAPTER Xm. 
Readjustment of Affairs in Detroit Under Cass — Record Concerning General Lewis Cass — Dawn of 
Brighter Era in Detroit and Michigan Territory— New Order of Government— The Cass Code- 
First Newspaper Established— Birth of the University of Michigan— Liberal Apropriations and 
Subscriptions for the Support of the New Institution— Building of New Highways— First Steam- 
boat Arrives in Detroit — Enlargement of Michigan Territory — Development and Prosperity — 
Bank of Michigan Established— Bishop Flaget Visits Detroit — Cass Effects Further Indian 
Treaties— Expedition to Lake Superior District— General Cass Secures Treaty with the Chip- 
pewas— Governor's Expedition One of Great Value— Michigan Secures Federal Representation — 
Woodbrldge Elected — Other Delegates from the Territory — A Remarkable Campaign — Father 
Richard, a Catholic Priest, Elected Michigan Delegate to Congress 87 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Important Govermental Changes— Political Discontent— Petition to Congress— Establishing of Gover- 
nor's Council— New Territorial Judges — Council Holds Its First Meeting— Message of Governor 
Cass — Further Congressional Acts Relative to Michigan Territory— Important Indian Treaties Ef- 
fected—Completion of the Erie Canal— Internal Improvements in Michigan — Detroit Municipal 
Government— New Capitol Occupied— Protest Against Formation of Huron Territory— Arrest of 
Editor of Gazette Arouses Popular Indignation ". 97 



CONTENTS VII 

CHAPTER XV. Page 

Porter Succeeds Cass as Governor — Cholera Epidemic in Detroit — Black Hawk War — Stevens T. 
Mason Appointed Secretai-y of the Territory— Cholera Epidemic of 1834— Mason Becomes Act- 
ing Governor of the Territory — Steps Toward Statehood — Constitutional Convention — Bound- 
ary Dispute Between Michigan and Ohio — The Toledo War— Horner Serves Brief Term as Acting 
Governor — Election of 1835— Michigan Admitted to the Union — Mason First Governor — Su- 
preme and Chancery Courts of the New State 102 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Internal Improvements — Commissioners Appointed — Influx of Settlers from the East — Purchase by the 
State of the Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad — Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal — Famous Five Mill- 
ion Dollar Loan Approved — Placing of the State's Bonds — Grave Financial Situation of the New 
State — Canal Projects Abandoned 108 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Geological Survey of the State — Houghton Appointed State Geologist — Early Railroads — Railway 
Stations in Detroit — The Milwaukee Railroad — Progress of the Michigan Central and Sale of the 
Road in 1846— Great Western Railway — First Train from the East — Climax of the Railroad Con- 
spiracy — Destruction of Michigan Central Properties — Patriot War in Canada — Border States 
Support the Patriots — Proclamation by President Van Buren — Mass Meeting of Detroit Sympa- 
thizers — Capture of the Ship "Ann" — General Scott Comes to Detroit to Police the Frontier — 
Skirmishes Along the Detroit River 112 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Campaign of 1840 — Formation of the Whig Party — Retirement of Governor Mason — Detroit Whigs 
Erect Log Cabin — Vice-President Johnson Attends Democratic Meeting in Detroit — General Cass 
Democratic Nominee for President — State Capital Pei'manently Located at Lansing — Constitu- 
tional Convention of 1850 — Detroit Opposition to Slavery — Arrest of the Blackburns, Fugitive 
Slaves — The Anti-Slavery Association — Formation of the Republican Party — The Underground 
Railroad — Detroit an Important Station — Zachariah Chandler — Plans for John Brown's Raid 
Completed in Detroit — Bingham Elected Governor of Michigan— Substantial Development in De- 
troit—Campaign of 1860 — The Cloud of Civil War— Attack on Fort Sumter— Patriotic Attitude of 
Detroit and Michigan — Governor Blair Calls foi Volunteers — Regiments Organized — Military Ac- 
tivity in Detroit — Troops Mustered in at Detroit in 1861-2 — Michigan Losses in the War — Mal- 
contents Interrupt Patriotic Meeting on Campus Martius — Disgraceful Mob Attack on Detroit 
Negroes — Attempt to Liberate Confederate Prisoners on Johnson's Island — The Plot Frustrated 
— Precautions for the Protection of Detroit — News Received of Lee's Surrender — Tributes to the 
Martyred President — Work of Michigan Relief Societies During the War — Soldiers' and Sail- 
ors' Monument Erected in Detroit 117 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Readjustment in Detroit After the Civil War — Substantial Progress of the Michigan Metropolis — City's 
Protracted Struggle with the Street Railway Problem — First Franchise Granted — Detroit 
City Railway Company — Gradual Expansion of Facilities — Street Railway Climax During Regime 
of Mayor Pingree — Notable Administration of Pingree — Citizens' Railway Company — Pingree 
Re-elected and Continues Efforts for Municipal Ownership — Franchise Litigations — Pingree Con- 
tinues His Fight for Detroit After Being Elected Governor of the State — Detroit United Rail- 
way — Mayor Pingree's Remarkable Activities in Behalf of the People — Gas Companies Attacked 
— Mayor's Famous Crusade — -Brush Electric Light Company — City Acquires Electric Lighting 
Plant 126 

CHAPTER XX. 

Michigan in the Spanish American War — 'Wayne County's Representation In the Volunteer Service — 
Michigan Regiments — Michigan Naval Reserves— 'Detroit Board of Commerce — Industrial Progress 
of Detroit — Railway Tunnel Under Detroit River — Shipbuilding Industry and Marine Interests- 
Magnificent Industrial and Commercial Advancement — Figures and Estimates for 1908 — Munici- 
pal Government of Detroit — Parks and Boulevards — Cain in Population — Pertinent Statistics.... 131 

Representative Financial Institutions 143 

Leading Industrial and Commercial Institutions 165 

Department of Biography 247 



INDEX OF FINANCIAL, INDUSTRIAL AND 
COMMERCIAL INSTITUTIONS 



Page 

Acme White Lead & Color Works 178 

American Brewing Company 233 

American Car & Goundry Company 183 

American Excliange National Bank 155 

American Harrow Company 217 

American Radiator Company 21S 

Barium, Thomas & Sons 200 

Bishop, J. H. Company 215 

Buhl Malleable Company 216 

Buhl Stamping Company 218 

Burroughs Adding Machine Company 181 

Cadillac Motor Car Company 196 

Caille Brothers Company 230 

Calvert Lithographing Company 187 

Central Savings Bank 153 

Citizens' Savings Bank 157 

Clark Wireless Telegraph & Telephone 

Company 196 

Clayton & Lambert Manufacturing Company. 227 

Commercial National Bank 146 

Cowles & Danziger Company 236 

Detroit Board of Commerce 132 

Detroit Carriage Company 233 

Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company. . . . 171 

Df;troit Creamery Company 18S 

Detroit Fire & Marine Insurance Company. . 191 

Detroit Graphite Company 204 

Detroit Hoist & Machine Company 243 

Detroit Motor Castings Company 234 

Detroit National Bank, The Old 150 

Detroit Regalia Company 239 

Detroit Savings Bank 160 

Detroit Steel Castings Company 205 

Detroit Steel Cooperage Company 223 

Detroit Steel Pulley Company 229 

Detroit Stoker & Foundry Company 235 

Detroit Tool Company 231 

Detroit Trust Company 158 

Detroit United Railway 184 

Detroit White Lead Works 192 

Dime Savings Bank 161 

Ekhardt & Becker Brewing Company 242 

Enterprise Foundry Company 244 

Ferry, D. M. & Company 174 

Finck, W. M. & Company 225 

First National Bank of Detroit 145 

Gies Gear Company 239 

Gordon-Pagel Bread Company 237 

Haberkorn, C. H. & Company 201 

Hargreaves Manufacturing Company 232 

Holliday Box Company 222 

Home Savings Bank 162 

Hugh Wallace Company 211 



Page 

Independent Brewing Company 246 

Kelsey-Herbert Company 205 

Kemiweld Can Company 206 

Kling, Philip, Brewing Company 238 

Kolb-Gotfredson Horse Company 243 

Koppitz-Melchers Brewing Company 240 

Manufacturers' Power Building Company.... 240 

Michigan Copper & Brass Company 189 

.Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company.... 184 

Michigan Savings Bank 156 

Micliigan State Telephone Company 198 

Michigan Stove Company 176 

Michigan Sugar Company 193 

Morton Baking & Manufacturing Company... 202 

National Bank of Commerce 158 

National Can Company 208 

National Loan & Investment Company 164 

National Twist Drill & Tool Company 230 

Nelson, Baker & Company 207 

Newberry Baking Company 225 

Newton Beel Company 224 

Noble, H. W. & Company 153 

Northwestern Transportation Company 1?:) 

Old Detroit National Bank 100 

Parke, Davis & Company 167 

Penberthy Injector Company 213 

Peninsular Milled Screw Company 234 

Peninsular Stove Company 180 

People's Savings Bank 147 

People's State Bank 147 

Pfeiffer Brewing Company, The C 228 

Philip Kling Brewing Company 238 

Posselius Brothers Furniture Manufacturing 

Company 219 

Remick. Jerome H. & Company 212 

Russel Wheel & Foundry Company 189 

Seamless Steel Bath Tub Company 208 

Security Trust Company 156 

State Savings Bank 148 

Sterling & Skinner Manufacturing Company. 226 

Sullivan Packing Company 220 

Thompson, F. A. & Company 209 

Tivoli Brewing Company 245 

Union Trust Company 149 

Walker & Company 221 

Wallace Company, The Hugh 211 

Warden, O. & Sons 241 

Wayne County Savings Bank ] 51 

Whitehead & Kales Iron Works 241 

White Star Line 203 

Widman, C. D. & Company 210 

Wyandotte Savings Bank 161 



VIII 



INDEX OF PORTRAITS 



Page 

Alger, Russell A 264 

Avery, Waldo A 552 

Bagley, John J 256 

Berry, Joseph H ^^^ 

Beyer, Joseph ®^^ 

Buhl, Christian H 320 

•Jiihl, Theodore D 328 

Burton, Clarence M 312 

Colburn, William C 488 

Dean, Charles A 632 

DuCharme, Charles 384 

Dwyer, James 424 

Dwyer, Jeremiah 416 

Eaton, Theodore H 376 

Edson, James L 472 

Elliott, William H 576 

Ferry, Dexter M 304 

Frazer, Robert E 480 

Hannan, William W 664 

Harsha, Walter S 666 

Hawks, James D 656 

Hendrie, George 408 

Hodges, Henry C 584 

Hutchins, Jere C 608 

Joy, James F 272 

Kellie, Ronald S 672 

Lewis, Alexander 249 

McGregor, James 432 



Page 

McMillan, James 280 

McPherson, Alexander 392 

Moody, George T 640 

Moore, William V 600 

Newberry, John S 296 

Newcomb, Cyrenius A 568 

O'Brien, Michael W 528 

Parker, Aaron A 624 

Pingree, Hazen S 344 

Pridgeon, John, Jr 544 

Remick, JameS A 512 

Remick, Royal C 507 

Russel, Dr. George B 360 

Schmidt, Traugott 400 

Shaw, John T 560 

Shipman, Ozias W 536 

Slocum, Elliott T 456 

Slocum, Giles B 448 

Smith, Frederick B 520 

Taylor. Elisha 464 

Van Alstyne, John S 591 

Van Dyke, James A 368 

Walker, Hiram 352 

Warren, Charles B 648 

Whitney. David, Jr 288 

Williams, Morris L 440 

Yawkey, William C 496 



IX 



INDEX OF BIOGRAPHY 



Page 

Ailes, James W 653 

Alger, Russell A 264 

Anderson, William K 704 

Antisdel, John F 555 

Arms, Floyd G 646 

Atwater, Almon B 531 

Avery, Waldo A 562 

Bagley , John J 256 

Baker, Walter N 599 

Baldwin, Henry P 275 

Baldwin, Henry P., {2d) 359 

Barbour, George H 347 

Barium, John J 716 

Barium, Thomas 709 

Bates, George W 632 

Beck, George 429 

Berry, Joseph H 336 

Bielman, Charles P 478 

Bishop, Jerome H 425 

Blair, Frank W 150 

Bourke, Oliver, Jr 561 

Bourke, Percy E 713 

Boutell, Alexander A 662 

Boydell Brothers 579 

Boydell, John 579 

Boyer, Joseph 616 

Brady, Preston 382 

Breitmeyer, Martin 717 

Brevoort, Henry B 324 

Bromley, Frank L 652 

Buhl, Christian H 320 

Buhl, Frederick 279 

Buhl, Theodore D 328 

Burgess, James E 712 

Burton, Clarence M 312 

Butler, Edward H 389 

Butler, William A 322 

Caille, Adolph A 636 

Caille, Arthur A 602 

Callan, William 603 

Campbell, Charles H 398 

Campbell, Henry M 388 

Cambell, James V 298 

Candler, Claudius H 431 

Carter, David 356 

Carter, David S 444 

Caswell, William L 607 

Chandler, Zachariar 269 

Chipman, Harry F 645 

Chipman, J. Logan 331 

Chittenden, William J 326 

Clark, Emory W 423 

Clark, Thomas E 650 

Codd, George P 484 

Colburn, William C 488 

Coleman, Silas B 397 

Coll, John 718 

Collier, William W 217 



Page 

Conn, Herbert J 637 

Conner, Leartus 453 

Cotner, Jacob, Jr 644 

Couch, Alfred E 642 

Cuddy, George S 578 

Danziger, Jacob C 631 

Davenport, Lewis 285 

Davies, William L 550 

Dean, Charles A 632 

DeGraff , William T 479 

Denbv, Edwin 366 

Dietz, Henry C 635 

Douglas, Samuel T., (2d) 350 

Douglass, Samuel T 364 

Doyle, Edward H 433 

DuCharme, Charles 384 

DuCharme, Charles A 287 

Duffield, Bethune 330 

Duffleld, D. Bethune 372 

Duffield Family 334 

Duffield, Henry M 315 

Dwyer, James 424 

Dwyer, Jeremiah 416 

Easter, Ephraim B 606 

Eaton, Theodore H 376 

Eddy, Frank W 500 

Edson, James L 472 

Ekhardt, August 630 

Ekhardt, August H 634 

Elliott, William H 576 

Ellis, Griffith 547 

Endicott, Charles 340 

Farrand, Jacob S 283 

Ferry, Dexter M 304 

Fetters, Arthur S 628 

Finck, Leon C 558 

Finck, William M 601 

Flinn, Elisha H 375 

Frazer, Robert E 480 

Francis, John M 556 

Fyfe, Richard H 435 

Geiger, Benjamin F 705 

Giddings, Theron F 623 

Gillespie, John | 605 

Gillett, Ruf us W 380 

Gillis, Ransom 707 

Goodman. Fred A 628 

Gordon, James C 622 

Griffith, Armond H 701 

Haberkorn, C. H 468 

Haigh, Henry A 540 

Haigh, Richard, Sr 420 

Hannan, William W 664 

Harbeck, .lervis R 621 

Harrah, Charles W 441 

Harsha, Walter S 665 

Harsha, William 504 

Hawks, James D 656 



INDEX OF BIOGRAPHY 



XI 



Hendrie, George 408 

Hodges, Henry C 584 

Hoenscheid, Peter J 581 

Holden, A. Milton 619 

Holden, William H 473 

Holliday, William P 403 

Holmes, William L 437 

Hooper, Alfred 351 

Howarth, John B 458 

Howe, Jeremiah 451 

Hubbert, Robert 654 

Hudson, Joseph L 307 

Hutchins, Jere C 608 

Jackson, William A 486 

Jacobs, Charles H 708 

Jacobsen, Peter N 617 

Jenks, Edward W 394 

Jenks, Nathan 397 

Johnson, Homer S 675 

Johnson, S. Clin 534 

Joy, James F 272 

Kales, William R 615 

JCeller, Frank H 717 

Keller, Herman D 714 

Kellie, Ronald S 672 

Kelsey, John 619 

Kinnear, Wilson S 469 

Klein, William M 657 

Kling, August 620 

Kling, Kurt 622 

Kling, Philip 597 

Kolb, Jacob 598 

Koppitz, Konrad E 614 

Lambert, Bert 228 

Lambert, Joshua 22S 

Larned, Abner E 548 

Ledyard, Benjamin 251 

Ledyard Family 251 

Ledyard, Henry 251 

Ledyard, Henry B 253 

Lee, Gilbert W 418 

Lee, James L 611 

Leidich, Chrirstian 612 

Leland, Henry M 492 

Lewis, Alexander 249 

Lewis, Henry B 415 

Linn, Thomas 38fi 

Lodge, Frank T 402 

Looker, Oscar R 446 

Lyons, Albert B 613 

McFarlane, John 595 

McGregor, James 432 

McGregor, William H h^'i 

McLeod, Alexander 1 574 

McMillan, Hugh 294 

McMillan, James 2R0 

McMillan, Neil 594 

McMillan, William C 259 

McNeil, Daniel T 610 

McNeil, Paul C 611 

McNeil, Walter C 611 

McPherson, Alexander 392 

Mason, George D 604 

Maybury, Tlionias 493 

Maybury. William C 503 

Mpginnitv. David 603 

Mellish, Charles F 593 

Miller, Sidney D 494 

Miller, Sidney T 499 

Moody, George T 640 

Moore, Alvah F 658 

Moore, George F 485 

Moore, William A 342 



Page 

Moore, William V 600 

Moran, Alfred T 530 

Moran, William B 501 

Morion, Harry D 590 

Morton, Robert R91 

Morton, Robert M 597 

Munger, Frank S 461 

Munz, Charles W 596 

Murphy, Michael J 522 

Neal, Thomas '. 545 

Nelson, Edwin H 491 

Nester, Thomas 587 

Newberry, Lewis 586 

Newberry, John S 296 

Newberry, John S., Jr 461 

Newcomb, Cyrenius A 568 

Newcomb, Cyrenius A., Jr 589 

Newton, Thomas E 715 

Noble, Herbert W 658 

O'Brien, Michael W 528 

Osborne, Fred S 661 

Owen, John 262 

Owen, John, Jr 674 

Pagel, William M 678 

Paine, George H 562 

Palmer, Thomas W 291 

Parker, Aaron A 624 

Paton, Henry W 680 

Peck, Elihu M 523 

Peck, George 255 

Peck, George B 463 

Pfeiffer, Conrad 679 

Pingree, Hazen S 344 

Post, Hoyt 412 

Postal, Fred 710 

Pridgeon, John 516 

Pridgeon, John, Jr 544 

Putnam, Howard E 679 

Putnam, Thomas R 677 

Rathbone, Charles A 697 

Reeder, Thomas E 685 

Remick, George B 513 

Remick, James A 512 

Remick, Jerome H 514 

Remick, Royal A 511 

Remick, Royal C 507 

Rente, Henry J 563 

Roehm, Albert H 564 

Rogers. Fordyce H 410 

Roney, Edward J 551 

Rothschild, Sigmund 517 

Russel, Dr. George B 360 

Russel. George B 563 

Russel, George H 271 

Rus.sel, Henry 391 

Ryan. Frank G 390 

Sanger, Henry H 539 

Schantz. Arnold A 476 

Schimmel. Louis W 571 

Schmidt, Traugott 400 

Scott, H, Byron 467 

Seeger, Anthony 566 

Shaw, John T 560 

Sherrill, Abraham P 543 

Shipman, Ozias W 536 

Sibley. Alexander H 527 

Sibley, Frederick B 302 

Simmons, Fred J 687 

Singelyn, A. James 546 

Skinner. Frederick G 675 

Slaymaker. Nathaniel E 684 

Slocum, Plliott T \ 456 

Slocum. Giles B 448 



XII 



INDEX OF BIOGRAPHY 



Page 

Smith, Bradford 428 

Smith, Frederick B 520 

Sprague, Frederick P 667 

Sprague, William C 399 

Spratt, John C 553 

Stange Edward 573 

Starkey, Harry S 696 

Starkey, Henry M 526 

Starkey, Lewis F 689 

Stearns, Frederick 378 

Stephens, Albert L 545 

Stephens, Henry 459 

Stephens, Henry, Jr 540 

Strelinger, Charles A 606 

Stoepel, Frederick C 524 

Stone, Ralph 533 

Sullivan, James J 572 

Sumner, Edward A 565 

Swan, Henry H 519 

Swift, Ernest G 567 

Taylor, DeWitt H 304 

Taylor, Elisha 464 

Taylor, FYank D 339 

Taylor, Thornton A 693 

Thompson, Frank A 681 

Truax, Abram C 289 

Unruh, William J 701 

Van Alstyne, John S 591 

Van Dyke, James A 368 



Page 

Van Husan, Caleb 318 

Van Husan, Edward C 439 

Wadsworth, Thomas A 638 

Waldo, Lewis C 683 

Walker, Harry C 582 

Walker, Henry W 660 

Walker, Hiram 352 

Wallace, Hugh 445 

Warden, Charles R 695 

Warden, Fred 700 

Warden, Orrin 692 

Warren, Charles A 532 

Warren, Charles B 648 

Warren, Homer 406 

Whitaker, Byron 525 

White, H. Kirke, Jr 694 

Whitehead, James T 687 

Whitney, David, Jr 288 

Widman, Albert XT 690 

Widman, Cosmos D 210 

Widman, John C 682 

Wiedeman, Henry C 698 

Wilder, Bert C 583 

Wilkie, James 669 

Wilkie, Warren 676 

Wilkinson, Albert H 471 

Wilkinson, Ralph B 643 

Williams, Morris L 440 

Yawkey, William C 496 



Detroit and Wayne County 



CHAPTER I. 

Origin of Detroit in Struggle for Supremacy Between England and France — Plans for Estab- 
lishing a Fortress by Count Pontchartrain — Expedition Under Cadillac — Post 
Named Fort Pontchartrain — Record Concerning Cadillac — Conditions at the Fron- 
tier Post — Cadillac Succeeded by Dubuisson — Trouble with the Fox Indians — 
Regime of Alphonse de Tonty — Robert Navarre, Intendant at Detroit — Efforts to 
Increase Population and Military Strength — Beginning of Struggle Between France 
and England — French Lose Stronghold at Louisburg — Montcalm as Governor Gen- 
eral of Canada — Fatal Conflict at the Heights of Abraham and its Results on Fu- 
ture of Detroit — British Gain Control of All Canada. 

Man commonly believes himself to be lord of creation, but nature often dominates over 
man. Nine times out of ten nature decides where a great city shall rise and endure. For 
more than two hundred years the leading maritime powers of the Old World struggled with 
each other for the mastery of the New World. It was during the struggle between Great 
Britain and France that the city of Detroit was founded. It had its origin in that strife. 
France held Canada, the Great Lakes region and the Mississippi valley, — territory and trade. 
The only highways were the waterways, and France tried to keep vigil along the route 
from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi, but her thin line was 
constantly crossed by British traders who offered rum to the Indians on cheaper terms than 
the French offered their brandy. The French,, too, were morally restrained by the vigorous 
opposition of the early Jesuit fathers, while the British had no such embarrassment. 

Before the seventeenth century began there was a well established highway of com- 
merce between the British Fort Orange, afterward Albany, New York, and the foot of Lake 
Erie, and up Lake Erie as far as the straits leading to the northern lakes. Count Pontchar- 
train, minister of marine for Louis XIV of France, decided that this inroad must be blocked. 
He had in his employ an adventurous and capable commander of frontier forces, Antoine 
de Laumet Cadillac, forty-three years of age, who had been in New France fifteen years or 
more and was well acquainted with the river St. Lawrence and the lake region. An outpost 
had existed at what is now known as Mackinac island for many years and in the hope of hold- 
ing back the invasions of British traders Count Pontchartrain directed Cadillac to take one 
hundred white men and as many Indian allies as his judgment would approve and proceed 
to the region of the straits, for the purpose of establishing there a frontier fortress that 
would take advantage of the most defensible spot and serve the purposes of the empire. 

The expedition set out from La Chine on June 5, 1701. It followed the Ottawa river 
along the old route by way of Lake Nipissing and reached Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. 

1 



2 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

There a flotilla of large canoes was properly organized to meet any opposition that it might 
encounter, with a force of one hundred Frenchmen and an equal number of Algonquin 
Indians. Duluth had erected a fort at the head of the Ste. Claire river in 1687, but it had 
soon been abandoned and was burned at the command of the French government. Cadillac 
had been commandant of the post at Mackinac for three years and he determined to estab- 
lish the new fort in a more defensible place. The expedition passed through the Ste. Claire 
river and the lake of the same name and proceeded as far as the mouth of Detroit river. 
After camping over night on Grosse He and examining the site for its strategic situation, 
Cadillac led the way back and landed somewhere near the center of the present water front 
of Detroit. He was guided in this selection by the favorable banks of the river, as they here 
rose to a commanding height — about forty feet. Immediately back of this bluff flowed a small 
but sluggish stream, afterward known as the Savoyard river. This, it was seen, would serve 
to a military post on the blufif as some protection against attack from the rear. So it hap- 
pened that here, on July 24. 1701, Cadillac made his permanent landing and proceeded to lay 
out and direct the construction of a strong frontier fort. The outline measured one arpent of 
land about two hundred feet on a side, and included a plat of land between the present Wayne 
and Griswold streets in Detroit and extended to the middle of Jefferson avenue on the crest of 
the bluff facing the river front. 

The fort was typical of the times and the frontier and consisted of a stockade of oak 
pickets fifteen feet long imbedded in the earth to a depth of three feet. Inside this there 
was a clear space twelve feet wide all around. A strong bastion was erected at each of the 
four corners and a parapet was built around the inside at a height of about seven feet above 
the ground, where pickets could patrol in security and keep watch over all approaches by 
land and water. The fort was named Pontchartrain, in honor of Cadillac's patron, and 
the church which was erected immediately was called Ste. Anne's. 

Cadillac arrived none too soon, for on June 19 the British authorities in New York, 
while he was en route, obtained from the Iroquois such title as the Indians had to the western 
forests, which were called Teuscha Gronde. This territory included the land surrounding 
the straits. Robert Livingstone, English trader at Fort Orange, had urged his government 
to establish a post on the Detroit river in 1699, but the delay of a year deferred British occu- 
pation until the conquest of New France was achieved, more than half a century later, and 
until the bloody years of the French and Indian wars had intervened. 

Cadillac was born in the department of Tarne et Garonne, at the village of St. Nicholas 
le Grave, December 4, 1663. His name on the parish records appears as Antoine de Laumet. 
The marriage record at Quebec shows that Cadillac was the son of Jean de la Mothe, 
Seigneur de Cadillac, conseiller of the department of Toulouse, and that his mother's name 
was Jeanne de Malefant. There is some confliction of names, due to the general practice of the 
time, which took great liberties with family names and often substituted others. Cadillac 
came to America in 1683. After a short stay at Quebec, he went to Port Royal, which was 
the French hfeadquarters for privateers who preyed upon British shipping and the British 
colonial coast during many years when the nations were at strife. There he attached himself 
to a privateering commander named Guyon and presently became so well acquainted with 
the New England coast that he was able to pilot expeditions. 

In the winter of 1686 he was at Quebec, where he had a serious quarrel with Sabrevois, 
who afterward figured in the history of the Detroit colony. He returned to Port Royal in 
the spring, and on the 25th of June, in Quebec, he married Therese Guyon and set up an estab- 
lishment in the port, but two years later he obtained from the king a grant of land, six miles 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 3 

square, on the coast of Maine (the present site of Bar Harbor), and also the island of Mount 
Desert, by patent from Louis XIV. This was in honor of his valuable service in harassing 
the British. He was called to France in 169010 furnish information to Count Pontchartrain, 
minister of marine, in view of a possible war with Great Britain, and returned home after 
several months, only to be recalled in 1692. When he came back he bore a recommendation 
for special service under Frontenac at Quebec. In 1694 he was made commandant at 
Mackinac. 

Mackinac proved a post of no particular value, since the Iroquois and British traders 
came up the lakes ofifering competition and making trouble. Cadillac advised a fort on the 
lower straits, but Frontenac died in June, 1698, leaving the succession to de Callieres, who 
had a poor opinion of Cadillac and gave no heed to his suggestions. Cadillac memorialized 
the king, who advised the adoption of his plans, but Callieres stood firmly against them. 
Cadillac went to Quebec and persisted until he secured the authority and backing which led 
to the founding of Detroit in the manner related. 

The rivalry between the French and British was complicated by another factor which 
greatly embarrassed the civil and military head of the post and ultimately led to his removal. 
Trade in beaver skins was the principal traffic with the Indians. Blankets and gew-gaws 
were sold freely, guns and powder cautiously, but the favorite exchange was "fire-water," 
for which the Indians developed a craving that often induced them to make extravagant 
offers to procure it. As drink speedily demoralized the savages and made them impossible 
of control, the missionary priests, who were entirely devoted to the task of Christianizing 
them, made vigorous protests to their superiors and to the governments, and the clerical 
power exerted all the influence it could with the civil power. It had spent half a century 
of struggle and peril in the wilderness, had sacrificed the lives of many heroic missionaries, 
and thus it would not consent to see all its good work undone by the Frenchman's brandy 
and the British rum. 

Cadillac was a practical man: he felt that the interests of the empire were paramount, 
and cared little for the welfare of the Indian so long as he would be able to collect beaver 
skins and other valuable peltry. He proposed to meet rum with brandy and to make the 
western territory so uncomfortable for British traders that they would keep at a respectful 
distance from Fort Pontchartrain. For years there was strife between the plucky com- 
mandant and the church. Appeals went back and forth to Montreal, to Quebec, and to 
the capital across the sea, each side stating its case with all the persuasion that could be 
brought to bear, but Cadillac gradually lost favor. In 17 10 he was promoted to the gov- 
ernorship of Louisiana, and that promotion was followed by the confiscation of his prop- 
erty in Detroit. In Louisiana he superseded Bienville, whose enmity he gained. He also 
made an enemy of Crozat, the foremost trader of the territory, and this led to his dismissal 
and his return to France in 1717. Cadillac died October 15, 1730, and his remains were 
interred in the old Carmelite church of Castel-Sarassin. His wife died sixteen years later. 
He was the father of thirteen children, eight of whom were born in Detroit. 

Though isolated from the Old World and cut off from the more firmly established 
French settlements along the St. Lawrence, by league after league of almost impenetrable 
forest, storm-swept lake and turbulent river, Fort Pontchartrain had taken permanent root. 
Soon a little group of log cabins began to nestle close to the walls of the stockade. Coureurs 
de bois, small parties of Iroquois and occasional white settlers built their rude habitations 
along the banks of the Detroit river. During the second year came the wives of the officers 
from Quebec and Montreal, to share with their husbands the low log huts. 



4 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

With Madame Cadillac came the wife of Alphonse de Tonty, Cadillac's lieutenant, and 
these two were the first white women to set foot in the new settlement. 

From Wayne street to a point near Griswold, along Lamed street, extended the 
northern extremity of Fort Pontchartrain, which seems to have stretched close to the river 
bank on the south. With the post as a nucleus, Cadillac attempted to establish a sort of 
feudal domain, with himself as liege lord, for it is a matter of record that he leased varying 
plots of ground to his men for cultivation, always stipulating that all grain should pass 
through the mill which he built, and be subject to a certain tax. To establish more firmly 
a friendly relationship with the Indians, he encouraged alliances between his men and the 
shy savage maidens, but in this he was opposed by the priests who had accompanied the 
expedition. Always at outs with the Jesuits, his scheme further embraced bringing to the 
settlement the Huron Indians from the post at Mackinac, and the consequent injury of the 
mission at that point. 

As a result of this enmity and a growing jealousy, the Mackinac Jesuits, in turn, planned 
to establish a post at Fort St. Joseph, at the mouth of the St. Joseph river, on Lake Michigan. 
So keen was the feeling that extraordinary inducements were offered to draw settlers from 
the Detroit colony and thus weaken its support and strike a vital blow at its trade with the 
Indians. Cadillac's lieutenant, Tonty, ambitious to succeed his superior, became involved in 
the scheme with the priests to the northward, but upon its discovery and failure he confessed 
his treachery and was pardoned. Meanwhile bitter accusations were sent by each party to 
the disastrous controversy to the headquarters at Quebec, and later Tonty's cupidity led him 
into a second plot to undermine the commandant at Detroit. Finding their origin largely in 
the rapidly growing and remunerative fur trade with the natives, innumerable other jealousies 
took form, and in these, perhaps, lay the most formidable of the dangers that beset the 
struggling post. 

Notwithstanding the ceaseless efforts put forth by Cadillac in the interests of the colony, 
he was finally notified, without previous warning, that the post had been ceded to "The Com- 
pany of the Colony of Canada." This meant that the monopoly of the fur trade was to pass 
into other hands than his. As early as 1702, intersecting circles of intrigue were at work. 
The British saw with disfavor the advancement of the colony and straightway sought to 
breed discontent among the Indians friendly to the French. They offered more liberally for 
the peltries of the savages. The Iroquois already resented the intrusion of the French upon 
their trapping grounds, and the warnings spread by the English to the effect that their rivals 
sought not furs but lands, straightway took root in the savage mind. The various tribes 
became jealous of each other and only by the exercise of the utmost tact and caution was 
a most delicate situation made tenable for the little colony. Through his discovery of and 
attempted punishment for what he thought to be attempted fraud on the part of the com- 
pany's agents, Cadillac was summoned to Quebec by Vaudreuil, governor of the French along 
the St. Lawrence, and imputations were openly made to the effect that the vigilance of the 
commandant at Detroit was inspired by a desire to regain for himself the Indian trade, rather 
than by any anxiety to serve the interests of the company. The fact that many of the clerks 
and company agents were relatives of its directors materially strengthened this contention. 

While Cadillac was absent at Quebec, the command of the post fell temporarily to Tonty. 
He was finally relieved by M. Bourgmont, who was dispatched to Detroit on the day of Cadil- 
lac's departure. Bourgmont proved to be lacking in the exercise of that judgment which had 
made Cadillac popular with the savages, and soon affairs were in a serious state as the result 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 5 

of a clash between the Indians and whites. Tliis culminated in the death of the first priest 
of Ste. Anne's church, Father Del Halle, and that of a French soldier. 

Cadillac, after an acquittal under charges of promoting his own interests, returned to 
the Detroit post and succeeded in restoring a semblance of the old relationship between the 
settlers and the Indians. 

A regime identical with that of the mother country obtained during this time in New 
France. The country was under feudal tenure. What was known as the sovereign council, 
consisting of the governor general, the bishop and the intendant, being in control of affairs. 
All lands were the property of the king, but were held by seigneurs who were empowered with 
certain judicial authority and who paid a rental to the crown, usually in the form of military 
service. Every tenant in turn owed an allegiance of arms to the seigneurs and was obliged 
to bring to the seigneur's mill for the grinding whatever grain was harvested. In this way 
taxation was commenced with the gathering of the first crop at Detroit, a quarter of a bushel 
of wheat being paid in addition to the military service, for each arpent of land the tenant 
might have under cultivation, outside the stockade. 

From the very first of Cadillac's service to the king, and later in his capacity as agent 
for the Canada company, his old enmity with the Jesuits proved itself the basis of an unend- 
ing conflict, making for the commandant almost innumerable enemies on all sides. Governor 
General Vaudreuil was a staunch friend of the Jesuit order, and Cadillac's repeated efforts 
to bring about the downfall of the Jesuit mission at Mackinac resulted only in his incurring 
the further dislike of the governor general. Naturally enough, when complaints were made 
to the authorities at Quebec by other enemies of the commandant, they found there a ready 
ear. Had it not been that Count Pontchartrain, French minister of marine, was a strong sup- 
porter of Cadillac, it is quite probable that the distorted reports made by various "inspectors," 
through Governor Vaudreuil, would have terminated Cadillac's command at Detroit after 
the second year, if not proving successful in their apparent object, — that of discouraging the 
continuance of the little post altogether. Between 1702 and 1709 a combined and persistent 
effort was made to discredit Cadillac with the king and the company, and repeated reports 
were sent to France flatly contradicting most of his statements as to the condition of the 
colony. So embarrassing was Cadillac's position made by this constant effort to undermine 
his authority and hinder his every effort to develop as he wished the resources at hand, that 
but slow progress was effected. 

In 1710 came one Lieutenant Charles Regnault Dubuisson from Quebec, bearing dis- 
patches relieving Cadillac of his command at Detroit and appointing him governor of 
Louisiana. M. de la Forest, who had at one time been mentioned as second in command 
under Cadillac, was named as his successor, but as he "was an old man, feeble and infirm, 
having spent thirty-two years in the wilderness," Dubuisson was authorized to serve tempo- 
rarily in his stead. 

Throughout the years of his service, Cadillac had apparently never had a doubt of the 
success of the colony, for it is recorded that such profits as he made he had persistently 
invested in lands and buildings at the Detroit post. To be thus peremptorily dismissed was 
a considerable hardship, even though made somewhat less poignant perhaps by the Louisiana 
appointment ; but the man's loyalty to his home government must have been sorely tried when 
he discovered that he could realize nothing on his investments — there being no one in the 
colony with sufficient means to purchase his holdings. He was even enjoined from removing 
the supplies and stock he had purchased with his own money. His estate at this time was esti- 
mated as representing upwards of one hundred and twenty-two thousand livres, and an idea 



6 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

of the progress of the colony can be gathered from the statement that he was the owner of 
four hundred arpents of cleared land, a brewery, a grist mill, a warehouse and an icehouse. 
After being relieved he remained in Detroit for one year, in an effort to make some dispo- 
sition of his property, but was finally forced to leave without any satisfactory adjustment of 
his affairs, after a fruitless appeal to his government. 

Dubuisson, meanwhile, found himself facing the difficulties of maintaining a struggling 
and feeble post. Of the fifty soldiers who had come with Cadillac but twenty remained. The 
others, having become disgusted with the slow progress possible, because of the constant 
intrigue, had returned to Quebec or deserted, in order to engage in trade for themselves 
with the Indians. A year after Cadillac's departure (1712) Dubuisson became involved in a 
war with the Fox Indians, who came from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to attack the Detroit post. 
Though successful in his defense and in a subsequent offensive campaign, Dubuisson's trouble 
with the savages made necessary the presence in Detroit of La Forest, who was accordingly 
dispatched to take up the command of the post. 

Lacking the youth and unable to proceed with the energy characteristic of Cadillac, 
La Forest made no effort to withstand the inroads made upon his little settlement by the 
ever more powerful and vindictive Jesuits at Mackinac, and finally gave up all effort to 
enlarge his post by attempting to secure additional settlers. He was relieved after less than 
two years' service by Charles Jacques Sabrevois. After two terms of three years each the 
colony fell to the tender mercies of Alphonse de Tonty, who began in 1720 a seven-year term, 
which was unprecedented in the annals of the settlement for its disregard for the rights of 
the settlers and for the dishonesty of the commandant. During this time free trading was 
abolished and agriculture allowed to become but a memory. This unfortunate state of affairs 
was terminated in 1727, by an investigation which resulted in the relief of Tonty as com- 
mandant and the rapid succession of M. Jean Baptiste Deschallions de St. Ours; Ives Jacques 
Hughes, Pean Sieur de Livandiere, 1733-36; Nicklas Joseph Des Noyellis, 1736-39; Pierre 
Pean Jacques de Noyan, 1739-42; Pierre Joseph Celeron Sieur de Blainville, 1742-43; 
Paul Joseph Le Moyne, 1743-48; Jacques Pierre Daneau, 1748-50; Pierre Joseph Celeron, 
1750-53 (second term) ; Jacques Pierre Daneau, 1753-58 (died); Francois Marie Picote 
Sieur de Bellistre, 1758-60; St. Ours, who was an able soldier, was shortly succeeded by 
Charles Joseph de Noyelle, who was himself replaced by M. de Boishebert, whose six-year 
tenure terminated in 1734. 

Four years prior to the above date, Robert Navarre, removed by but eight generations 
from the French throne, became. intendant at Detroit, serving as a legal officer at the post 
and as the collector of revenues due the crown. A young man upon his acceptance of the 
office, Navarre served the post for more than thirty years, and is mentioned as having 
been retained as notary, even after the cession of the colony to the British. 

Though Boishebert was an efficient commandant, and more popular with Indians, set- 
tlers and the Quebec authorities than any former officer at Detroit, his efforts were of little 
avail, under a system which sought the extraction of revenue rather than the healthful 
growth of the settlement and its thorough establishment as an effective military post. Un- 
fortunately the policy obtaining in France at this time was one which made no provision for 
the difficulty of successfully maintaining regular communication between the isolated French 
posts in Canada, though Count Maurepas, then French minister of marine, was repeatedly 
petitioned by Governor Beauhamois to provide ships for this purpose and to recniit the de- 
pleted garrisons. Underlying the dishonesty of the commandants and the resultant discour- 
agement of serious and permanent French settlers, was that continued cupidity of the French 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 7 

crown itself, which doubtless was an important factor in the failure of the king to secure at 
this time a permanent footing in a territory whose wealth has not been fully gauged, even to 
this day. Because of this insatiate desire to turn the most available of the natural resources 
of the territory into revenue, but little energy was directed to farming, the fur trade, which 
offered more immediate returns, being pushed to the utmost. The true source of permanent 
wealth — labor and land, and their healthful relationship — was almost completely overlooked, 
Cadillac being, apparently, the only commandant who appreciated their value. Even the 
Indians, it appears, were better farmers than the French, though neither ever succeeded in 
properly cultivating their fields. 

During the regime of M. Sabrevois, who began his second term in 1735 as successor to 
the corrupt de Livandiere, a serious quarrel broke out between the Huron and Ottawa In- 
dians at Detroit. This for a time bade fair to afford the English an excellent opportunity 
for supplanting the French in the affections of the Hurons, who were among the most peace- 
ful and progressive of the savage tribes. The action of the Jesuit priests, who were at odds 
with the French officials at Quebec, considerably handicapped the successful solution of a most 
trying problem, — that of placating the warring tribes and securing a permanent camping 
place for the Hurons beyond the insidious influence of the British. A reservation was of- 
fered these Indians either in the vicinity of Montreal or near Quebec by the French gover- 
nor, but the Jesuit priest at the mission which had been established at Sandwich, across the 
river from Detroit, was anxious to retain his flock and secretly worked to discourage the ac- 
ceptance of either of the proffered reservations in lower Canada. The Jesuits were finally 
successful in inducing the Hurons to settle at Bois Blanc island, below Detroit, though but a 
portion of the tribe acquiesced in remaining within the territory comprising the Jesuit parish. 

In the meantime Sabrevois had been succeeded by M. Noyan. Pierre de Celeron de 
Blainville and Joseph LeMoyne de Longueil served in the order named as commandants, the 
latter serving for two successive terms (1743-49). During this time affairs, which had been 
allowed to progress but slowly till then, became so complicated as a result of Indian uprisings 
and plots to slaughter the settlers, that some notice appears to have been given the necessity of 
supplying needed support to the post. Following an attack made by the Chippewa tribe re- 
siding near the Mackinac straits, and the discovery of a conspiracy entered into by nearly, 
if not quite, all the braves living about Detroit, Governor Beauharnois dispatched a relief flo- 
tilla bearing supplies and a considerable number of soldiers and merchants. During the next 
year, 1748, the fortifications were materially strengthened, as it became evident to the 
French authorities that, in view of the impending struggle with the British, forebodings of 
which were even then noticeable, Detroit would be of considerable strategic value. A policy 
embracing a consistant effort to increase the population and the military strength of the 
settlement was initiated. 

This took tangible form in sending out, during the ensuing year, of a considerable number 
of farmers as a reinforcement to the struggling little colony. With them the settlers brought 
the implements of husbandry, and upon their arrival an encouraging and serious effort was 
made toward cultivation of the fields about the post. The timber of the forest was felled, 
adding considerably to the producing acres about the fort, and that stronghold was strength- 
ened and enlarged till the settlement began to take on the air of a healthful and thriving 
community on the edge of the wilderness. Sabrevois, who was serving out a reappointment 
as commandant, was too feeble, however, to attempt to initiate methods sufficiently progres- 
sive to develop fully these added opportunities and the younger de Celeron was made his suc- 
cessor in 1 75 1. He in turn was retired after serving three years, to give place to Jacques 



8 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

Pierre Daneau, who, during the next four years (1754- 1758) proved himself an able officer. 
The effort put forth for the establishment of a definite relationship between the frontier 
French posts now began to bear fruit, and the governor general was enabled to strengthen 
still further the Detroit settlement by making it the depot or base of supplies for the outlying 
forts which had been established between Lake Ste. Claire and Fort Du Quesne, at the junc- 
ture of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers. 

Desultory fighting was in progress between the English and French and the Indian 
tribes allied to each, far to the eastward, and Detroit's strategic advantages began to be un- 
deniably demonstrated as the French were enabled to hasten reinforcements and supplies to 
the eastern points from this base on the straits. 

Peculiarly enough, though each of the opposing nations was ready at all times to fight 
for the territory each one claimed, neither was apparently willing to put forth more than a 
half-hearted effort to settle the dispute permanently, by instituting a sharp and effective cam- 
paign. Brave and capable officers served equally well, perhaps, their respective govern- 
ments, but were left for long intervals without support from abroad. 

The interest across the Atlantic was but intermittent at best. Neither France nor Eng- 
land realized the value of the rich stake for which they gambled, though the new territory 
had been even then sufficiently explored to demonstrate its value in a general way. 

From the time Cadillac beached his canoe on the site of the Detroit settlement, its for- 
tunes were indirectly involved in the game of national politics being played thousands of 
miles away. The momentary humors of the French king and the incidents occuring in Lon- 
don, penetrated the leagues of virgin forests in the New World, and left their marks indeli- 
bly imprinted upon the future of that straggling row of rude cabins far to the west. The 
eastern Indians, incited by the French, spread terror among the settlers in the Atlantic colo- 
nies by a succession of indescribable outrages. These were repaid by no less severe attacks 
on the western settlements by savages driven to frenzy by British rum and by well directed 
promises of reward from the English commandants. 

From Queen Anne's war, in 1702, through King George's war and on until the termina- 
tion of what is known as the French and Indian war (1755-63) a most inhumane and dis- 
tressing period of guerrilla warfare prevailed. For this both the English and French were 
perhaps equally responsible. In nearly all the settlements, as in Detroit, every pioneer 
prayed, toiled and slept with his rifle close at hand. Children were threatened with the ven- 
geance of the Indians for every misdemeanor, and wives parted with their husbands in con- 
stant dread of the savage scalping knife. A hardy, courageous race of men was thus bred, 
innured to the hardships of the frontier and to the dangers of the wilderness. Their liveli- 
hood and their very existence were dependent upon force of arms and sheer courage alone, a 
circumstance which made but the more certain the inevitable clash which changed the des- 
tiny of the western posts. 

By the ceding to the British of Nova Scotia, under the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, the 
French gave their adversaries a dangerous advantage in the foothold the English thus se- 
cured in the territory close to the gulf of St. Lawrence. Up this avenue every French 
ship was forced to pass in reaching the up-river settlements at Quebec and Montreal. The 
strongest fortification then existing in America was that at Louisburg, on Cape Breton island. 
The French had hastened at an early date to strengthen this the then most valuable strategic 
point on the Atlantic, thus offering a formidable barrier to England's advance northward. 
With a base from which to operate in Nova Scotia, the English looked covetously upon the 
frowning fortress at Louisburg. In 1745 an expedition of farmers and fishermen was or- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 9 

ganized in the New England colonies, whose purpose it was to drive the French flag from 
this valuable island in the gulf. Undisciplined as they were, the British were no more sur- 
prised than were the French when, after a vigorous attack, the banner of the fleur-de-lis was 
hauled from its staff on the fort and Louisburg was in the hands of the English. 

Upon the restoration of Louisburg to the French in 1748, under the treaty of Aix la 
Chapelle, there began for each flag a series of alternating victories and defeats. These were 
destined to continue through campaigns of indescribable hardship, till the final fall of Que- 
bec and the loss to France of her colonial prestige and of a territory richer by far in many 
natural resources than the mother country herself. 

Following the fall of Louisburg, the French began to hold more tenaciously than ever 
whatever territory they could claim. Some sixty posts had been stretched in a thin line be- 
tween the St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico. The garrisons, and the settlers about these 
forts, resisted the encroachments of the English from Virginia with persistent tenacity. For- 
midable steps were necessitated on the part of the Virginia authorities to enforce the secur- 
ing to Virginians of land grants made to then in the disputed territory. One of the French 
posts was located on the present site of Pittsburg. As many of the land grants included 
territory in the Ohio river valley, and as the French and their allies continued to forbid their 
definite location and occupancy, George Washington was sent to interview the French com- 
mandant and to offer a formal protest. This conference was unsatisfactory and the English 
constructed a fort on the Monongahela, which was promptly taken by the French, in 1754. 
Humiliated by their defeat, the English sent out an expedition under General Braddock, in an 
attempt to take the French Fort Du Quesne, but this effort was rewarded with a second crush- 
ing defeat, and it was not until 1758 that this inland fortress fell before a British attack. 

Meantime there had come to Canada, as governor general, a man who promised through 
his relentless energy and dauntless courage, to sweep the enemies of Louis from the wilder- 
ness. This was Louis Joseph de St. Verain Montcalm, who took command of a scattered 
and undisciplined army in 1756. He captured two important British forts, and with but lit- 
tle more than three thousand men successfully repulsed an army of fifteen thousand under 
General Abercrombie, at Ticonderoga, between Lakes George and Champlain. This he accom- 
plished before retiring to Quebec to prepare the citadel there for an attack which he even then 
anticipated, and which ended in the fatal conflict that has made famous in the history of the 
western continent the far-sung Heights of Abraham. There, on September 13, 1759, the 
map of a continent was changed. The entire future fortune of the struggling little post 
miles away on the Detroit river was forever altered. Dear to the heart of every man is the 
story of that fight between the gallant young Wolfe and the no less admirable Montcalm, — a 
fight which resulted in the loss to each of his life; the loss to France of her colonies in the 
New World, and the winning for England of a glorious empire. Not quite a year later Mon- 
treal surrendered and all Canada was formally turned over to the victorious British. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Detroit Post Surrendered by the French Commandant — One Hundred and Forty-Eight 
Years of French Misdirection — New Era Ushered in with English Control — Detroit 
Menaced by Indian Unrest and Antagonism — Regime of Captain Henry Gladwin — 
Treaties with the Indians — Conspiracy Under Pontiac, and Attempt to Capture the 
Detroit Garrison — War with the Indians Under Pontiac — Lack of Supplies at De- 
troit — Murder of Captain Campbell — Indian Victory at Bloody Run — Pontiac Sues 
for Peace — Colonel John Bradstreet Made Commandant — Conditions Following 
Indian Uprising — First Money Circulated in Detroit — Philip Dejean Commissioned 
First Chief Justice — The Northwest Company — Passage of the Quebec Act — Local 
Discontent with Policy of English Home Government; Lieutenant Governors Ap- 
pointed — Nefarious Rule of Hamilton and Dejean at Detroit. 

During the last years of the struggle between the banner of the fleur-de-lis and the royal 
standard of Great Britain, the post at Detroit had been materially strengthened and amply 
provisioned. It had become a formidable stronghold. It was never the scene of battle be- 
tween the opposing powers, but was surrendered by its last French commandant, Francois 
Marie Picote de Bellistre, upon the presentation to him by Major Robert Rogers of proof of 
the French surrender, without the firing of a single shot. With scant ceremony the colors 
of France were hauled from the staff at Fort Pontchartrain, where they had been raised by 
Cadillac fifty-nine years before, and the efforts of those years were thus declared failures. 
The story of French follies in seeking ever more and more revenue by the enriching of the 
few from the toil of the many — the evidence of the failure to encourage definite relations be- 
tween the scant population and the land — was told in the miles of impenetrable wilderness that 
stood as mute witnesses of one hundred and forty-eight years of misdirected effort in New 
France. 

It is said of the treaty of Paris, under which half the western hemisphere was sur- 
rendered, that no other agreement "ever transferred such an immense portion of the earth's 
surface from one nation to another." 

With the marching into the stockade at Fort Pontchartrain of the British troops under 
Major Robert Rogers and the passing out of the soldiers of France, there dawned upon the 
settlement at Detroit a new era. In it was destined to be born the embryo of a fresh stand- 
ard of ideas underlying the political, religious and personal freedom and equality of a great 
and glorious people. With the felling of the forests between the lakes and the sea, there were 
to spring from the virgin soil those first tender seedlings that were to be nourished by the 
rigors of the winters and by years of strife with the savages, until they could stand as hardy 
and impassable barriers against the advance of oppression. 

At Detroit, as elsewhere on the frontier, the change was to the Indians an unwelcome 
one. Accustomed as they had been to treatment as equals by the French, they resented 
from the first what they considered to be the presumption of the British, whose unbending 
condescension roused them to retaliation. Both France and England had sought allies among 
the savages, and this had led to the division of the native tribes into two great factions. 
While the wars continued, they were diametrically opposed and fought each other as lustily 

10 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 11 

as did their principals. With the surrender of the French, however, and with the beginnings 
of that Indian distrust of the victors which immediately followed all attempts at colonization, 
the Indians became reunited against a common white foe, who they saw was beginning at once 
to claim their hunting grounds as his own. The western Indians had ever been staunch 
friends of the French, and this new prejudice against the English but engendered a smolder- 
ing hatred that seriously menaced the Detroit settlement and eventually cost many a life. 
Captain Donald Campbell served until he was relieved by Captain Henry Gladwin, as the 
first English commandant. By his easy good will he made himself popular with the French 
settlers who remained at Detroit, as well as with the Indians in the surrounding territory. 
Under the influence of his natural tact, began the reconstruction of the business, social and 
military life of the post. Major Rogers, who received the surrender, mentions in his re- 
port that there were in Detroit at the time of the evacuation, approximately two thousand in- 
habitants. 

Efforts were made to establish trade relations with the Indians and gain their friend- 
ship, but to these attempts the French, smarting under their recent defeat, offered what tacit 
opposition they could. Added to this, unscrupulous English traders sought the frontier posts 
and by the free use of rum set up a standard of dealing with the Indians whereby the latter 
were mercilessly fleeced and cheated in every possible way and thus more firmly than ever 
led to distrust the newcomers. Reports of unseeming activity on the part of the French and 
coincident uneasiness among the Indians were carried to the new seat of government at New 
York. The result was an attempt to secure treaties with the savages. 

General Jeffrey Amherst, then in charge of the British affairs at New York, sent Sir 
William Johnson, who was considered the ablest of the Indian commissioners of his time, to 
the post at Detroit. With him came Captain Henry Gladwin, who was to succeed Captain 
Campbell as commandant. He led several hundred troops who served as an escort and guard 
for a large store of supplies. Treaties were made with most of the tribes about the post, with 
the Senecas of the Maumee valley and with the Chippewas to the northward. In spite of 
these efforts toward the establishment of friendly relations, however, the continuation of the 
unscrupulous methods of trading employed by certain of the English so inflamed the savages 
that they still believed the English would eventually dispossess them of their lands. 

The most influential of the natives who entertained distrust and hatred against the Brit- 
ish was Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas. This was then the most intelligent and civilized of 
the Indian tribes in the vicinity of Detroit. From the very first of the English occupancy 
Pontiac had watched with disfavor their entrance into what he considered the God-given 
territory of his people. After a little more than two years of association with them he con- 
cluded they would forever be a source of danger to the sons of the forest. 

While Gladwin was occupied with the administration of the affairs of the post and rest- 
ing in assurance of friendly relations with his savage neighbors, Pontiac's home at Peche 
island in Lake Ste. Claire, became the scene of great activity. Indian nmners were con- 
stantly arriving and departing, bearing mysterious messages to and from the chiefs and the 
medicine men of the western tribes. The crafty Pontiac had evolved no less a plot than that 
which sought the absolute extermination of the English or their expulsion from the chosen 
hunting grounds about the western lakes. Systematically, and with a care that would have 
done credit to a trained political organizer, were the chief's plans laid. Pontiac realized fully 
that the greatest strength of the English posts lay in their ability to aid each other in case of 
attack and he accordingly proposed in the councils of his brothers a simultaneous attack on the 
isolated forts, which would preclude the possibility of any such interchange of support. 



12 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

Reports of the strength of each of the western forts were brought to the lodge at 
Peche island, that the chief might the more wisely direct his campaign. Incendiary mes- 
sages went forth, inciting the wrath of the subsidiary leaders and inflaming the young fight- 
ing men with a lust for English blood. 

In April, 1763, a great council was called at Ecorse, just below Detroit, at which the 
chief's plans were fully made known to all the Detroit Indians and their complete enlist- 
ment insured. On the ist of May Pontiac himself visited the fort at Detroit, to assure him- 
self of the exact conditions of its defenses. Even then the commandant entertained no suspi- 
cion of the infamous conspiracy which was to result in a practical siege of the post and prove 
itself, perhaps, the greatest crisis in the history of the settlement. 

Four days later a second Indian council was held, and the final details of the attack were 
arranged. 

In just what way the English were warned of the intended attempt to take the post is 
a matter of some doubt. Several more or less romantic accounts of the circumstance are 
current, but certain it is that the settlement owes its very existence to the fact that before Pon- 
tiac's plans could be put into execution Gladwin was made aware that a conspiracy was on foot. 
Since the Indians were held in a certain easy contempt by the British, they were usually 
allowed reasonable freedom inside the stockade, and it was on this circumstance very 
largely that Pontiac staked the outcome of his plans. Having been careful to impress his 
great friendship upon the commandant, he foresaw that with but comparatively few warriors 
once inside the fortifications, he could effect a sudden attack and in the ensuing confusion 
make the post an easy prize. 

Sixty chosen warriors were supplied with rifles whose barrels had been sawed so short 
as to permit their being carried in safe concealment under the blankets of the attacking 
party. To further allay all suspicion, the chief was to pretend that the visit was made for 
the purpose of more securely cementing the friendship between his people and the White 
Father. Then, if the circumstances were auspicious, he was to present to Gladwin a belt 
of wampum, holding the gift in a reversed position. If, however, any untoward occurrence 
should make the advisability of the attack doubtful, the wampum belt was to be presented 
in the usual way and the attempt postponed. 

One account has it that a certain chief, Mohican by name, who was opposed to Pontiac's 
scheme, came by stealth to the gate of the fort and personally warned Gladwin of his threat- 
ened peril. Another chronicler asserts that the wife of one of the French habitants detected 
a party of savages in the act of sawing off the gun barrels and, by the air of secrecy attending 
the performance, was aroused to such an extent that she informed one of the artisans of the 
fort, thus giving the alarm. Whoever the informant may have been, Gladwin faithfully 
maintained the confidence, as no authentic report has been found to exist among his papers. 
Many years after the conspiracy, an unsigned manuscript was discovered, presumably writ- 
ten by one of the priests at the mission opposite Detroit. This substantiates the Mohican ac- 
count, though a more popular legend has to do with an Indian maiden, Catherine by name, 
who is supposed to have formed an attachment for the commandant, and, in truly melodra- 
matic fashion, informed the gallant young captain of the plot of the sixty warriors. How- 
ever the warning may have been given, the British were fully prepared for any denoument, 
and when Pontiac and his men appeared the garrison was under arms. 

Seated in the council chamber, the commandant and his staff received the visitors, but 
gave no sign that they suspected treachery, save that they appeared with a full complement 
of side arms. As he passed through the narrow streets, Pontiac saw at once that every 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 13 

soldier was equipped with musket and bayonet and that small squads, fully armed, had been 
deployed about the gates of the fort. The disappointment was a bitter one, but retreat was 
impossible. The visit had to be carried out or additional suspicion would be aroused. Glad- 
win listened with apparent good humor to Pontiac's oration of friendship until the chief was 
about to present the wampum belt. Then, at the sudden signal from the commandant, the 
roll of the drums was heard. The crisis had arrived. The English soon perceived that even 
the renowned chief could not preserve his usual stoical expression. The white men had 
played the game with a reckless bravery that completely overawed the savages. At the psy- 
chological moment Gladwin sprang from his chair and, pulling aside the blanket of one of the 
visitors, he exposed a hidden gun to the assembly. In a bitter arraignment of their 
treachery, the commandant assured the Indians that the vengeance of the White Father would 
be sudden and severe should any further instance of misconduct warrant their punishment, but 
that so long as they remained faithful to the conditions of their treaties, the friendship of the 
British would be ever generous. To further impress his tendency towards friendship and 
forgiveness, Gladwin served the conspirators with food and beer before dismissing them. The 
seeds of a great uneasiness were sowed among the whites by this verification of treacherous 
intentions and the humiliating experience of the proud chief only made the more bitter his 
hatred for the English and the more firm his intention of driving them from the land. 

Repeated efforts on the part of Pontiac to regain the English confidence that he might 
make effective his original plans, met with failure. The garrison was kept almost con- 
stantly under arms in anticipation of an attack in force. 

Goaded to a frenzy by this unexpected turn of affairs, the chief shortly gave up all sem- 
blance of friendship and openly attacked three settlers, who were put to the torture within 
sight of the fort. Following this, a settler, one James Fisher, his wife and two soldiers were 
massacred on Belle Isle and a herd of the garrison cattle, pastured there, was stolen. On 
the same day Pontiac moved his camp across the river to the Michigan shore, thus formally 
beginning a war destined to place Detroit in the position of a beleaguered citadel and to con- 
tinue for many days. 

The situation at once became serious. It was even necessary to burn the buildings in the 
vicinity of the fort, that no cover might be afforded an attacking party. Supplies were piti- 
fully short inside the stockade, and as soon as the commandant saw that the savages were de- 
termined to continue their attacks, he decided to ask for a parley, and thus give his men an 
opportunity to replenish the stores. La Butte, the interpreter, was sent to Pontiac's camp 
to inquire into the reasons for the chief's actions. He returned with the report that the 
Indians might be pacified by the presentation of a few suitable gifts. Pontiac suggested that 
Captain Campbell and Lieutenant McDougall, both of whom had been upon especially good 
terms with the Indians before the outbreak, be sent to his camp for a council. Heedless of 
warnings from their comrades, the two men accepted the invitation and were immediately 
made captives. For a time the English were tempted to abandon the fort, but Gladwin was 
determined to hold out at all hazards and his men successfully stood off a large party of 
savages who opened fire shortly after taking the two captives. This gave the troops some 
encouragement, though much of the baggage of the garrison was placed on board the schooner 
"Gladwin," lying before the fort in the river, as a precaution against its capture. Orders 
were given that the ship was to sail at once to Niagara on the flying of a certain signal from 
the fort. 

Realizing that starvation was his most powerful ally, Pontiac made every effort to pre- 
vent the sale of supplies to the besieged fort, by the French habitants. In this he was unsuc- 



14 DETEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

cessful. Meagre though sufficient stores were obtained from both sides of the river. As the 
siege continued, however, even these slender sources were threatened, and on May 21 it was 
decided to dispatch the Gladwin to Niagara to hasten forward relief. This done, a party 
from the fort searched the houses of the French settlers in quest of forage, but were success- 
ful only in a small way. Throughout June, the utmost anxiety prevailed inside the stock- 
ade, the danger of starvation becoming daily more imminent. On the last of the month the 
hearts of the garrison were overjoyed by the sight of a schooner which appeared in the river 
and later landed a force of half a hundred men, a supply of ammunition and one hundred and 
fifty barrels of provisions, thus temporarily relieving an almost untenable situation. 

Early in July the French formed a company of militia, after refusing to join forces with 
Pontiac, and were equipped with muskets and ammunition by the English commandant. 
This was a severe blow to Pontiac and the infuriated Indians decided upon a bold attempt 
to cut off all sources of communication between their enemies and the forts at Niagara, by 
burning the "Gladwin" and her consort, a sloop named the "Beaver." Large rafts of 
blazing logs were set adrift above the moorings of the two boats, in hopes of thus setting 
them afire. The vessels slipped their cables in time to avoid the rafts and were then dis- 
patched to the Indian villages, where a lively fusillade was begun against the fragile wigwams. 
This method of bringing the fight into their own camp so terrified two of the tribes that they 
immediately sued for peace and effected treaties with Gladwin. 

Lieutenant McDougall, who had been held prisoner since the early stages of the siege, 
eluded his captors and succeeded in making his way in safety to the gates of the fort. Cap- 
tain Campbell was less fortunate, however. During a sortie against a barricade held by the 
savages, a party of soldiers killed several of the Indians, whom they at once scalped. To 
pay for this indignity, Captain Campbell was securely bound and slowly hacked to pieces in 
the most shocking manner. 

Toward the last of July a large body of reinforcements arrived under Captain Dalzell. 
who had been commissioned by General Amherst to put an end to the siege. Several can- 
non and ample supplies were brought under guard of the party, and with the stores thus 
replenished it became at once apparent to the commandant that he had but to remain quietly 
on guard within the stockade and tire out his antagonist in a waiting game. Captam Dal- 
zell, however, insisted in leading his men in a decisive attack against Pontiac's warriors, and 
would take no suggestions from the garrison officers. On July 31, he advanced against the 
Indian camp to the eastward of the fort, being supported by two bateaux, which were to 
open fire with swivels, from the river. 

Disregarding suggestions that he should carefully deploy a skirmish line in advance and 
on the flanks of his main force, Dalzell marched his men in perfect order along the edge of 
the forest. Pontiac anticipated the attack and waited the British in ambush in the vicinity 
of Parent's creek, since known as Bloody Run. A narrow bridge extended across the lowland 
at this point, and it was there that the Indians poured a withering fire into the troops, who 
were completely surprised. Every tree and thicket became ablaze with death spitting fire. 
The English charged the bridge in a fruitless effort to dislodge the as yet unseen enemy. 
Dalzell was shot down and the soldiers were thrown into complete confusion, which would 
have ended in a disastrous rout save for the coolness of one Captain Rogers, who assumed 
command. He succeeded in effecting an orderly retreat to the house of Jacques Campau, 
where he made a stand until reinforced by a party from the fort. With a loss of fifty-nine 
men, killed and captured and a score or more of wounded, the detachment reached the fort 
late on the afternoon of the attack. Some chroniclers assert that the loss to the British in 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 15 

this battle of Bloody Run, was far in excess of the above number, and state that only ninety of 
the original two hundred and fifty regained the stockade. 

Though the victory was a decided one for the Indians, Pontiac was made to realize, by 
the arrival of additional men and supplies, that his struggle against a people possessed of ap- 
parently limitless resources was a futile one. His lieutenants, the chiefs of the subsidiary 
tribes, had been successful in the planned destruction of the fort at Mackinac and those at 
other points, but he was forced to admit that he, the leader of the conspiracy and the originator 
of all the plans, had been outwitted. His was the humiliation of being the only chief to fail. 

The autumn found the British in better condition to continue the siege than at any time 
since its origin, while the Indians were without permanent shelter and were lacking in am- 
munition and food for the winter's fighting. General Amherst had made a vigorous protest 
to the French authorities against the attitude of some of the habitants, and this resulted in 
the direction of a decisive communication to the French settlers forbidding the continuance 
of an attitude that might be construed as unfriendly to English interests. Though pos- 
sessed of every advantage for cutting off the fort from supplies and reinforcements, Pontiac 
found himself for some reason unable to accomplish this important detail of his plans. 
This and the failure of the French to afford material aid, finally induced the proud chief to 
bow to the inevitable and to sue for peace. 

Gladwin would consent to but a temporary armistice, sufficient to enable him to secure 
definite orders from General Amherst. This was declared in October, and a letter indited by 
the commandant to his general during that month is of interest in relation to a report of con- 
ditions and a suggestion it contained. In part it reads : "The Indians have lost between 
eighty and ninety of their warriors, but if your excellency still intends to punish them for 
their barbarities it may easier be done, without any expense to the crown, by permitting a free 
sale of rum, which will destroy more effectually than fire and sword." 

An attempt was made to relieve Gladwin, before winter set in, by the dispatching of 
Major Wilkins from Niagara, but the expedition met with disaster and was forced to return 
to await favorable weather for the voyage. It was not until the summer of 1764 that Colonel 
Bradstreet, with a body of troops, arrived from the east to succeed as commandant. Glad- 
win's truce virtually ended the war and his men were given, by its conditions, their first op- 
portunity of leaving the post in security, after a strenuous existence on short rations during 
a period of one hundred and fifty-three days. 

Upon the termination of the Pontiac uprising in 1764, much of the gaiety character- 
istic of the days of the French regime and those of the early English occupation was re- 
sumed at the post. Here civilization met savagery. Reckless coureurs de bois and fantas- 
tically bedecked Indians exchanged the yields of the chase for whatever manufactured prod- 
ucts the settlement traders might offer. Land values advanced by leaps and bounds and their 
increase, together with the advantageous conditions prevailing for trade, fattened the purses 
of both the older inhabitants and the more recent acquisitions to the little colony. 

Even at this time, however, furs formed the basis of all wealth. Heavily laden canoes 
were daily beached on the river's bank and the water front became the general center of a 
lively traffic in beaver pelts. But, as in the days of the French occupancy, the fur trade proved 
itself a menace to the healthful development of the settlement. The traders were ever on 
the alert to forestall any project which sought the further clearing of the forests. They looked 
with growing disfavor on the straggling advance of the line of scattered farms. 

Settlement meant the spoliation of the trapping grounds. The protests of the traders 
found sympathetic ears among the manufacturers and tradesmen in England, for the latter 



16 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

were selfishly jealous of any colonial advancement which might result in the establishment 
of western institutions capable of becoming future competitors. 

Beginning with John Bradstreet, the commandant who succeeded Gladwin as English 
chief of affairs, the promotion of individual interests characterized the policy of nearly every 
man in authority. The practice of fleecing the Indians out of their lands became so general 
that strict regulations were necessitated, making illegal the transfer of any lands save by 
treaty through the colonial government. 

What was known as New York currency, the first money that came into circulation in 
Detroit, made its appearance in 1765, and not until that time did the practice of the payment 
of taxes and commercial obligations in pelts begin to be discontinued. As can be easily 
imagined, the change was not appreciated by the Indians, who were loath to accept the new 
medium of exchange. On account of this antipathy, trading was accomplished with no little 
difficulty, and the former unit of value, the beaver skin, threatened for a time to force its 
rival from the field. 

On April 24, 1767, one Philip Dejean was commissioned as the first chief justice of De- 
troit. This appointment was necessitated by increasing complications in the business and 
social relations of the settlers, resulting from the increase in population and the growing im- 
portance of the colony. Unfortunately Dejean, who had left Montreal a bankrupt and had 
come to Detroit to recoup his fortunes, proved a ready accomplice in helping to perfect a rule 
of petty despotism in which succeeding commandants indulged. The appointment proved 
an unfortunate one for everyone who fell into his clutches. To Dejean was given the au- 
thority of draughting nearly all legal documents, conducting public sales and filling generally 
the duties of sheriff, notary and justice of the peace. 

Since the establishment of the colony it had been constantly under military rule, and im- 
mediately following the signing of the treaty of Paris the settlers in the territory affected peti- 
tioned for the establishment of civil authority. Detroit, however, continued to be subject to 
the authority of the military commandants and their appointees, the control of affairs being 
thus largely shirked by the governor general of Canada, who was nominally in power. 

In 1770 what was known as the Northwest Company initiated an aggressive policy of fur 
buying, in opposition to the old Hudson's Bay company, which had at that time enjoyed 
nearly one hundred years of almost complete monopoly of the fur business. Rival traders 
resorted to such lawlessness in inducing the various Indian tribes of the northwest to bring 
their peltries to their respective masters that only the happy merging of the rival companies 
averted serious trouble. Rum was offered lavishly as a successful inducement to the Indians, 
and the authorities either winked at the practice or were unable to prevent its continuance, 
according to the varying conditions in different parts of Canada. Major Bradstreet was 
forced to appeal to the Canadian governor for protection against the smuggling of spirits. 

The smouldering jealousies of the commercial interests in England that had been in evi- 
dence since the establishment of the British at Detroit, but which were directed chiefly 
against the New England colonies, took definite form in 1774, when sufficient pressure was 
brought to bear on parliament, despite the efforts of some of England's wisest statesmen, to 
insure the passage of the Quebec act. This affected the entire territory west of New York 
and north of the Ohio river. It was evidently intended to prevent the settlement of the west- 
ern country, for it practically deprived every settler of the benefits of the English law, except 
in criminal cases. 

The passage of this act was not the least of the grievances which a few years later 
drove the colonists to that rebellion which deprived the English crown of her most valuable 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 17 

possession and cost her more dearly than any other event in her history. In referring to the 
act, the Declaration of Independence says that the mother government has set aside "the free 
system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary govern- 
ment so as to render it an example and a fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule 
into these colonies." Despite these measures, the wave of adventure drove the settlers stead- 
ily westward. They seemed to thrive on adverse circumstance, though no one perhaps real- 
ized that their coming was but the foreshadowing of the birth of a nation more powerful 
and far greater than the world had seen. 

The policy adopted by the English home government relative to the administration of 
civil rights for the Detroit colony was, in a mild way, comparatively a replica of the general 
attitude manifest toward the American colonies as a whole. Short-sighted jealousy continued 
to characterize the treatment accorded those who sought the upbuilding of the frontier settle- 
ments and the fuller development of the rich natural resources even then known to exist in 
the territories. Obstinacy met obstinacy. The pioneers were roused to increased determina- 
tion. Faint murmers of protest, broached timidly at first, found ready ear. Soon it became 
apparent that the spirit rapidly rising in the Atlantic colonies was healthily incubating in the 
heart of the more remote wilderness. Under less thoroughly established social and political 
restrictions, the first evidence of a mild ferment of discontent was more readily discernible 
in the west, perhaps, than in the older and more substantially established commonwealths. 
Early in the '70s the king's representatives in the Northwest became aware of the impending 
menace and straightway plans were set on foot for the strengthening of the fort at Detroit. 

At this time the middle west, that territory lying to the north and south of the Ohio 
river, west of its origin, was rapidly filling with a hardy admixture of the more adventurous 
of the Pennsylvanians and Virginians — a rough, fearless vanguard, such as has ever cut a 
pathway for civilization. The smoldering ruins of log cabins that had stood as lonely out- 
posts of the pioneer advance, and the pillaged villages of the Indians bore mute evidence of 
a warfare of extermination, — evidence of the resistance offered the white man's coming. 
Lust and greed and murder and torture stalked side by side through the forest — grim phantoms 
of destruction. The governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, placed an army in command of 
General Lewis and from Fort Pitt, at the present site of Pittsburg, frequent sorties were 
made against the Indians. Though the punishment thus inflicted was severe, it but tended to 
impress upon the savage mind a hatred for the colonists that only subsequent events were 
destined to fathom. 

When, in 1775, England awoke to the fact that a struggle on the part of the colonies 
for their political rights and independence was inevitable, the strategic importance of the 
Detroit post, as well as the supremacy of the inland lakes, became of apparent value. De- 
troit afforded an ideal base from which to annoy the colonies from the rear and in the Indians, 
already in an inflammable state against the settlers, the British were quick to see a weapon 
at once merciless and effective. Whatever losses might be sustained by these ferocious 
allies would be a matter of little concern to the crown, while the damage they were able to 
accomplish would be that much clear gain. As an additional advantage, whatever atrocities 
might be committed could be easily condemned by a shocked and deeply horrified government 
that, pretending to wage only an honorable and civilized warfare, would find itself in a posi- 
tion to readily shift all responsibility. From the British point of view the conditions then 
existing in the west and at Detroit were ideal. They were rather impiously declared to be the 
direct result of an interposition of "Divine Providence." Vainly a few Englishmen pro- 
tested against the sullying of the British arms through association in the coming struggle with 



18 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

the tomahawk and scalping knife. In vain did the governor-general himself warn the gov- 
ernment that the Indians, once loosed, could not be restrained. But the "Divine Provi- 
dence" argument prevailed with the king. Three lieutenant governors were appointed — one 
for each of the posts at Detroit, Vincennes and Mackinac. Though much confusion attended 
these appointments and some difference of opinion is expressed as to the source of the au- 
thority under which the offices were created, it appears that the major functions of such ap- 
pointees included the distribution of gifts to the Indians and the exacting from them of 
loyalty to the British cause and service under arms in return. As the colonial secretary, the 
Earl of Dartmouth, who is generally credited with having made the appointments, failed 
to clearly define the exact status of the ofificials named, frequent clashes in authority resulted 
between the lieutenant governors and the military commandants at the three posts, much to 
the embarrassment of all the officials and the demoralization of discipline. 

Captain Henry Hamilton, who received the appointment as lieutenant governor at 
Detroit, pounced upon the revenues of the post immediately after his arrival in 1775, and 
through a most notorious connivance with the unscrupulous Philip Dejean, so-called chief 
justice, he inaugurated a system of petty graft and plunder that outshone the flagrant acts 
of even the most dishonest of the earlier French commandants. The partnership between 
these two spoilers seems to have been happily consummated for their mutual advantage. 
Dejean in his legal capacity had jurisdiction over civil cases at Detroit and even went so 
far as to assume authority in criminal matters that ought properly to have been referred to 
the courts at Quebec. The pair became at once the terror of every citizen; no one was 
immune from their greed. The most unreasonable and extortionate fines were imposed as 
the result of convictions on the flimsiest of charges. Apparently neither of the conspirators 
was satisfied until the interests of his friends were furthered, those of his enemies tyrani- 
cally checked and the last shilling wrung from the unfortunate debtors who fell into his 
hands. 

Bitter was the feeling of the colonists against Dejean ; a petition bearing the signature 
of nearly every resident at Detroit was presented to the governor general, asking that the 
post be relieved of its chief justice, but no action was taken. Repeated demands for De- 
jean's removal from office and the filing of specific charges of extortion resulted finally, 
however, in a grand-jury investigation of affairs. This was held at Montreal in 1778. 
Eventually indictments were found against both Dejean and Hamilton, though neither of the 
culprits was ever brought to trial. 



CHAPTER III. 

Detroit's Position at Inception of Revolution — Hamilton's Execrable Policies — Indian Atroci- 
ties — Expeditions From Detroit During Revolution — Settlers Oppose Hamilton's 
Plans — Expedition of Indian Allies Under Girty — Attack on Detroit Planned by 
Americans — The Wyoming Valley Massacre — Expedition Under George Rogers 
Clark — Hamilton's Expedition from Detroit to Vincennes — Capitulation of Hamil- 
ton. 

The moment the Revolution was in progress Detroit assumed much the same position, 
relative to the actual belligerents, that it had occupied during the previous struggle between 
the French and the British. As then, it served as a most important base for the distribu- 
tion of supplies and troops, but it was never the scene of a real encounter, although grave 
fears were entertained by the citizens, on more than one occasion, that the settlement and 
fort would be razed. Lieutenant Governor Hamilton made the most of every opportunity 
for galling the colonists, and, as arch demon in inciting the savages to almost untold atroc- 
ities, his activities were such as well to justify his selection for the purpose. 

Thousands of barrels of rum and unlimited supplies of scalping knives were distrib- 
uted to the allies with a generosity unprecedented under the rule of former English offi- 
cials. Messengers were sent calling the more distant tribes to council at Detroit. Barbecues 
were held in the streets of the town and the Indians were made to see that the colonists were 
not only a wicked and dangerous people, who were conspiring against the "White Father," 
but who also sought to possess themselves of the land. It was pointed out that they would 
succeed unless the Indians came to the aid of their white brothers in a war of extermina- 
tion. Aside from numerous trinkets and gaudy baubles calculated to catch the savage fancy, 
rifles, powder and ball were presented promiscuously. Through his interpreters Hamilton 
even went so far as to attempt to duplicate the forms of savage mummery characteristic of 
the usual Indian ceremonials. He chanted war songs and drove knives or hatchets into 
various grotesque effigies representing the common enemies of the Indians and British. 

All of Hamilton's flattery, however, was useless when he attempted to induce the natives 
to take the field against the settlers, unaccompanied by British soldiers and officers. Appar- 
ently no stratagem of which he was capable was sufficient to blind his allies to his real inten- 
tions. If his zeal was genuine, it was obvious, the Indians said, that he would want his own 
men to partake of the glories of the conflict. Daily the lieutenant governor was artfully 
drawn further and further into the meshes of an insatiable ravage greed for presents and 
still more presents. Every endeavor to maintain the scheme of elaborate generosity which 
he had at first initiated but brought him into sharper conflict with Captain Lord, the mili- 
tary commander, who, as a result of frequent quarrels, was eventually transferred to 
Niagara. Captain Richard Beranger Lernoult succeeded Lord at the post. 

Again agents were sent to make friends with remote tribes and so many Indians 
hastened to avail themselves of the free rum, muskets, ammunition, blankets and addi- 
tional gifts that Detroit soon became the Mecca toward which all trails led. But no 
one was inclined toward the hardships of the warpath so long as there was feasting and 
speechmaking to be accomplished and enjoyed. As much as two barrels of rum were 

19 



20 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

required daily for the entertainment of England's guests, not to mention fattened oxen 
publicly roasted before the fort. Though this expense became the subject of repeated 
protests from the governor general, Hamilton seemed unable to obtain the desired results 
on a more conservative basis and the practice became chronic. 

The first few war parties sent out from the fort were immediately successful. Each 
returned with numerous prisoners taken from captured settlements. Each was accorded 
a hilarious welcome. More oxen were roasted and additional rum was distributed as a 
fitting feature of the celebration and as a special reward to the victors. As the prisoners 
had to be sent to Montreal or Quebec for confinement and as the trouble and expense 
attending such disposition were considerable, the artful Hamilton hit upon an atrocious 
scheme of economy. He suggested heartlessly to his allies that scalps furnished excellent 
evidence of results accomplished by the faithful and could be handled much more conve- 
niently than prisoners. This suggestion gained the lieutenant governor the pseudonym of 
"Hair Buyer." To the unending shame of England it must be said that the practice of 
buying scalps, classified as having been taken from men, women and children and paid 
for accordingly, is a matter of actual record. 

Many of the letters comprising Hamilton's correspondence with his superiors — letters 
received and preserved by them — contain invoices of bale after bale of scalps for which the 
savages were paid varying amounts from the exchequer of his Gracious Majesty the 
King. These letters make patent the fact that the "scalp buyer's" superiors were not only 
cognizant of but winked at and permitted these disgraceful dealings with the allies. 

When Dr. Benjamin Franklin was pleading the American cause at the court of France, 
he submitted among other evidences of atrocious British practices characteristic of their 
conduct of the war, the following letter. The communication is purported to have been 
written by a British officer and to have been intercepted while in transmission to Hamilton 
at Detroit : 

"At the request of a Seneca chief, I hereby send to your excellency, under care of 
James Hoyd, eight packages of scalps, cured, dried, hooped and painted with all the tri- 
umphal marks, and of which consignment tliis is an invoice and explanation. Package 
number 143, scalps of Congress soldiers, inside painted red with a small black dot to show that 
they were killed by bullets; those painted brown and marked with a hoe, denote that the 
soldiers were killed while at their farms; those marked with a black ring denote that the 
persons were surprised by night ; those marked with a black hatchet denote that the persons 
were killed with the tomahawk. Package number 2, 98 farmers' scalps; a white circle 
denotes that they were surprised in the day time; those with a red foot denote that the 
men stood their ground and fought in the defense of their wives and families. Number 

3, 97 farmers' scalps ; the green hoops denote that they were killed in the fields. Number 

4, 102 farmers' scalps; eighteen are marked with a yellow flame to show that they died 
by torture ; the one with the black hand attached belonged to a clergyman. Number 5, 
88 scalps of women; those with the braided hair were mothers. Number 6, 193 boys' 
scalps. Number 7, 211 girls' scalps. Number 8, 122 scalps of all sorts; among them are 
twenty-nine infant scalps, and those marked with the small white hoops denote that the 
child was unborn at the time the mother was killed. The chief of the Senecas sends this 
message : 'Father, we send you here these many scalps that you may see that we are not 
idle friends. We wish you to send these scalps to the great king that he may regard them 
and be refreshed; and that he may see our faithfulness in destroying his enemies and be 
convinced that his presents are appreciated.' " 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 21 

Thus labored the alHes that a Christian king might be "refreshed" ; thus did defense- 
less women and unborn babes become the price of rum and gaudy trinkets; thus were the 
arms of an empire, the honor of a people, dragged in the mire of shame and lust, to be 
smeared with a disgrace that will endure until the end of time. 

Chief of Hamilton's lieutenants in leading the raiding parties against the settlements 
were Simon Girty; his two brothers, James and George; Alexander McKee and Mathew 
Elliott. The mention of either of these names struck terror to the hearts of the defense- 
less during the early Revolutionary days, and it is probable that no country was ever 
cursed with the presence of a more unscrupulous set of men. The last two were deserters 
from the colonial forces under General Lewis at Fort Pitt, but the Girtys were avowedly 
Tories. Major William Caldwell, Captains Henry Bird and John Butler, of the British 
regulars, and officers from the French militia at Detroit, were also directed to the occasional 
joint command of the allies. 

The number of expeditions setting out from Detroit and the number of unwarranted 
and merciless murders committed under British rule, from 1777 to the termination of the 
Revolution and beyond are impossible of enumeration liere. Raids were made into Ohio, 
Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and were generally successful. The demand for men in 
the defense of the country against the regular British forces in the east left the western 
settlements but poorly guarded. Many a block house fell after a siege in which women 
fought side by side with a handful of men in heroic resistance to a host of yelling savages 
reinforced by England's trained soldiery. The pioneers not only suffered hardship and pri- 
vation but also endured unspeakable tortures and finally sacrificed their lives that the fron- 
tier might not be pushed further eastward. The fledgeling colonial government, with a 
war on its hands in the east, was powerless to send relief to the west. Such an attempt 
meant the traversing of hundreds of miles 'of savage-infested wilderness, through which 
it was impossible to transport artillery or military supplies. Advance by water also was 
impossible. By the summer of 1777 the British had established the beginnings of a navy 
on the Great Lakes. The schooner "Gladwin" was supplemented by the building of several 
craft, and a regular rate of pay for officers and sailors quickly recruited adequate crews. 
Though the ships were comparatively small they were sufficiently formidable to be capable 
of maintaining an efficient police service. They were mostly used, however, in continuing 
communication with Mackinac and in transporting troops and supplies to Detroit. All 
vessels navigating waters west of Lake Ontario were required to register at the latter port. 

Few victories of importance fell to the allied arms until 1778. By this time the settlers 
had become thoroughly aroused to the necessity of offering some armed resistance to Ham- 
ilton's plans. Counter raiding parties advanced into Ohio and Indiana from Kentucky and 
at Fort Pitt an attack was planned on Detroit. Two forts. Fort Mcintosh and Fort Laurens, 
were built on Beaver creek and the Tuscarawas river respectively, both being located in 
southern Ohio. Colonial General Gibson was detailed to the western service by George 
Washington and at once occupied Fort Laurens. It was planned that he advance on 
Detroit after wintering at the fort. 

Just at this time Hamilton's former plan for the esablishment of an Indian confed- 
eracy stood him in good stead. He had sent Simon Girty, who was well versed in Indian 
customs and dialects, to nearly every savage village of consequence. Girty's influence 
with the Indians was phenomenal; as a result of his activities the British relationship with 
almost every tribe was considerably strengthened. News of the erection of the Ohio forts 
was quickly brought to Detroit by Girty's converts and even Gibson's intention of advanc- 



22 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

ing northward was made known to Hamilton. Girty, who was an old-time enemy of 
Gibson, was given command of between seven hundred and eight hundred Indians and 
ordered to capture Fort Laurens. He set out with alacrity on this quest for more scalps, 
but the intervention of an unexpected circumstance partially thwarted his plans. Prior 
to this time a religious sect, the Moravians, or as they styled themselves, "The United 
Brethren in Christ," had gained a secure foothold in Ohio. The order, which had originally 
settled in the south, in 1735, had later moved to Pennsylvania. Coming from that state, 
missionaries, who sought the conversion of the Indians, had established a branch church 
and settlement at Gnadenhutten, near Fort Laurens. Always seeking the promotion of 
peace, the Moravian belief held to the principle of "turning the other cheek" when attacked 
and discountenanced resistance, either in the defense of property or life. 

Through some of the converted Indians news of Girty's advance reached David Zeis- 
berger, the missionary at Gnadenhutten. Zeisberger immediately informed Gibson of the 
impending attack and advised him to keep his men within the walls of the Laurens stockade. 
Gibson at once dispatched a portion of his force to Fort Mcintosh, in quest of reinforce- 
ments and supplies. The relief party vvas attacked on its return, several men were killed 
and scalped in plain sight of Gibson's redoubt, and letters to the commander were taken 
by Girty's men. The captured letters contained complete details of the planned attack of 
the Americans on the Detroit post. Gibson now realized the value of his missionary 
friend's advice and kept so closely within the fort that Girty's men withdrew after a short 
siege. Captain Bird arrived from Detroit with a strong force of Indians shortly after- 
ward. He in turn besieged the fort, but was unsuccessful save for the killing in ambush 
of a small party of wagoners from the fort. Though Gibson succeeded in holding Fort 
Laurens, the enemy were in possession of his plans and this, coupled with the losses he 
had sustained, necessitated the abandonment of the Detroit attack. 

In the same year Captain Bird, of the British forces, fell victim to a disappointment in 
love. Apparently, save American scalps, nothing could divert his mind from the tortures 
_of his heart. He accordingly set out from Detroit with John Butler and a party of rangers 
and Indians. The object of the expedition was an attack upon Butler's former neighbors 
in Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania. Butler was originally from Connecticut. Nearly every 
man of the Americans was absent with the colonial army and the allies found the valley 
but poorly defended. The settlers, fearing a savage butchery in case they surrendered, 
retired within a small fort. Butler followed the usual trick of showing only a portion of 
his force and then retreating, in order to invite pursuit. His main body of savages remained 
hidden in ambush. The settlers advanced, only to be surrounded and tomahawked in their 
tracks. Nearly two hundred scalps were taken to assuage Captain Bird's tortured mind. 
Meanwhile the fort was fired and nearly all the settlers perished in the flames rather than 
submit to the tortures they knew were certain once they asked for mercy. Few escaped. 
The neighboring Cherry Valley was also attacked successfully and more Americans were 
tortured, killed and scalped. For this service to his gracious majesty, Butler was given a 
grant of some five thousand acres of land and a substantial annuity. 

Similar raids were organi.?:ed and sent into Ohio during 1778, from the posts at Vin- 
cennes, Indiana, and Kaskaskia. Illinois. These were ostensibly launched in furtherance 
of a treaty agreement between England and Spain, to the efifect that the settlements must 
not encroach on territory claimed by the latter power east of the Alleghanies. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 28 

Every such raid was but a replica of its predecessor and but helped to swell the list 
of outright murders and tortures for which the then greatest government in the world 
must ever be held directly responsible. 

Toward the close of 1778 a second attempt was made by the Americans to administer 
some punishment for these depredations. General Brodhead, of the colonial regulars, was 
sent into Ohio with a force of between two thousand and three thousand men. Indian 
runners promptly bore news of the advance to Hamilton. The whole settlement at Detroit 
was immediately thrown into consternation by the conclusion that Brodhead's objective 
point could be none other than the Detroit post. Though the garrison had been kept in 
fighting order since the beginning of the Revolution, Captain Lernoult, now a major, 
suddenly realized that the fort was not sufficiently strong to withstand well directed artil- 
lery fire. Strategically it occupied a poor position, because of higher ground to the north. 
The only recourse was the erection of a second fort on the elevation. Accordingly what 
became known as Fort Lernoult was hastily built on the present site of the Detroit federal 
building. It was rectangular in shape and was flanked by effective bastions at the four 
comers. Brodhead's advance, however, terminated at a point in the Maumee valley, nearly 
one hundred miles from Detroit. 

Fortunately for the settlers, one man, Colonel George Rogers Clark, of Kentucky, not 
only saw the advantage to the colonial government of the capture of Detroit, but was 
undismayed by the difficulties of a wilderness campaign. Again and again he besought 
the American leaders for an army. Though he was known to be an intrepid fighter, his 
personal habits were such as to discredit his requests at a time when the government 
was so hard pressed for men and stores ; in addition to this he had numerous and powerful 
enemies. Not discouraged by repeated refusals of a command, the capture of Detroit 
became his life ambition. He believed that if he could but succeed in taking the posts in 
Indiana and Illinois the colonial government would then give him command of a force 
adequate for the more serious undertaking. 

With such a plan in view, Clark set out in the fall of 1778 with something more than 
five hundred rangers and woodsmen, for the posts at Kaskaskia, Kahokia and Vincennes. 
Though his followers were poorly equipped and were unversed in the approved military 
tactics, they were Indian fighters, every man of them. Inured to hardship and want, they 
fought largely for the love of fighting ; they needed no direction in the handling of their 
long, brown rifles ; they lacked nothing of courage and dash ; they knew how to move quickly 
and quietly. 

The garrison at Kaskaskia was completly surprised. Every village in Illinois was in 
terror of the "Long Knives," as the Kentuckians were called. Both the settlers and the 
British soldiers had heard of and feared the vengeance of the southerners. Many of 
the inhabitants were French. They sent a deputation to Clark offering themselves as his 
slaves if he would but protect them from his men. The British were informed that they 
would come to no harm if the post was surrendered peacefully, and great rejoicing and 
expressions of allegiance to the American cause followed Clark's announcement to the 
French that they might remain in their homes in perfect security. The post was surren- 
dered, as was later Kahokia, without the firing of a shot. The French at Vincennes were 
informed by the Kaskaskians of the latter's treatment at the hands of Clark, and Vincennes 
was also surrendered without resistance. The Wyoming Valley massacre, under Bird, 
and the capture of Kaskaskia, under George Rogers Clark, took place on the same day, — 
July 3, 1778. 



24 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

The advance northward had continuously tended to deplete the ranks of his little army, 
and now Clark found himself unable to hold the posts he had taken. Believing in the 
expressions of loyalty as voiced by the French, he decided to retire to Kaskaskia to await 
reinforcements. He left but two men in charge of the fort at Vincennes. The expected 
reinforcements consisted of one hundred men under command of Colonel Archibald Lochry, 
who attempted to advance from Pennsylvania. Unknown to Clark, Lochry's entire party 
were ambushed and killed near the Ohio by a large force of Indians under George Girty 
and Joseph Brant, of Detroit. 

Day after day Clark awaited assistance which never came. Meanwhile refugees from 
Vincennes had reached Detroit with news of the American success, and Hamilton set 
about organizing an expedition for the recapture of the British posts. The French refusing 
to fight, Vincennes was easily retaken. The situation of the Americans became desperate. 
They were hundreds of miles from a base of supplies and could not successfully retreat 
before an enemy well equipped for pursuit. Hamilton's force, which consisted of a portion 
of a regiment of English regulars, a detachment of French militia and nearly two hundred 
Indians, had established itself within the retaken fort at Vincennes. There was nothing 
for Clark to do but attack. This he did. With unparalleled boldness he planned to 
surprise Hamilton in his fort. The melting of a heavy snow practically flooded the country 
and Hamilton had delayed proceeding against Clark until the waters subsided. This 
afforded Clark his opportunity. 

Placing his supplies and a few men in canoes, he led the main body of his army of 
one hundred and fifty men toward Vincennes, by a circuitous route, keeping clear of the 
trails in order to avoid sentinels and outposts. For four days his men advanced, submerged 
to their shoulders in the icy water and carrying their knapsacks on their heads. Marshes 
and swamps were crossed and at times the hardships seemed almost unbearable, but they 
were Kentuckians and they had started for Vincennes to fight the British. 

Arrived before Vincennes, Clark issued a proclamation warning British sympathizers 
to retire within the fort and offering enlistment in his own ranks to those who espoused the 
American cause. He kept his little army carefully secluded, that Hamilton might not 
become aware of its limited strength. Hamilton, always a coward, quite mistook the real 
situation and remained carefully behind the redoubts with his forces. The Kentuckians 
fought in true frontier style. The showmg of a head above the stockade meant the crack 
of a rifle directed with deadly aim. Every available bit of cover near the fort concealed a 
merciless agent of destruction. Finally Clark resorted to a time-worn ruse. Hamilton's 
garrison awoke one morning to find two cannon trained on the gate of their fort. Their 
provisions were extremely low. and this new danger not only threw the commander into a 
state of abject terror but also completely demoralized his entire force. Clark was imme- 
diately asked for terms of surrender. He sent word that surrender must be unconditional 
and that the British must evacuate the territory and turn over all arms and supplies. 
Hamilton dared not strike his flag under such conditions and the siege was continued. 
He afterward learned, much to his chagrin, that the two "cannon" were nothing more 
formidable than logs painted black and mounted on gun carriages. 

Philip Dejean, who had accompanied Hamilton on the expedition to Vincennes, had 
been, upon the arrival of Clark's forces before that place, ordered to return to Detroit for 
supplies and reinforcements. Word of this reached Clark. The Americans were also 
informed that Dejean's relief expedition had set out for Vincennes in canoes and bateaux, 
with some fifty thousand dollars' worth of stores. This was a prize worth taking. Clark 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 25 

sent half his force to intercept Dejean on the Wabash. The British were successfully sur- 
prised and the stores, together with several soldiers and Indians, were captured. A few 
of the savages were scalped before the redoubt at Vincennes, for Hamilton's benefit, and a 
few whites were allowed to escape to the fort to tell its commander of the disaster. On 
the following day, March 5, 1779, Vincennes was surrendered on Clark's terms and Ham- 
ilton, Dejean and officers of the British regulars were dispatched under escort to Fort Pitt 
as prisoners of war. 

For this magnificent service to the colonial cause Clark was voted a resolution of 
"thanks" by the legislature of Virginia; some time later he was grudgingly given the 
rather empty title of general. Though his ultimate object throughout the Vincennes cam- 
paign had been the storming of Detroit and the termination of the outrages perpetrated 
by the British and Indians, he now found his force inadequate for further advance into the 
enemy's country. Vainly he besought the colonial authorities for reinforcements. This 
man, who had mustered his own army and led them to victory; this "general" who had 
accomplished, without even the knowledge of Washington, more than any other soldier 
sent into the northwest up to that time, was completely ignored. Correspondence between 
Thomas Jefferson and General George Washington indicates that the former at least appre- 
ciated Clark's abilities as a fighter. Jefferson repeatedly attempted to have Clark provided 
with a respectable command, but Brodhead, of the colonial forces, who had been given one 
opportunity and had failed, was still ambitious. Extreme jealousy between that officer and 
Clark ultimately defeated the Detroit expedition. In spite of promises of assistance, Clark 
was finally refused troops with which to follow up his achievement and was left to extri- 
cate his little command frorn its precarious position as best he might. The vantage point 
gained by the suffering and bravery of the Kentuckians and by the courage and dash of 
their commander was abandoned with the thanks of Virginia. • 

Clark returned to the Ohio river to renew his pleadings for an army. He led several 
successful attacks against the Indians in the Ohio country during 1783, but was obliged 
to see the ambition of his life — the command of a real military force — given to a less 
capable man than himself. Finally he was allowed to die in loneliness and neglect in Ken- 
tucky, heartbroken because his powerful enemies in the east remembered that he was high 
tempered and occasionally intemperate. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Strengthening of the Detroit Post Under DePeyster — Expedition Against the Moravian 
Villages in Ohio. 

Shortly after the capture of Hamilton, Colonel DePeyster, formerly stationed at Macki- 
nac, was dispatched to Detroit. The British, realizing that the Detroit post would be sub- 
jected to constant danger of capture so long as Clark remained in the field, strengthened their 
forces at Detroit by sending west a considerable force from Niagara. 

With the evident purpose of discouraging any further expeditions north, Captain Bird 
was sent from Detroit to carry the war into the enemy's country.- In the spring of 1780 he 
set out for Kentucky with a force of some six hundred Indians and rangers. Arrived before 
Ruddle's Station, Captain Bird accepted the surrender of the settlers on the understanding 
that the latter were to be prisoners of the British and not of the Indians. He was unable 
to control the allies, however, and the usual Indian massacre took place. Following the 
attack and capture of two other small settlements, it became apparent to Captain Bird that 
his Indians intended to pay no heed to his commands. On this account he returned to 
Detroit, accomplishing only in part the objects of his mission. 

During these years the Moravians had kept steadily at the task of Christianizing the 
Indians. David Zeisberger, chief of the missionaries, had accomplished such results with 
the Delawares that that tribe refused to ally itself with the British and remained neutral. 
These Indians devoted themselves to agricultural pursuits and established permanent settle- 
ments on the Muskingum. The British had long felt that in Zeisberger's zeal for the suc- 
cess of the American cause was to be found an explanation of the readiness with which 
colonial officers gained information of British affairs. Colonel DePeyster therefore 
directed Alexander McKee, Indian agent, to eliminate the Moravians from what was 
becoming an embarrassing situation. McKee attempted to incite both the Iroquois and Chip- 
pewas against the Moravian villages in southern Ohio, but neither would consent to take 
the warpath against the Delawares. Finally Colonel Mathew Elliott, of Detroit, proceeded 
to the Moravian villages and sent the missionaries, their women and children, to Detroit. 
Their unharvested crops were abandoned in the fields. After remaining at Detroit for sev- 
eral months the missionaries, with their converted Indian followers, were sent to Ohio, 
under command of a Wyandotte chief. Their supplies running short, a considerable body 
of converts were sent to the Muskingum settlements for the unharvested grain. While 
there, they were attacked by a body of Pennsylvania militia under Colonel Williamson and 
were mercilessly slaughtered. This unfortunate occurrence seems to have been due to a 
misunderstanding on the part of the Pennsyh-anians. The latter mistook the innocent vic- 
tims for a party of hostile Delawares, against whom a campaign was in progress. The 
neutral Delawares refused to ally themselves with the American cause and later joined 
the British, the incident of the slaughter by the Pennsylvanians probably influencing them 
strongly in this decision. 

The Pennsylvanians paid dearly for their mistake when Colonel Crawford's command 
was met, in the spring of 1782, by a party of Delawares under Simon Girty. The most 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 27 

extreme cruelties the savages could invent were visited upon Crawford, who had become 
separated with several others from his fleeing command. Captain Pipe, chief of the Dela- 
wares and formerly a friend of the Americans, led in the tortures. 

During the same year Simon Girty, Elliott and McKee were sent as lieutenants under 
Major William Caldwell to visit the settlements of the Delawares and Miamis in Ohio. 
Caldwell established camp at a point near the present site of Piqua and from there set out 
on a raid against Bryan's Station in Kentucky. Failing in this, he met a force under Colonel 
John Todd, of Kentucky. Todd's men were led into ambush and nearly eighty 
were either killed, scalped or taken prisoners. Girty felt that the Moravians were 
again giving information to the Americans. He sent eight missionaries, among whom was 
Ziesberger, to Detroit. Upon their arrival, DePeyster gave them the option of returning 
to their congregations in Pennsylvania or settling in Michigan near Detroit. Deciding on 
the latter course, land belonging to the Chippewas, near the present city of Mount Clemens, 
was allotted to them. The Moravians christened the new settlement New Gnadenhutten, 
and though they erected some forty houses, they were soon destined to be forced to move 
again. When the Revolution was terminated, during the next year, the Chippewas claimed 
the land and Zeisberger and his followers were allowed to return to the former Gnaden- 
hutten in Ohio. Some went to Canada. In general the missionaries and their followers 
were treated with kindness and courtesy by the Detroit authorities. Upon their final 
departure from the post they were paid between two hundred and three hundred dollars 
for their houses and cleared lands at Mount Clemens. They left Detroit on board two sail- 
ing vessels. A Moravian settlement was established six years later on the banks of the 
Thames river in Canada. 



CHAPTER V. 

Problems in Northwest After Close of Revolution — Extravagant Demands of the English — 
Report of Ephraim Douglass — Washington Demands Surrender of Forts in Dis- 
puted Territory — Missions of Baron Steuben — Lieutenant Colonel Hull — English 
Refuse Demands and Regain Indian Prestige — Harmar's Disastrous Expedition — 
Commissioners Appointed to Effect Treaties with the Indians — Fruitless Results — 
General Anthony Wajme Advanced Into the West — President Washington's Mes- 
sage — Conflict at Fort Recovery — Wayne's Subsequent Movements — Battle of 
Fallen Timber — Wayne's Treaty with the Indians. 

Of the events following the treaty terminating the Revolution, the question of the occu- 
pancy of the northwest was one of the most embarrassing. The embryonic colonial govern- 
ment claimed the territory between the Ohio river and the lakes, in accordance with the terms 
of the new agreement. The British refused to evacuate the disputed country under a double 
pretext. They claimed that their commissioners had not rightly understood the conditions 
of the agreement that gave the colonies this territory. Likewise they asserted that the 
colonies had forfeited any right ttiey might have had in the matter through their failure to 
carry out certain terms of the treaty. These terms had to do with the payment of obliga- 
tions owed to English traders by American merchants. The already unpopular court party 
in England found itself in a position to yield gracefully to the demands of the combined 
English and Canadian financial interests in establishing a policy quite in accord with its 
own desires — a policy of delay. Smarting under its defeat at arms, and realizing the extent 
to which the Indian situation in the west would handicap the fledgling states, the crown 
apparently determined to bully the colonies into yielding. 

Repeated demands for possession of the forts at Niagara, Mackinac and Detroit met 
first with evasions, then with persistent refusals. But congress determined to ignore the 
possibility of any such misunderstanding. It proceeded with the business of effecting treaties 
with the Indians very much as though no dispute existed. Obviously it was England's 
play to attempt to forestall this process. In this her relationship with the savages was a 
decided advantage. 

Perhaps the best idea of the British attitude is gained from the report of Ephraim 
Douglass, who was sent by the secretary of war to counsel with the Indians. Of his expe- 
rience with British officers he reported in August, 1784: 

Sir:— 

In obedience to the instructions you honored me with on the 5th of May last, I have 
used every endeavor in my power to execute in the fullest manner your orders. * * * 
Captain Pipe, who is the principal man of the nation (Dela wares), received me with every 
demonstration of joy, * * * but told me as his nation was not the principal one, nor 
had voluntarily engaged in the war, it would be proper for me first to communicate my 
business to the Hurons and Shawnese, and afterwards to the Delawares. That he had 
announced my arrival to the Hurons and expected such of them as were at home would 
very shortly be over to see and welcome me. This soon happened as he had expected, but 
as none of their chiefs were present, I declined speaking publicly to them, knowing that I 
could receive no authentic answer, and unwilling to expend unnecessarily the wampum I 

28 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 29 

had prepared for this occasion. I informed them for their satisfaction of the peace with 
England, and told them that the United States were disposed to be in friendship with Indians 
also, — desired them to send for their head men, particularly for the Half King, chief of the 
.Wyandottes at Brownstown, who was gone to Detroit. * * * The Hurons, neverthe- 
less, failed sending to Detroit, partly through the want of authority in the old men present 
and partly through the assurance of the wife of the Half King, who was confident her hus- 
band would be home in two days, and therefore a journey which would require six or seven 
was altogether unnecessary. On the evening of the i8th a runner arrived from the Miami 
with the intelligence that Mr. Elliott had received dispatches from Detroit announcing the 
arrival of Sir John Johnson at that place; that in consequence the chiefs and warriors were 
desired to repair thither in a few days, where the council would be held with them. * * * 
Pipe pressed me to accompany him to Detroit, assuring me that it would be useless to wait 
the coming, of the Indians from the Miami, that they would spend their time in useless 
counciling there till the treaty of Detroit would come on, and that if I even could assemble 
them I could obtain nothing from the interview. That if the Half King was present he 
would not undertake to give me an answer without consulting the chiefs of the Huron 
tribe at Detroit, and that these would determine nothing without first asking the advice of 
their Father the Commandant. When I arrived at Detroit, where I was received with 
much politeness and treated with great civility by the commandant, to whom I delivered 
your letters, showed your instructions and pressed for an opportunity of communicating 
them to the Indians as soon as might be. He professed the strongest desire of bringing 
about a reconciliation between the United States and the several Indian nations ; declared 
that he would willingly promote it all in his power; but that until he was authorized by his 
superiors in command, he could not consent that anything should be said to the Indians 
relative to the boundary of the United States ; for though he knew from the king's procla- 
mation that the war with America was at an end, he had no official information to justify 
his supposing the states extended to this place, and therefore could not consent to the 
Indians being told so; especially as he had uniformly declared to them that he did not know 
these posts were to be evacuated by the English. He had no objection, he said, to com- 
municating the friendly offers of the United States, and would cheerfully make known to 
them the substance of your letter to him. In the morning of the 5th I received an inti- 
mation from Colonel E)ePeyster, through Captain McKee, that it was his wish that I would 
go on to Niagara as soon as I had recovered from the fatigue of my journey. In conse- 
quence of this I waited on him in the afternoon and pressed with greater warmth than 
yesterday the necessity of my speaking with the Indians and receiving an answer from them. 
I pressed him to suffer me to proceed on my business without his interference, and offered 
him my word that I would say nothing to them respecting the limits of the states, but con- 
fine myself to the offer of peace or choice of war, and the invitation to treaty. He would 
not retract his resolution without further orders from the commander in chief, and I was 
obliged to submit, however unwillingly ; but must do him the justice to acknowledge that 
he made every offer of civility and service except that which he considered inconsistent with 
his duty. On the 6th I attended the council which Colonel DePeyster held with the Indians, 
to which he had yesterday invited me. After delivering his business of calling them together, 
he published to them your letter and pressed them to continue in the strictest amity with the 
subjects of the United States, representing to them the folly of continuing hostilities and 
assured them that he could by no means give them any further assistance against the people 
of America. * * * Qj^ ^]-^q morning of the 7th I took my leave of Colonel DePeyster, 
after having received more civilities from him than the limits of this report will suffer me to 
enumerate; * * * j arrived at Niagara on the nth, was introduced to General Mac- 
Lean, who was prepared for my coming, delivered him Colonel DePeyster's letter, and was 
received with every mark of attention, but he declined entering upon any business this day. 
On the evening of the 13th I received a note from the general requesting a copy of my 
instructions to send to the commander in chief to facilitate business. I sent him word that 
he should be obeyed, and early in the morning began to execute my promise, but before 



30 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

I had finished copying them I received a verbal message that he wished to see me at his 
quarters. * * * f^g informed me that he had sent for me to shovvr me the copy of a 
letter he was writing to Colonel DePeyster. It contained instructions to that gentleman in 
consequence of my representations of the murders committed by the western Indians in 
course of the last spring and since; by his account they had been positively forbidden to be 
guilty of any such outrage. He pressed Colonel DePeyster very earnestly to examine 
minutely into this affair; to forbid the Indians in the most positive manner to be guilty of 
such future misconduct; to order them to deliver up immediately such prisoners as they had 
captured through the spring, into the hands of himself or his officers ; and further to tell 
them that if they did not desist from these practices the British troops would join the 
Americans to punish them. 

Though the attitude of the British officers at Detroit and Niagara prevented the com- 
plete success of Douglass' mission in the west, his visit resulted in greatly weakening English 
influence with the Indians. DePeyster felt a difference in the attitude of the allies almost 
immediately and wrote Governor Haldimand's office requesting that Sir John Johnson be 
sent to Detroit. Sir John had, as Indian agent, inspired the respect of the savages and was 
probably more influential in Indian councils than any other Englishman in the colonies. 

Congress being left much in doubt as to England's real intentions. Washington sent 
Baron Steuben to make formal demand of Governor Haldimand for the surrender of the 
forts in the disputed territory. Douglass reported that Sir John Johnson had assembled 
the Indians at Sandusky in the fall of 1783, had given them many presents and had ad- 
dressed them declaring : "That the king, his and their common father, had made peace with 
the Americans, and had given them the country they possessed on this continent; but that 
the report of his having given them any part of the Indian lands was false, and fabricated 
by the Americans for the purpose of provoking the Indians against their father; that they 
should therefore shut their ears against it. So far the contrary was proved that the great 
river Ohio was to be the line between the Indians in this quarter and the Americans ; over 
which the latter ought not to pass and return in safety. That, however, as the war be- 
tween Britain and America was now at an end, and as the Indians had engaged in it from 
their attachment to the crown, and not from any quarrel of their own, he would, as 
was usual at the end of a war, take the tomahawk out of their hand ; though he would not 
remove it out of sight or far from them, but lay it down carefully by their side that they 
might have it convenient to use in defense of their rights and property, if they were in- 
vaded or molested by the Americans." 

Baron Steuben's mission to Quebec was no more successful than was that of Doug- 
lass. Governor Haldimand replied to Washington's demands in a letter which he entrusted 
to the Baron, declaring that the treaty was but a temporan*' one. He further advised that 
no commands had been received by him relative to surrendering the lake posts to the co- 
lonial government. A year later (May, 1784) Secretary of War Knox induced congress 
to send Lieutenant Colonel William Hull, he who was later governor of Michigan Terri- 
tory, to Quebec on a similar errand. Again Haldimand refused to surrender the forts. In 
1786 John Adams, minister to England, reported to congress that the British government 
had refused his formal demand for the territory, claiming violation by Americans of the 
treaty provisions relative to the payment of debts. 

During these continued delays, the English made rapid headway in regaining their 
former prestige with the savages. The inability of congress to bring the dispute to a 
definite conclusion, together with the change in Indian sentiment, encouraged the Canadian 
merchants to urge that no concessions be made by the crown. Repeated memorials were 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 31 

addressed to the English government by these merchants, insisting that Americans had 
forfeited any rights that made the treaties of permanent effect. This no doubt had much 
to do with continuing the policy of delay and with the failure of the British officers to 
fulfill the promises made to Douglass relative to promoting peace between the Indians and 
the settlers. The Indians, always eager to fight, were quick to comprehend the situation 
and began again their raids on the weaker settlements. This finally drove congress to 
action. 

General Harmar was placed in command of a punitive expedition against the savages, 
but before the departure of his force, the secretary of war notified the commandant at 
Detroit of Harmar's plans, stating that the latter were directed solely against the Indians. 
As might have been anticipated, the British were prompt to come to the aid of the savages. 
Harmar suffered a disastrous defeat on October 19, 1790, and again on the 20th, at the 
Miami villages in Ohio. Again American scalps dangled from poles carried through the 
streets of Detroit ; again the returning warriors were greeted at the post as conquerors. 

After the defeat of a second force under St. Clair, who was worsted in an engage- 
ment taking place in November, 1791, the Indians had practically free rein for a period of 
nearly two years. In 1793 three commissioners were named to meet the savages at San- 
dusky. Their purpose was to effect treaties with the warring tribes. The Indians re- 
ferred the proposals of the commissioners to British officials and upon the advice of the 
latter finally refused to consent to the establishment of any boundary other than the Ohio 
river, between the setlers and themselves. Though the attempts of the commissioners were 
fruitless, certain of the tribes again began to doubt the ability of England to hold out 
against the Americans. It was only by means of a generous disposition of gifts by the 
British officers that the savages were induced to continue their allegiance. To supplement 
the gifts and to further strengthen Indian faith in his government. Lieutenant Gk)vernor 
Simcoe of Canada decided to establish a new fort on the Miami river. This was done in 
spite of British protestations of neutrality so far as their attitude concerned the relationship 
between the federal government and the Indians. Subsequently this same fort was even 
garrisoned by a detachment of troops under command of Captain Caldwell, of Detroit, in 
flagrant contradiction to the former assurances made to Ephraim Douglass by Colonel De- 
Peyster and other British officers. 

After such an act, congress no longer had ground for doubt as to England's exact 
position. Indian arrogance, always encouraged by the English, finally became so unbearable 
that congress' only hope of relief from continuous raids against the western settlers lay in 
administering swift and severe punishment. 

Accordingly it was decided to advance General Anthony Wayne into the west with a 
sufficient force to cope with the Indians and even with the British, should need arise. The 
advisability of such a course had been previously made clear by a message from the presi- 
dent, George Washington, delivered to the senate on February 14. 1791. Washington 
said: 

"Conceiving that in the possible event of a refusal of justice on the part of Great 
Britain, we should stand less committed should it be made to a private rather than a public 
person, I employed Mr. Gouverneur Morris, who was on the spot, and without giving him 
any definite character, to enter informally into the conferences before mentioned. For your 
more particular information I lay before you the instructions I gave him and those parts 
of his communications wherein the British ministers appear, either in conversation or by 
letter. These are two letters from the Duke of Leeds to Mr. Morris and three letters of Mr. 



32 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

Morris giving an account of two conferences with the Duke of Leeds and one with him 
and Mr. Pitt. The sum of these is that they declare without scruple they do not mean to 
fulfill what remains of the treaty of peace to be fulfilled on their part (by which we are 
to understand the delivery of the posts and payment of property carried off) till perform- 
ance on our part, and compensation where the delay has rendered the performance now im- 
practicable; that on the subject of a treaty of commerce they avoided direct answers, so 
as to satisfy Mr. Morris they did not mean to enter into one unless it could be extended to 
a treaty of alliance offensive and defensive, or unless in the event of a rupture with Spain." 

In compliance with the orders of Secretary of War Knox, General Wayne, commander 
in chief of the American army, proceeded to Pittsburg in 1792, for the purpose of re- 
cruiting and drilling a force for his western expedition. During this year additional over- 
tures of peace were made to the Indians who refused to council for a treaty. The effect of 
this refusal on the secretary of war was such that he strongly opposed any advance of 
American forces into the northwest, but, regardless of this, Wayne led his army westward 
the next year, as far as the present site of Cincinnati. There he was joined by a considerable 
force of Kentuckians and with them he advanced in November to Greenville, in Ohio, 
where he spent the winter of 1793-4. 

From the camp at Greenville, Wayne sent a detachment of men to the spot of St. 
Clair's defeat. The detachment arrived on Christmas day and began the work of burying 
the American dead who had fallen in the savage butchery of two years before. This done, 
the troops began the erection of a fort called Fort Recovery, in commemoration of the re- 
covery of that immediate territory from the Indians. Always exposed to the possibility of 
a savage surprise, this experience schooled the troops in being ever on the alert. Upon its 
completion the fort was garrisoned by one company of artillery and one of infantry, while 
the remainder of the force was returned to Greenville. At the latter place Fort Greenville, 
a formidable redoubt covering the larger portion of the town, was then built. Here Wayne 
remained until July, when he advanced to the Maumee rapids. 

Though the fact that the English were giving the savages at least their moral support 
against the Americans, was by this time generally known, it was not thought that Ameri- 
ca's late antagonist would take up arms without formally declaring war. The British took 
part in an attack, however, against the Americans, in a sharp battle fought before Fort 
Recovery. Wayne was at this time with his troops at Greenville. Of this sortie Burnet's 
notes say : "On the 30th of June, a very severe and bloody battle was fought under the 
walls of Fort Recovery, between a detachment of American troops, consisting of ninety 
riflemen and fifty dragoons, commanded by Major McMahon, and a very numerous body of 
Indians and British who at the same instant rushed on the detachment and assailed the fort 
on every side with great fury. They were repulsed with heavy loss but again rallied and 
renewed the attack, keeping up a heavy and constant fire during the whole day, which was 
returned with spirit and effect, by the garrison. * * * Qn the next morning, Mc- 
Mahon's detachment having entered the fort, the enemy renewed the attack, and continued 
it with great desperation during the day, but were ultimately compelled to retreat from 
the same field, on which they had been proudly victorious on the 4th of November, 1791 
(St. Clair's defeat). * * * From the official return of Major Mills, adjutant general of 
the army, it appears that twenty-two officers and non-commissioned officers were killed and 
thirty wounded. * * * Immediately after the enemy had retreated it was ascertained ■ 
that their loss had been very heavy, but the full extent of it was not known till it was dis- 
closed at the treaty of Greenville. References were made to that battle by several of the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 3S 

chiefs in council, from which it was manifest that they had not even then ceased to mourn 
the distressing losses sustained on that occasion. * * * From the facts afterward 
communicated to the general it was satisfactorily ascertained that there were a consider- 
able number of British soldiers and Detroit militia engaged with the savages on that oc- 
casion. A few days previous to that afifair the general had sent out three small parties of 
Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians to take prisoners for the purpose of obtaining information. 
One of those parties returned to Greenville on the 28th and reported that they had fallen 
in with a large body of Indians at Girtystown and that there were a great many white men 
with them. The other two parties followed the trail of the hostile Indians and were in 
sight when the assault on the post commenced. They affirmed, one and all, that there were 
a large number of armed white men, with painted faces, whom they frequently heard con- 
versing in English and encouraging the Indians to persevere; and that there were also 
three British officers dressed in scarlet who appeared to be men of distinction from the 
general attention and respect which was paid to them. These persons kept at a distance in 
the rear of the assailants. Another strong corroborating proof that there were British 
soldiers and militia in the assault is that a number of ounce balls and buckshot were found 
lodged in the block houses and stockades of the fort." 

Jonathan Alder, who was then living with the Indians, gives in his manuscript auto- 
biography an account of the attack on the fort. He states that Simon Girty was in the action 
and that one of the American officers was killed by Thomas McKee, a son of the British 
agent, Colonel Aleck McKee. 

Wayne's advance from Greenville to the rapids of the Maumee immediately followed 
the juncture with his force of sixteen hundred Kentuckians under General Scott. Henry 
Howe, in his historical collections of Ohio, gives the following account of Wayne's subse- 
quent movements : 

"By the 8th of August the army had arrived near the junction of the Auglaize with 
that stream (Maumee) and commenced the erection of Fort Defiance at that point. The 
Indians, having learned from a deserter of the approach of Wayne's army, hastily aban- 
doned their headquarters at Auglaize and thus defeated the plan of Wayne to surprise 
them, for which object he had cut two roads, intending to march by neither. At Fort 
Defiance, Wayne received full information of the Indians and the assistance they were to 
derive from the volunteers at Detroit and vicinity. On the 13th of August, true to the 
spirit of peace advised by Washington, he sent Christian Miller, who had been naturalized 
among the Shawanese, as a special messenger to offer terms of friendship. Impatient of 
delay, he moved forward on the i6th, met Miller on his return with the message that if the 
Americans would wait ten days at Grand Glaize (Fort Defiance) they — the Indians — 
would decide for peace or war. On the i8th the army arrived at Roche de Boeuf, just 
south of the site of •<Waterville, where they erected some light works as a place of deposit 
for their heavy baggage, which was named Fort Deposit." 

The building of these new forts and the swiftness with which the American forces were 
moved through the wilderness were circumstances that well fulfilled Wayne's intention, — 
that of impressing the savages with a wholesome respect for American maneuvering. In 
addition to this the Indians had just suffered severely at Fort Recovery and had come to 
look upon "The Black-snake," as Wayne was called, with undisguised dread and fear. They 
had never seen any such fighting on the part of the British as that exhibited by the Amer- 
icans. Never before had they been compelled to face a well commanded, fairly equipped 
American army. Now they were enabled to compare their protectors with the Americans 



34 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

on a reasonably fair basis. The result of this process was speedy cooHng of any yearning 
for additional fighting. Quick of comprehension, the allies soon lost confidence in the 
British. At this point the English ofiicers had recourse to the old practice of bolstering 
up the savage courage by another presentation of gifts and by shaming the Indians into 
continued activity by accusations of cowardice. 

After hurriedly completing earthworks at Fort Deposit, Wayne moved his army for- 
ward on August 20 for a decisive engagement with the Indians who were encamped on 
the Maumee near Presque Isle. The following account is taken from Wayne's report of 
the encounter : 

"The legion was on the right, its flank covered by the Maumee; one brigade of 
mounted volunteers on the left under Brigadier General Todd and the other in the rear 
under Brigadier General Barbae. A select battalion of mounted volunteers moved in front 
of the legion commanded by Major Price, who was directed to keep sufficiently advanced so 
as to give timely notice for the troops to form in case of action, it being yet undetermined 
whether the Indians would decide for peace or war. 

"After advancing about five miles Major Price's corps received so severe a fire from 
the enemy, who were secreted in the woods and high grass, as to compel them to retreat. 
The legion was immediately formed in two lines, principally in a close, thick wood, which 
extended for miles on our left and for a very considerable distance in front; the ground 
being covered with old-fallen timber, probably occasioned by a tornado, which rendered it 
impracticable for the cavalry to act with effect and afforded the enemy the most favorable 
covert for their mode of warfare. The savages were formed in three lines within sup- 
porting distance of each other, and extending for near two miles at right angles with the 
river. I soon discovered from the weight of the fire and extent of their lines that the 
enemy were in full force in front, in possession of their favorite ground, and endeavoring 
to turn our left flank. I therefore gave orders for the second line to advance and support 
the first; and directed Major General Scott to gain and turn the right flank of the savages 
with the whole force of the mounted volunteers by a circuitous route ; at the same time 
I ordered the front line to advance and charge with trailed arms and rouse the Indians 
from their coverts at the point of the bayonet, and when up, to deliver a close and well 
directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so as not to give them time to load 
again. 

"I also ordered Captain Campbell, who commanded the legionary cavalry, to turn the 
left flank of the enemy next the river, and which afforded a favorable field for that corps 
to act in. All these orders were obeyed with spirit and promptitude; but such was the 
impetuosity of the charge by the first line of infantry, that the Indians and Canadian 
militia and volunteers were drove from their coverts in so short a time that, although 
every possible exertion was used by the officers of the second line of the legion and by 
Generals Scott, Todd and Barbee, of the mounted volunteers, to gain their proper positions, 
but part of each could get up in season to participate in the action ; the enemy being drove, 
in the course of one hour, more than two miles through the thick woods already men- 
tioned, by less than one-half their numbers. From every account the enemy amounted to 
two thousand combatants. The troops actually engaged against them were short of nine 
hundred. This horde of savages with their allies abandoned themselves to flight, and dis- 
persed with terror and dismay, leaving our victorious army in full and quiet possession of 
the field of battle, which terminated under the influence of the guns of the British garrison. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 35 

"The bravery and conduct of every officer belonging to the arms, from the generals 
down to the ensigns, merit highest approbation. * * * j; must beg leave to mention 
Brigadier General Wilkinson and Colonel Hamtramck, the commandants of the right and 
left wings of the legion, whose brave example inspired the troops. * * * The loss of 
the enemy was more than that of the federal army. The woods were strewed for a con- 
siderable distance with the dead bodies of Indians and their white auxiliaries, the latter 
armed with British muskets and bayonets. 

"We remained for three days and nights on the banks of the Maumee, in front of the 
field of battle, during which time all the houses and corn fields were consumed and 
destroyed for a considerable distance, both above and below Fort Miami, as well as within 
pistol shot of the garrison who were compelled to remain tacit spectators to this general 
devastation and conflagration among which were the houses, stores and property of Colonel 
McKee, the British Indian agent and principal stimulator of the war now existing between 
the United States and the savages." 

Following this battle of Fallen Timber, a sharp correspondence took place between Gen- 
eral Wayne and Major Campbell, in command of the British garrison at Fort Miami. 
The latter remonstrated with Wayne for approaching so closely to the fort but the gen- 
eral's only heed was the issuance of an order for the advance of a reconnoitering party 
which proceeded within ear shot of the fortification. 

After the defeat of the Indians at Fallen Timber, the British seemed less anxious to 
afford them assistance. Wayne destroyed all the villages along the Maumee and as he 
could find no enemy that would stand against him, he retired to Greenville in November. 
There a treaty was signed in August, 1795, by Wayne and the Indian chiefs. The basis of 
the agreement was that hostilities should cease and all prisoners be restored. The Indian 
boundary was defined as follows: "The general boundary line between the lands of the 
United States and the lands of the said Indian tribes shall begin at the mouth of the Cuya- 
hoga river and run thence up the same to the portage between that of the Tuscarawas, 
branch of the Muskingum, thence down that branch to the crossing place above Fort Laur- 
ens, thence westerly, to a fork of that branch of the Great Miami river, running into the Ohio, 
where commenced the portage between the Miami of the Ohio, and St. Mary's river, which 
is a branch of the Miami, which runs into Lake Erie; thence a westerly course to Fort 
Recovery, which stands on a branch of the Wabash ; thence southerly in a direct line to the 
Ohio, so as to intersect that river opposite the mouth of Kentuck or Cuttawa river." Within 
these confines, however, the Indians were allowed certain reservations. 

The comment of General William Henry Harrison, Wayne's aide in the campaign, 
affords additional evidence of the British relationship with the Indians. In a letter dated 
February 17, 1834, to Hon. Thomas Chilton, General Harrison said: 

"That the northwestern and Indian war was a continuation of the Revolutionary con- 
test is susceptible of proof. The Indians in that quarter had been engaged in the first seven 
years of the war as the allies of Great Britain and they had no. inclination to continue it 
after the peace of 1783. It is to British influence that their subsequent hostilities are to be 
attributed. The agents of that government never ceased to stimulate their enmity against 
the government of the United States, and to represent the peace which had been made as 
a temporary truce, at the expiration of which, 'their great fathers would unite with them 
in the war, and drive the long knives from the land which they had so unjustly usurped 
from his red children.' This was the cause of the detention of the posts of Detroit, Mack- 
inac and Niagara so long after the treaty of 1783. The reasons assigned for so doing 



36 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

deceived nobody, after the failure of the negotiation attempted by General Lincoln, Gov- 
ernor Randolph and Colonel Pickering, under British mediation voluntarily tendered. 

"The bare suggestion of a wish by the British authorities would have been sufficient to 
induce the Indians to accept the terms proposed by the American commissioners. * =i= * 
In June, 1794, the Indians assembled at the Miami of the Lake, and were completely 
equipped out of the King's store, from the fort. * * * Qn the advance of the Indians 
they were accompanied by a captain of the British army, a sergeant and six matrosses, pro- 
vided with fixed ammunition, suited to the caliber of two field pieces. Upon the advance of 
the American army * * * the British fort at the Rapids (Fort Miami) was the point 
of rendezvous for the Indians. There the deficiences in arms, ammunition and equipments 
were again supplied ; and there they were fed with regular rations from the King's store 
until the arrival of General Wayne with his army. In the general action of that day there 
were two militia companies from Amherstburg and Detroit. The captain of the cutter, who 
was also the clerk of the court at that place, was found among the killed and one of his 
privates taken prisoner." 



CHAPTER VI. 

Northwest Boundary Dispute — John Jay Envoy to England — Jay's Treaty Ratified — De- 
troit Formally Given into Possession of the United States — Colonel Hamtramck 
Assumes Command — Wayne County Named — Record Concerning General Wa5me 
— Detroit After British Evacuation — St. Clair Appointed Governor of North- 
west Territory — Other Officials — Ordinance of 1787 — ^First and Second Legisla- 
tive Assemblies — Wayne County Representatives — Detroit Incorporated as a Town 
— First Officers' — First Fire Department — Conditions in Formative Period — At- 
titude of British Officers at Fort Maiden. 

While General Wayne was in camp at Greenville preparing for the advance against 
the Indians and British, congress determined to put forth an especial effort relative to the 
adjustment of the northwest boundary dispute. An envoy extraordinary, in the person of 
John Jay, was sent to the court of St. James. His mission was the perfection of a new 
treaty with the London government. Arriving in England in the spring of 1794, he reported 
shortly afterward the flat refusal of the British to evacuate the lake forts. But congress' 
persistence and that of the envoy resulted later in the effecting of an agreement. In 1795 
President Washington ratified what is known as Jay's treaty. This embraced the settle- 
ment of claims arising from the Revolution ; established certain eastern boundaries of 
the United States; and provided that the posts at Detroit, Mackinac, Niagara and other 
western settlements should be turned over to the Americans not later than June i, 1796. 

On June 26, James McHenry, secretary of war, submitted to the president the final 
order for the departure of the British troops at Forts Miami and Detroit. The order was 
given by Adjutant General George Beckwith at Quebec on June 2d, and directed that 
a detachment of the Queen's Rangers should occupy both the above forts between the date 
of the evacuation and the entrance of the Ameiican forces, as a guard, "for the protection 
of the works and public buildings until the troops of the United States are at hand." 

On Monday, July 11, 1796, Detroit was formally given into the possession of the 
new United States. Received at the water's edge by the retiring British, a little cavalcade 
of si.xty-five men, under command of Captain Moses Porter, disembarked from two 
schooners made fast to the pier at the foot of what is now Shelby street. They marched 
to Fort Lernoult, built on the hill where the federal building now stands. There they 
took possession of a richer area than that contained in the original colonies. 

At noon the English flag sank from the staff at Fort Lernoult. In its stead the halyards 
bore aloft a new device. It was one of red and white and blue; an emblem of unity and 
liberty, — the stars and stripes. All the hardship, all the sufferings ; all the unspeakable tor- 
tures endured by brave men and women at savage hands urged on by gifts from his maj- 
esty of England were thus rewarded. Thus was the Northwest Territory born of death and 
suffering and greed, after years of travail and savage warfare in the wilderness. 

At the passage of the Quebec act, in 1774, Detroit was directly under British govern- 
ment; subsequent to 1774 it was a part of the Province of Quebec, until it became part of 
the United States, in 1783. 

87 



& 



38 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

The following British officials were in power in Canada and Detroit between 1760 
and 1796: 

Sir Jeffrey Amherst, 1760-65; Sir James Murray, 1765-66; Paulus Emilius Irving 
(acting), 1766; Brigadier General Guy Carleton, 1766-70; Hector Theophilus Cramahe, 
1770-74; Sir Guy Carleton (2nd term), governor of Quebec, 1774-78; Sir Frederick Hal- 
dimand, governor of Quebec, 1778-84; Henry Hamilton, lieutenant governor of Detroit, 
1775-82; Henry Hope, lieutenant governor of Canada, 1785; Lord Dorchester (Guy Carle- 
ton), lieutenant governor of Canada, 1786; John Graves Simcoe, lieutenant governor Up- 
per Canada, 1792-96; Henry Hamilton, lieutenant governor of Canada, 1784; Jehu Hay, 
Heutenant governor of Detroit, 1783. 

Two days after the arrival of the American force under Captain Porter, Colonel John 
Francis Hamtramck, General Wayne's former aide-de-camp, took command at Detroit pend- 
ing the arrival of his superior. Wayne, who had been made civil commissioner as well as 
commander in chief of the American military, did not reach the post until September. Dur- 
ing the month prior to his arrival. Secretary Winthrop Sargent, who was a staunch 
admirer of the general, suggested that the territory surrounding Lake Michigan be em- 
braced in a single county to be known as Wayne county. This suggestion met with instant 
and general approval and though Governor St. Clair, first governor of the Northwest Ter- 
ritory, later offered strenuous objections to what he termed the presumption of the secre- 
tary, leading citizens brought sufficient pressure to bear, to insure the permanency of the 
name. 

General Wayne remained two months at the Detroit post from which he set sail in 
November for Erie, Pennsylvania. Before arriving at that port, however, he was taken 
fatally ill and finally succumbed shortly after disembarking at Erie. At his request his body 
was buried at the foot of the flagstaff on the parade ground there. Several years later 
it was removed to Radnor, Pennsylvania. 

"Mad" Anthony Wayne was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, January i, 1745. 
He became a surveyor and engineer, and, being interested in philosophy, he gained the 
friendship of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who was later his patron. He joined the army of the 
Revolution in 1775 and became a brigadier general two years later, serving throughout the 
war. Wayne particularly distinguished himself in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown 
and Monmouth. His attack on the heights at Stony Point, defended by six hundred British, 
in July, 1779, is declared to be the most brilliant exploit of the war. Here he led his men 
to victory at the point of the bayonet) capturing the fort and over five hundred prisoners 
without the firing of a gun. 

Wayne is considered to have been one of the most able generals of the Revolution. He 
was irresistible in leading a charge and was a man of great impetuosity, which often 
bordered on rashness. His last campaign was conducted with great caution and skill. 
Though but forty-six years old at the time of his death, General Wayne spent nearly half 
his life in military service for his country. 

From a book of travels in Canada and the northwest, published in 1799, by Isaac Weld. 
who visited Detroit soon after the British evacuation, it appears that the settlement then 
boasted some three hundred houses. "The town," wrote Weld, "consists of several streets 
that run parallel to the river, which are intersected by others at right angles. They are 
very narrow and, not being paved, dirty in the extreme whenever it happens to rain. For 
the accommodation of passengers, however, there are footways in most of them, formed of 
square logs laid transversely close to each other. The town is surrounded by a strong stock- 



t. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 39 

ade, through which there are four gates, two of tliem open to the wharfs, and the two others 
to the north and south side of the town respectively. * * * 

"About two-thirds of the inhabitants of Detroit are of French extraction and the 
greater part of the inhabitants of the settlement on the river, both above and below the 
town, are of the same description. The former are mostly engaged in trade and they all 
appear to be much on an equality. Detroit is a place of very considerable trade ; there 
being no less than twelve trading vessels belonging to it, brigs, sloops and schooners, of 
from fifty to one hundred tons burden each. * * * The stores and shops of the town 
are well furnished and you may buy fine cloth, linen, etc., and every article of wearing 
apparel as good in their kind and nearly on as reasonable terms as you can purchase them 
at New York or Philadelphia. * * * The inhabitants of Detroit and the neighboring 
country, however, though they have provisions in plenty, are frequently much distressed for 
one very necessary concomitant, namely salt. Until within a short time past they had no 
salt but what was brought from Europe, but salt springs have been discovered in various 
parts of the country, from which they are now beginning to manufacture that article them- 
selves. * * * There is a large Roman Catholic church in the town of Detroit and 
another on the opposite side called the Huron church from its having been devoted to the 
use of the Huron Indians. * * * ^j. night all the Indians, except such as get admittance 
into private houses, and remain there quietly, are turned out of town and the gates shut 
upon them." 

After President Washington had ratified Jay's treaty, but nearly two months prior to 
the American occupancy of Detroit, Washington sent the following message to congress: 

"The measure now in operation for taking possession of the posts of Detroit and 
Michilimackinac render it proper that provision should be made for extending to these places 
and any others alike circumstanced the civil authority of the Northwestern Territory. To 
do this will require an expense to defray which the ordinary salaries of the governor and 
secretary of that Territory appear to be incompetent. 

"The forming of a new county or new counties, and the appointment of the various 
officers, wbich the just exercise of government must require, will oblige the governor and 
secretary to visit those places, and to spend considerable time in making the arrangements 
necessary for introducing and establishing the government of the United States. Congress 
will consider what provisions will in this case be proper." 

The chaotic state of affairs relating to the adjustment of the Northwest boundaries 
dispute tended greatly to complicate and delay the establishment of the civil regime in that 
territory. In the absence of definite surveys little was known of the exact extent of vast 
areas that were included with surprising freedom within certain county limits. As a result 
of this, sweeping and frequent changes were subsequently necessitated. Save for that por- 
tion in the immediate vicinity of Detroit, the mapping and settlement of the Northwest 
naturally covered at first the territory adjacent to the Pennsylvania and Virginia settlements. 

The American government having reached the limits of its resources in the conduct of 
the Revolution, congress sought to provide means for the establishment and maintainance 
of a stable government by the sales of lands in the northwest. General Arthur St. Clair, a 
former officer in the colonial army, was then president of congress. He was urged to 
promote such sales, evidently by the promise of a desirable appointment to office in the new 
territory, once it was developed. Associated with him in this exploitation scheme were 
Manassah Cutler and Winthrop Sargent. The two latter men became the representatives of 
the directors of what was known as the New England Ohio Company of Associates. A 



40 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

contract between the board of treasury for the United States of America and Manassah 
Cutler and Winthrop Sargent as agents for this Ohio company was affected in 1787 for the 
purchase of a certain tract within the present bounds of Ohio. The settlement of a part 
of this purchase was commenced in the spring of 1788 and in the same year General Arthur 
St. Clair was appointed by congress to the office of governor of the Northwest. 

Winthrop Sargent was made secretary and at the same time Samuel Holden Parsons, 
James Mitchell Varnum and John Cleves Symmes were appointed judges. The appoint- 
ment of these officers and the closing of the sale to the Ohio Company was, however, not 
accomplished without the enactment by congress of a special act, known as the ordinance 
of 1787, for the establishment of government northwest of the Ohio river: This ordinance, 
according to William F. Poole, a recognized authority on the early history of the north- 
west, was intended to insure the consummation of the Ohio Company's purchase of some- 
thing between one, and one and one-half million acres of land, and was draughted largely 
by Cutler himself. The ordinance contained certain provisions relative to slavery and 
to the establishment of schools within the territory. It also provided for the appointment 
by congress, as need arose, of such executive officers as governor and secretary, the former 
to serve for a term of three years unless previously removed from office, and the latter to 
serve four years under the same condition. Both officers were required to hold land within 
the territory; the governor one thousand and the secretary five hundred acres. 

In as much as the English still held the northwest at the time the first appointments 
were made, the position of the executive was not without its embarrassments. However, 
Governor St. Clair and the judges who, with him, then constituted the legislature, met 
at Marietta, Ohio, in July, 1788, and proceeded to enact such laws as they deemed fitting. 
Subsequent sittings of this embryonic legislature were held at Vincennes and Cincinnati, 
though none of its deliberations, of course, became effective in Detroit until the evacution 
in July, 1796. Provision was made under the terms of the ordinance for the election of a 
general assembly whenever the number of adult free male whites within the territory should 
reach five thousand, one member being chosen for every five hundred citizens. After the 
number of assemblymen so chosen should exceed twenty-five, the assembly itself was given 
power further to regulate the representation. 

In 1 79 1 St. Clair issued the first proclamation calling for the election of the initial 
assembly. The body seems not to have met, however, until eight years later when it con- 
vened at Cincinnati, January 22, 1799. Wayne county was entitled to three representa- 
tives at this session and after two elections, the first of which occurred in December, 1798, 
Solomon Sibley, Chabert de Joncaire and Jacobus Visger were chosen as such representa- 
tives. 

In the meantime. Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, acting under British authority, pre- 
scribed the limits of some nineteen counties, naming that in which Detroit was located 
the county of Kent. Two members, William Macomb and David William Smith, were 
chosen to represent this county in the first legislature under British rule, at an election 
held August 28, 1792. Alexander Grant, also from Detroit, was appointed a member of 
the council. This body convened at Niagara (then called Newark) in September of the 
same year and was followed by four succeeding sessions held annually until and including 
1796. 

With two sets of governors and legislators, one acting under authority of the federal 
government and the other under that of the crow-n; and with a variety of county limits and 
territorial divisions representing the ideas of the opposing executives, the regime in the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 41 

Northwest was naturally characterized by a state of general confusion. Each party was 
supported by strong followings, but neither for a time could lay claim to any organization 
of stability. Finally, however, following the session of what may be termed the territorial 
general assembly at Cincinnati in 1799, an upper council was established. This body was 
made up of five members nominated by the assembly and named by the president, Jacob 
Burnet, David Vance, James Findlay, Henry Vanderburg and Robert Oliver being so 
named. Solomon Sibley was later named to succeed Vanderburg, who lost his member- 
ship upon the establishment of the Indiana Territory, within the limits of which he resided. 
Sibley being at the time of his appointment a member of the legislative assembly, the va- 
cancy in that body caused by his appointment, was filled by the selection of Jonathan 
Schiefflin. 

Of Wayne county's representation at the second assembly Silas Farmer, in his His- 
toT}' of Detroit and Michigan, says : "The delegates from Wayne county at the first session 
of the second assembly, on November 23, 180 1, consisted of Charles F. Chabert Joncaire, 
George McDougall and Jonathan Schiefflin. It is a curious fact, illustrating the principles 
and politics of that day, that Schiefflin and Joncaire, both of whom ser\'ed under Governor 
Hamilton, and joined with the Indians in killing and scalping the white inhabitants in the 
territory, were afterwards elected to represent in the territorial legislature the very regions 
they had ravaged. As late as May, 1797, Jonathan Schiefflin had officially declared him- 
self an English subject, and affirmed that he did not intend to become an American citizen." 

At the second session of the first assembly, convened at Cincinnati, in the fall of 1799, 
both an upper and lower house were formally organized. In accordance with an act of 
congress, Chillicothe was appointed as the meeting place for the next session, held in No- 
vember, 1800. This remained the seat of government until the close of the session of 
1802, when the governor arbitrarily selected Cincinnati as the place of the next meeting. 
This gave rise to a storm of protest on the part of the citizens of Chillicothe and even re- 
sulted in a hostile demonstration against the governor. 

At this session of the assembly, Solomon Sibley presented a petition from the people 
of Detroit asking for the incorporation of the settlement as a town. The petition was read 
to the delegates in January, 1802, and was formally passed as a bill on the i8th of the fol- 
lowing month. It bore the signatures of Edward Tiffin, speaker of the house of represen- 
tatives, and of Robert Oliver, president of the Northwest territorial court, and it was im- 
mediately approved by Governor St. Clair. The bill provided for the election of town officers 
on the first Monday in May, 1802, and named five trustees who were to serve as guardians 
over the affairs of the fledgeling corporation until such election. The town was extended 
officially for a distance of some two miles northward from the river; on the east to the 
westerly line of the farm of Antoine Beaubien ; thence westerly along the river front and to 
the line between what were later known as the Cass and Jones farms. The incorporation 
act directed that only land owners, citizens paying a minimum rental of forty dollars per 
annum and those privileged with what was known as the "freedom of the settlement" 
should be eligible to vote at the elections of town officers, held at the annual town meetings. 

Immediately after the trustees had taken their oaths of office they entered upon a 
strenuous existence of guardianship and execution. Appointments and ordinances fell thick 
and fast. Nearly every citizen possessed of civic ambition found outlet for superfluous 
energies in appointments at the hands of the trustees. A secretary, marshal, assessor, col- 
lector and messenger were chosen to administer the smaller duties of home government, and 
at one of the early meetings of the trustees a suggestion that the new town was in dire need 



42 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

of improved five protection was unanimously approved. A voluminous ordinance was the 
immediate result. On pain of a fine, eveiy citizen possessed of a defective chimney was 
directed to make such repairs as safety required ; provisions were specifically made requiring 
householders to provide themselves with water barrels, buckets and ladders and directing 
that all merchants keep constantly ready for use, large sacks which might be wet and used 
in protecting roofs adjacent to burning buildings. No citizen could hope to retain the 
respect of the community who failed to volunteer his services in case they were needed. 

Five days after the passage of the act of incorporation, the town's first fire department 
was formally organized. A detail of soldiers was named by Colonel J. F. Hamtramck, the 
military commander, to serve as the nucleus of the fire brigade. Various citizens made up 
bucket, axe and battering companies, the latter corps being employed to demolish, by means 
of a log ram, all structures that were hopelessly aflame. 

There being no town hall, the trustees met either in the houses of the members of the 
body or in some tavern. Ordinances followed rapidly as need arose, a market place being 
provided and regular market days established. Inspectors were appointed whose duty it 
was to visit stores and dwellings and to insist on the enforcement of the fire ordinances and 
report generally upon the condition of grounds and structures. 

At the first election, held May 3, 1802, the polls were kept open for but two hours near 
midday. James Henry, George Meldrum, Charles Francis Girardin, Joseph Campau and 
John Dodemead were elected as trustees. The town treasurer and collector were paid 
three per cent, of the moneys collected in fines and taxes, while the marshal and messenger 
were allowed one dollar per diem. 

The days of the town's formative period were replete with all the romance and more 
than the usual elements of the picturesque, generally characteristic of frontier settlements. 
Though the trustees were insistent in regulating the exact size of the loaves of bread sold 
and persisted in prescribing many other minor details, the streets were often given over 
to roisterers who frequented the public houses, and gambled and drank to their hearts' 
content with little fear of interruption. Nearly every one drank to some extent, and many 
of the old ledgers still extant show heavy scores for punch, brandy and wines, bought by 
some of the best citizens. Not until two years after the incorporation of the town was 
Thomas McCrae appointed as the first police officer. His duties, aside from the care of 
wabbly-limbed and exuberant citizens, involved the functions of sanitary officer and fire war- 
den. While he was not thus engaged he was allowed to fill in his time on market days as 
recorder of the market, — all for the munificent consideration of seventy-five cents per day. 

Though the British at Fort Maiden, near the present site of Amherstburg, were sup- 
posedly on good terms with the citizens at Detroit, their action in stirring up the old Indian 
troubles became apparent prior to 1804. The courtesies extended socially to the Americans 
by the officers at Fort Maiden seem to have been inspired by doubtful motives. The trus- 
tees were forced to give heed to an undercurrent of hostility on the part of the savages that 
was so noticeable as to demand serious consideration on the part of every citizen. Sentries 
were not only posted at night, as in the earlier days of the military regime, but additional 
military protection was sought at Washington. Even at that time agencies were at work 
that ultimately led to a final contest at arms with England in the war of 1812. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Change in Boundaries of Wayne County — Ohio Admitted to Statehood — Michigan a Part 
of the Territory of Indiana — Forming of the Territory of Michigan — Boundaries 
of New Territory — First Officers — Detroit the Capital — William Hull, Augustus 
B. Woodward, Frederick Bates, John Griffin — Civic and Social Conditions in 
Detroit — Detroit Destroyed by Fire — Effects of the Disaster — High-handed Rule 
of the Federal Appointees — Work of Rehabilitation — Rebellion of Citizens Against 
Conditions — Distribution of Town Lots — Rights of the People Flagrantly In- 
fringed — Governor Hull Establishes an Army — Popular Protests Against Hull's 
' Despotism — Bank of Detroit Established — History of the Institution. 

By an act of congress dividing the Northwest Territory, a large portion of the present 
state of Ohio was combined with the eastern half of lower Michigan and designated Ohio 
Territory. Of the addition of but the eastern half of the peninsula, "Landmarks of Wayne 
County and Detroit" says: "This (combination) necessitated a change in the boundaries 
of Wayne county, for it could not be extended over two territories, so the eastern portion 
of the lower peninsula, which had been set off as a part of the Territory of Ohio, was 
added to nearly one-quarter of the state of Ohio, the eastern limit being the Cuyahoga river, 
and the southern boundary being placed about one hundred miles south of Lake Erie. 
While this suited the people of Detroit and Wayne county, it did not please the people of 
Ohio. As a result, in the fall of 1800, a section of the lower strip was chopped off from 
Wayne county and added to Ohio proper, so that the eastern boundary was near San- 
dusky. Next year nearly all the territory which is now included in the state of Ohio was 
cut off from Wayne county, and only a narrow strip, including the present site of Toledo, 
was left. The residents of the Ohio region organized a general assembly and began to move 
for a constitutional convention, for the purpose of organizing their section into a state and 
leaving Wayne county out. The Wayne county people and some of the others objected. 
In the fall of 1802 a convention was held at Chillicothe by the people of Ohio, and a con- 
stitution was adopted. In order to make up the requisite number of residents for state- 
hood, the people of Wayne county were counted in, and in March, 1803, the state of Ohio 
was admitted to the Union. Wayne county was then cut off from Ohio and attached to the 
present boundary of Indiana, and the two were organized into the Territory of Indiana." 

After Governor St. Clair had changed the seat of government from Chillicothe to Cin- 
cinnati, at the close of the session of 1802, but prior to the meeting of the next assembly, 
the act of congress established the Territory of Indiana, whose boundaries included all of 
what is now Michigan. 

General William Henry Harrison was appointed governor of Indiana Territory and 
was given authority to call an election of legislative delegates for the new territory. His 
proclamation ordered this to be held in January, 1805, and the ist of the following month 
was appointed as the date for convening the delegates so elected. Owing to lack of facili- 
ties for communication, or to some misunderstanding, Wayne county sent no delegates to 
this session. Before the difficulty could be properly adjusted, a federal enactment, passed in 
June, 1805, relieved Governor Harrison of his jurisdiction over Wayne county. 

43 



44 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

Thomas Jefferson, than whom perhaps no man of his times was more gifted, was presi- 
dent of the United States. The nation, emerging from the chrysahs days of its struggle 
for existence, was spreading untried wings in its first uncertain flights. Washington was 
an isolated marshy village, ridiculed in the capitals of the Old World and an object of the 
scorn of the disgruntled American cities ; but assembled there about the president was a 
group of men of peculiar attainments. There were men of culture, men of courage, men 
of genius, men of honor; but all, scrupulous and unscrupulous alike, were men of insatiable 
ambition. To some of these the west called. 

Cradled between two of the greatest of the lakes in the west, both prairie and forest — 
rich beyond the knowledge of the day, beyond the rosiest dreams of the most visionary — 
awaited the hand of the pioneer. Fortunes were to be gained; great and honorable names 
were to be made ; a powerful commonwealth was to be hewn from the wilderness. Dis- 
satisfied with the conduct of affairs in the Indiana Territory, the people of the lakes were 
ready to carve for themselves a future of their own from the destiny of the northwest. 

In December, 1804, an assembly convened at Detroit. Two men, James May and 
Robert Abbott, had prepared petitions to congress, praying for the establishment of a sep- 
arate territory, to be known as Michigan. The petitions asked that the territory embrace 
all of Wayne county; and this had comprised since 1796 the area to the northward of an 
imaginary line drawn eastward from the foot of Lake Michigan. 

On June 30, 1805, congress passed the act that brought the Territory of Michigan 
into being. A governor and three judges constituted for the new territory a legislature, 
which formally organized within a month from the birth of the territory. 

Michigan then consisted of the area now embraced in the whole of the lower penin- 
sula of the state; the eastern half of the northern peninsula and that portion of the present 
states of Indiana and Ohio which lay north of the line running directly east from the foot 
of Lake Michigan. The eastern confines lay along the Canadian frontier, and this, under 
the Jay treaty, extended from Sault Ste. Marie, to the north of Mackinac island, and thence 
through the center of Lakes Huron and Ste. Claire and along the principal navigable channel 
of the Ste. Claire and Detroit rivers. On the west the territory was limited by a line run- 
ning nearly north and south, through the center of Lake Michigan. 

To govern the territory were named : William Hull, governor ; Stanley Griswold. 
secretary ; Frederick Bates, treasurer, and Augustus B. Woodward, Frederick Bates and 
John Griffin, justices of the supreme court. Among these men the judicial, legislative and 
executive functions of the territory were divided. The federal ordinance of 1787 was 
adopted as the underlying principles of law for the territory. Detroit, the most impor- 
tant settlement, became the capital. 

Of these officers the authors of "Landmarks of Wayne County and Detroit" say: 

"William Hull was a native of Derby, Connecticut, and was bom on June 24, 1753, 
of English ancestry. Young Hull entered Yale College and graduated after a four years' 
course, when he was nineteen. He taught school and afterward studied law at Litchfield, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1775. He was elected captain of a Derby company, * * * 
which proceeded to Cambridge, then Washington's headquarters. * * "^^ It is said Hull 
was a brave soldier, but the only separate command with which he was entrusted was a 
force of four hundred men in an expedition against Morrisania, on the East river near 
Hell Gate, New York. In this affair he did not distinguish himself. * * * ^j. (-j.,g 
conclusion of the war of the Revolution he settled at Newton, Massachusetts, and prac- 
ticed law. * * * In lygi^ he was appointed a commissioner to make arrangements 



DETROIT AKD WAYNE COUNTY 45 

with the British government for a treaty with the western Indians then at war with the 
United States, but nothing came of it. In the same year he was appointed judge of the 
court of common pleas and was also elected senator in the Massachusetts legislature. He 
was a popular man and was re-elected senator every year until he was appointed gov- 
ernor of Michigan Territory, by President Jefferson, on March 22, 1805. In the latter 
position he was appointed for three years and was reappointed for two successive terms. 
When he arrived in Detroit on July i, 1805, he was a little over fifty-two years of age. 

"Augustus B. Woodward, the chief justice or presiding judge, by virtue of his com- 
mission being the earliest, was a native of New York city. He held the position from 
1805, when the territory was created, until 1823, when he was virtually legislated out of 
office, — a period of eighteen years. He commenced to practice law in Washington about 
1795- * * * Personally and judicially the judge was a unique and interesting char- 
acter, and his name and fame are indissolubly connected with the history of Detroit. 

"Woodward had a legal mind of no common order; he had great literary ability and 
fine executive and administrative powers, but his merits as a jurist and legislator were 
obscured by his colossal vanity. * * * No ruler of Detroit was ever so detested by 
the more intelligent citizens, but he nevertheless had many friends. His initiative in law, 
politics and municipal afifairs was generally adopted. Complaint after complaint with 
reference to his official conduct went to congress, signed by the most influential citizens, 
but his influence in Washington was strong enough to enable him to maintain his position 
until an act was passed in congress providing that the people of the territory should elect 
their own legislature in 1824 and thereafter. His experience in trying to be elected dele- 
gate to congress, in which he was defeated twice, showed him that his career in Michigan 
was over. He resigned shortly after the act was passed, and went to Washington, where 
he was appointed judge of the Territory of Florida. 

"Frederick Bates came to Detroit from Ohio in 1797 and engaged in mercantile busi- 
ness, improving his mind in leisure hours by studying law and history. He was post- 
master of Detroit from 1803 to 1806. Official honors then came thick upon him. In 
1804 he was appointed receiver of the Detroit land office; trustee in 1804-5; United States 
territorial judge in 1805-6; and territorial treasurer during the same year. 

"John Griffin, who was territorial judge from 1805 to 1823, was exactly contempo- 
rary with Woodward in that office. He was subservient to Woodward and invariably voted 
with him on the bench." Griffin was judge of the territorial court in Indiana before 
Michigan was formed." 

Detroit, the frontier town, had for its citizens for the most part, men who were not 
perhaps as well versed in les beaux arts as were the governor and judges of the territory. 
The people were still very close to the traditions and institutions of the Old World. The 
general standard of public opinion had not at that time developed into that more generous 
American standpoint from which the rights of individual citizens came, later on, to be 
regarded. Rapidly changing forms of government, repeatedly shifting territorial confines, 
and the peculiar admixture of racial extremes tended toward an unfortunate condition, — a 
condition closely bordering on business, social and political chaos. In this state of confu- 
sion individual rights were freely violated by those possessed of sufficient power and the 
inclination to presume. Affluence and education were natural barriers which, while not 
always superficially apparent, came nevertheless to be tacitly felt in the general undertow. 
Citizens and petty officials alike, were accustomed to the recognition of more or less sharply 
defined lines of social demarkation which placed the common people and a quasi-aristocracy 



46 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

clearly apart. The phenomenal period of industrial advancement which was marked by 
the construction of railroads in the east and by that of the Erie canal, had not opened the 
gateway to the west. Communication with the frontier was still uncertain and difficult. 
The flow of sturdy, stable New England stock, perhaps the most potent factor in the real 
building of this part of the west, had not been started toward Michigan Territory. The 
actual moulders of an irresistible public opinion had not as yet arrived; there was no 
adequate defense against abuse. 

Governor Hull, whose official mistakes can be termed errors only through a most 
generous application of charitable regard, proceeded almost immediately to vie with the 
chief justice in the establishment of a far from desirable record. President Jefferson, swayed 
unduly, it seems, by the intellectual attainments of his appointees, overlooked the necessity for 
sending well balanced, broad-minded officials to the west. Detroit and the territory became 
at once the victims of the arrogance, selfishness and personal vanity of Hull and Wood- 
ward; these men seem to have possessed between them all of these and even more unfor- 
tunate characteristics. Both were soon at loggerheads over petty differences of opinion 
which found origin in smallness and personal pique. 

Of the events facilitating the usurpation of civil rights, perhaps no circumstance was 
more favorable to the officers of the new territory than the great fire of June ii, 1805. 
On that dark day nearly every citizen was made homeless and many saw their entire for- 
tunes swept away in a few hours' time, by the carelessness of John Harvey, a baker. In 
spite of the previous efforts of the trustees to provide against such a possibility, nearly the 
whole town was destroyed. Harvey, it seems, dropped the live ashes from his pipe into a 
pile of hay in his stable. Quickly the building became a mass of flame. Battering rams, 
a decrepit fire engine, the ladder corps and the bucket brigade proved ineffective. Before 
the excited inhabitants could realize their danger, flames leaped from roof to roof across 
the narrow streets. The sparks, drawn high in the air from the central conflagration, fell 
promiscuously, and every citizen was forced to seek his own home in hope of saving some 
part of his property from the general destruction. In somewhat less than five hours the 
stockade and every house and structure within its confines were reduced to smouldering 
ruin. 

News of the disaster gradually reached the east and the Canadian cities, and, though 
money was comparatively scarce, contributions were received from Mackinac, Montreal, 
and other towns. Only a portion of this fund was spent for the relief of the needy, in 
spite of loud protest, and though the population numbered at this time somewhat less 
than one thousand, much suffering resulted from the inability of the neighboring farmers 
to shelter the homeless. Many doubted that the city would ever be rebuilt and sought 
homes at Amherstburg and in the Canadian provinces in the east. 

Shortly after the fire Judge Woodward arrived on the scene, preceding the governor 
by several days. Judge Bates lived here before the fire. Toward the end of June they 
attended an open-air meeting of the citizens held to consider plans for the rebuilding of 
the city. Though neither of the judges had as yet taken oath of office, they were quick 
to offer suggestions. They finally dissuaded the meeting from adopting a plan for a new 
city, based on that of the one destroyed. Both officers urged that the meeting defer all 
action until the arrival of the governor, who was expected momentarily. Governor Hull 
reached Detroit on July ist, and, after a hurried conference with his colleagues, placed the 
arrangements for laying out the city, in accordance with hastily formulated plans, in the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 47 

hands of Judge Woodward. A surveyor was obtained and after many perplexing delays 
actual work was begun. 

On July 2d, the federal appointees formally took their respective oaths of office. On 
that day what is known as the rule of the governor and judges began with a vengeance, — 
a rule of presumption and bullying unequaled before or since that time in the United 
States. 

The people, still stunned by the sudden severity of their losses, were only too willing 
to look to the territorial officials for succor and to accept blindly their advices. In their 
hour of stress the citizens allowed the administration of their affairs to be taken quite 
out of the hands of the regularly elected officers of the corporation. The governor and 
judges, prompt to avail themselves of such a situation, overlooked no opportunity to add 
to their own power and importance. No detail of government, however trivial, escaped 
them. 

As the days lengthened into weeks and still no plans for the new city were forthcom- 
ing, the sturdier of heart began to chafe at the delay. They were tired of their tempo- 
rary shelters, built for the most part of bark and canvas, along the river front. They 
became more and more anxious to hew new homes for themselves from the timber of the 
forests. The governor and judges, however, insisted on carrying out their own ideas, 
regardless of the desires of the people. 

During the time of his residence at Washington, Judge Woodward had been the close 
friend of a French engineer who had assisted in planning the arrangement of the streets and 
avenues of the capital. These plans followed closely those adopted in laying out Ver- 
sailles, whose streets radiated from the palace of the French king, Louis XIV. Wood- 
ward had been much interested in the surveying of the streets of Washington and now he 
persuaded Hull that the great fire had but paved the way for the creation of a new Ver- 
sailles in the western wilderness. Evidently the governor's determination on such a course 
was reached without delay, for he issued an order in September, prohibiting the cutting of 
timber in certain districts. This edict was followed by a direct proclamation to the effect 
that former property bounds would no longer be regarded. Finally Hull announced that 
no new houses could be built until the surveys were completed. 

This meant that those remaining otherwise shelterless were to be forced to continue 
living in their flimsy shanties until it pleased the executive to parcel out allotments of land 
in accordance with his own ideas. Naturally such action resulted in bitter disappointment 
on the part of the citizens and in much severe suffering. Protest after protest brought no 
relief, and with the coming of winter the population was still further reduced by whole- 
sale removals from the town. 

Realizing that they had no legal right to disregard the property rights of those who 
had acquired title to lands in Detroit prior to the great fire, the judges and governor 
proceeded to Washington to secure at least a nominal right for such action. Both Hull 
and Woodward left for the capital in November. Acting as lobbyists, they secured the 
passage of the congressional act of April 21, 1806. This provided for the adoption of 
plans for a new city in accordance with Hull's and Woodward's desires, and for the sur- 
veying of what has been known as the "Ten thousand acre tract," — an area adjoining 
the commons and the old city. 

The act further provided that one lot within the bounds of the new town was to be 
conveyed to every resident over seventeen years of age who resided in the old town prior to 
the fire. Such grants, however, were limited to those who were citizens of the United 



48 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

States. In addition, the governor and judges were empowered with the privilege of selhng 
lots in the "Ten thousand acre tract" for the purpose of obtaining funds for the erection 
of a jail and court house. 

The fact that apparently sufficient funds, derived in accordance with the system of 
taxation, were at the time available for the erection of the public improvements, tends to 
substantiate the boasts credited to Judge Woodward, to the effect that his lobby had been 
most effective in favorably influencing congressional legislation. However much of veracity 
there may have been in these statements, certain it is that the territorial officers were 
openly and collectively charged with conspiring wrongfully to dispossess the people of 
their property claims and drive the inhabitants from the territory. 

With the citizens in general revolt against the prevailing regime, it is not surprising 
that so delicate a transaction as the distribution of hundreds of lots should be attended 
with much dissatisfaction on all sides. This, coupled with the postponement of the adop- 
tion of any definite survey for the new city, proved the last straw. By the time the winter 
of 1806 had passed without the erection of one new dwelling, the inhabitants were well nigh 
driven to virulent anarchy. 

As provided by the federal enactment, the governor and judges sat in the fall of 1806 
as a land board. After due deliberation, which seems to have been devoted to determin- 
ing the best means of producing revenue, the board decided that only inside lots should be 
given away, corner lots being reserved for sale. This proposition met with instant disap- 
proval and within a month an indignation meeting was held by the citizens. Even the 
most arrogant of the officials was forced to realize the extent of the popular disaffection. 
Threatening protests bore fruit in the form of an official request for a counter proposal 
from the inhabitants. 

Toward the middle of October such a plan was presented to the officials and was finally 
adopted. The new arrangement classified the inhabitants at Detroit at the time of the fire 
as those owning lots, those who occupied houses, and those who lived within the town but 
who were not possessed of any real property. Governor Hull took it upon himself to per- 
sonally adjudicate the rights of all claimants and to supervise the distribution of the free 
lots. 

Of this plan Farmer's History of Detroit and Michigan says : "Those persons in the 
first class who had improved their lots subsequent to the fire were allowed to retain the 
land occupied or enclosed by them ; but as the lots, according to the new plan, were in 
some instances larger than they had before occupied, they were required to pay from two 
to three cents per square foot for any excess in size. Towards Christmas the governor by 
agreement * * * located the donation lots; and about New Year every person, male 
and female, who lived in the town when it was burned, and whom the governor judged 
eligible, to the number of two hundred and fifty-one drew their donation lots. 

"About three weeks afterward the board came together, and the governor introduced 
the question 'Whether those who came to Detroit since it was given up to the Americans 
by the British, who had not taken the oath of allegiance, should receive donation lots,' and 
delivered a lengthy speech in favor of said class of claimants. Judges Woodward and 
Griffin also at first inclined to favor giving them lots, but the final decision was against 
such claimants. About two-thirds of the two hundred and fifty-one persons who had 
drawn donation lots but a few days previously were by this decision deprived of them. So 
the farce went on, the people being alternately threatened and cajoled until many of them 
became almost ready to yield their old holdings and leave the territory." 



DETEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 49 

Though the purpose of the congressional act of 1806 was clearly that of alleviating 
the distressed condition of the people of Detroit, all such intent was defeated by the gov- 
ernor. The administration decided that the hoi polloi should have no opportunity of 
acquiring valuable locations. Corner lots and other choice bits of ground were not only 
sold to certain privileged individuals, but the common citizens were forced to accept inside 
lots and whatever crumbs the governor was pleased in his generosity to let fall to them. 

These acts of presumption on the part of the executives were only equaled by similar 
acts in which both the legislative and executive rights of the people were clearly usurped. 
Whenever the executive branch of the government, vested entirely in the governor and 
judges, found itself embarrassed by any regulation limiting its power, a most convenient 
transition was made with bewildering swiftness; the same individuals, adjourning tempo- 
rarily as executives, without leaving their chairs, convened as legislators; any inconvenient 
law was repealed or repaired as best suited the exigencies of the occasion ; the "legislature" 
adjourned and whatever executive business had been originally before the autocrats was 
again taken up under more favorable circumstances. 

While Judge Woodward's elaborate plans for the fashioning of a magnificent city were 
still in progress of development in accordance with his aesthetic ideas, Governor Hull 
decided to carry into execution certain designs of his own. These designs were character- 
ized by details none the less striking than those of Woodward. Hull decided upon the 
necessity of an army. By virtue of his office as governor, he was commander-in-chief of 
militia; and this opportunity for the exercise of authority had been overlooked! In Sep- 
tember, 1805, directions were given for repairing this oversight. Hull ordered the 
recruiting of two infantry regiments and one legionary corps. Aides-de-camp, quarter- 
masters general, colonels, adjutants general, majors, captains, lieutenants, surgeons and 
chaplains sprang into immediate being. Again the town assumed a martial aspect; from 
their own resources the populace were required to contribute to the formation of a body 
of soldiery so equipped as to inspire the country with the grandeur of the governor's ideas. 
Of the Detroit militia, "Landmarks" says ; 

"According to his (Hull's) orders, the privates were directed to clothe themselves in 
long coats of dark blue cloth, the skirts reaching to the knee, and they were to be orna- 
mented with large white buttons. Their pantaloons were to be of the same material for 
winter wear and of white duck for summer. The vests were to be of white cloth all the 
year. Half-boots or gaiters were to be their foot gear, and round black hats, ornamented 
with a black feather tipped with red, were required for head covering. Officers of the 
first regiment were to wear similar clothing, to which was added a red cape for the coat, 
silver straps and epaulettes to designate their rank, and a cocked hat with a white plume. 
The coats were to be faced with buff. Artillerymen were to have coats turned up with 
red, and a red cord running down their trousers, and red plumes. Riflemen were to have 
green uniforms with short coats and the plumes on their hats were to be green. Taken 
altogether, the uniforms required were better adapted for the clothing of a royal body 
guard than for the dressing of a backwoods military corps. They were entirely beyond 
the means of the men who were ordered to purchase them. * * * There was method 
in the governor's madness. The men were ordered to appear on duty in full uniform after 
June I, 1806. 

"Before issuing the order Governor Hull had taken the precaution to stock his store 
with cassimeres, ducks, hats, plumes, silver braid, buttons and epaulettes, and his unforms 
were planned so as to create a sale for this stock and give him a big profit." 



50 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

Of Governor Hull's propensity for so performing his "duty" as to promote at the same 
time his personal welfare materially, one John Gentle, who wrote extensively of the hap- 
penings of the times for a Pittsburg paper, reported as follows : 

"On the 6th day of June, 1806, the people of Detroit were gratified with the pleas- 
ing intelligence that Governor Hull had arrived at Fort Maiden, where he was received 
with a royal salute and every royal distinction due to his high merits as a distinguished 
officer of the United States. The next day he crossed the river to Detroit. * * * He 
brought with him a number of carpenters and bricklayers and a barge of dry-goods, con- 
sisting of clothes, chiefly blue cassimeres, and a quantity of swords, epaulettes, tinsel ware, 
etc. So soon as his shop was put in order for business, he issued his general orders, com- 
manding all the militia in the territory to provide themselves with complete suits of uniform 
clothing, viz. : blue coats, white small clothes for summer, and blue for winter, black hats 
and feathers, short boots and gaiters. The chief of the officers complied with his orders, 
but the soldiers, more from poverty than from contumacy, did not comply. Blue cloth 
could not be got at that time at any of the stores where the people were accustomed to 
traffic and they could not command money to purchase their uniforms at the governor's 
shop." 

This inability upon the part of the rank and file to buy proved a severe disappointment 
to the governor. The extent of his wrath can be imagined when it is remembered that 
the "legislature" had passed a militia law in 1805, requiring military service from every 
male resident between the ages of fourteen and fifty years. From a report made by 
Lieutenant Colonel Philip Chabert de Jonclaire it appears that some six hundred and 
twenty-five men were liable to such service, — a sufficient number, exclusive of officers, to 
give promise of generous returns from the governor's store. This bit of profit it seems 
was too good a thing for a man of the governor's inclinations to let slip, and he accord- 
ingly sought means of forcing the unwilling ones to contribute. 

The most convenient avenue of persuasion lay through the courts, which were con- 
veniently at the service of the governor, who had but recently districted the territory and 
appointed several justices. The militia was again ordered to procure uniforms on pain of 
arrest and imprisonment, — a formidable method of persuasion, considering the fact that 
two of the justices were officers of militia who had themselves been forced to purchase 
uniforms. 

For those who were incapable of obeying the governor's orders there was no avenue 
of escape. Many such persons fell victims to the "law" and were clapped into prison, 
where they seemed quite content to remain. 

Notwithstanding the dispatch of petitions of protest to Washington and the expres- 
sion of dissatisfaction to the territorial officers, a considerable body of uniformed militia 
was enrolled. Many managed to meet the expense of self-equipment. Inspections were 
held, training days established and, as Mr. Gentle informs us, "by means of this bare-faced 
imposition he (Hull) emptied a considerable store of money out of the pockets of the 
people in a direct line into his own." 

During 1806 untoward events connected with America's shipping interests and what 
were considered to be threatening acts on the part of the western Indians gave rise to 
additional alarm at Detroit. War rumors were on every tongue. It occurred to the people 
that an army of fighting men was much more a necessity to the safety of the community 
than the governor's militia. These "pretty soldiers" had become the laughing stock of all 
who were not more seriously affected by the governor's ordere. No one in the territory 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 51 

was aware of any signal ability of the governor as a military commander, and no one had 
much of confidence m his leadership. Those who foresaw the helplessness of the Ameri- 
cans in case need for a real leader should arise drew up the following petition : 

"From the circumstances of our being on a frontier in a double sense, it is peculiarly 
necessary to have an officer of judgment and of military science. This gentleman (Hull) 
has a kind of reputation of that sort, from his having served as a major in the army and 
from having been a general in the militia; but we have enough to satisfy us here that it is 
unmerited. We judge from what we see with our own eyes." 

Supplementing the above and other petitions addressed to President Madison relative 
to Hull's actions, the following presentation was made by the citizens at about this time : 
"In upper Canada African slavery has always existed, and the labor of their slaves is the 
principal reliance of many families on both sides for subsistence. Mr. Hull has counte- 
nanced the runaways * * * 5y embodying them into a military company, and supply- 
ing them with arms from the public stores. He has signed a written instrument appoint- 
ing a black man to the command of the company. This transaction is extremely dishon- 
orable to the government on this side of the river; violates the feelings of the opposite side; 
essentially injures their interests; and eventually injures our own people, by exciting the 
others to retaliate in the same way." 

No one at Washington was inclined to heed these complaints against Hull, it seems, 
and that officer was allowed to continue the farce of his militia establishment unhindered. 
Though the matter of the uniforms threatened to bring trouble from the grand jury, the 
"drills" continued. Reluctant soldiers were dragged from their homes if occasion 
demanded, and forced into line. In indignation Mr Gentle wrote : "The farmers were 
commanded to quit their harvest fields and repair to the city, armed and accoutred with 
pick-axes and shovels, all day, to dig trenches and plant pickets around Brush's farm, 
adjoining the city, without fee or reward, and to stand guard over their lords and masters 
during the silent night, with hungry bellies; whilst their families in the country are 
exposed (if the danger was real) to the scalping knife and their grain to the rot." 

So despotic did the governor finally become in the execution of what he termed the 
militia law, that the executive was brought into an open clash with the secretary of the 
territory, Stanley Griswold. The secretary was accused of inciting certain militiamen to 
insubordination and was arrested and tried before Justices May, McDougall and Smythe. 
Both May and McDougall were militia officers and they accordingly held the secretary to 
his personal recognizance in the sum of one thousand dollars, though Smythe was loud in 
dissenting from such a verdict. Shortly after this, Griswold's term of office expired and 
he left Detroit. 

Thus the autocracy was continued. To make its continuance doubly secure, the terri- 
torial act incorporating the town of Detroit, passed in 1802 by the same body that later 
was responsible for the appointment of the governor and judges, was, in September, 1806, 
set aside by these worthies. This superseding act placed the control of local afifairs entirely 
within the hands of the governor, who was by its provisions empowered with the appoint- 
ment of a mayor. As this latter official was given full powers, and was directly responsible 
to the governor for appointment and continuance in office, nothing could escape Hull's 
watchful dictation. Once such an act became effective, the people were powerless despite 
their indignation. They were allowed to elect an upper and lower town council, to be 
sure; but this blessing proved itself to be limited by so many restrictions that but one such 
election was held until the repeal of the act in 1809. During the year following the latter 



52 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

date the governor and judges had the effrontery to repeal all the laws of the territorial 
legislature and thus to continue their absolute supremacy. 

Of the act of 1806, Mr. Gentle is quoted as having written: "This summer the legis- 
lative board passed a law incorporating the town of Detroit into a city. The governor 
conferred the mayorship upon Solomon Sibley, who advertised the citizens to assemble for 
the purpose of choosing a first and second council, to consist of three members each. 
Accordingly the following persons were elected: First council, Stanley Griswold, John 
Harvey, Peter Desnoyers ; second council, Isaac Jones, John Gentle, James Dodemead. A 
few days after the election Solomon Sibley relinquished his mayorship and Elijah Brush 
was appointed by the governor mayor of the city in his stead. Some time in the month 
of December following the governor and judges were committing some depredations upon 
the streets of the new town, entirely blocking up one, laying it out in lots and disposing 
of them at an enormous price, to the great damage of the adjoining settlers ; and removing 
another street about fifty feet on purpose to make the bank form the corner of the two 
streets and enlarge the avenue to the governor's mansion, to the great damage of the 
principal range of houses in the new town. These flagrant infractions on the rights and 
privileges of the citizens did not fail to attract the attention of the city council. They 
assembled to examine for the first time the corporation law and to ascertain the extent of 
their jurisdiction. But how great was their astonishment when they discovered that the 
whole of the corporation powers centered in the mayor alone. 

"That the election of the councils was a mere mockery and an insult to the understand- 
ings of the citizens will evidently appear from the following extract from the corporation 
law itself: 'And be it further enacted that every bill or act having passed by a majority 
of both chambers before it becomes a law shall be presented to the mayor, and if not approved 
by him shall not take effect or become a law, but shall be returned with his objections to the 
chamber in which it last passed, — there to remain (for here it stopped) in statu quo until 
the day of judgment, without further reconsideration.' But they ought to have added a few 
more words to the following effect : Who shall enter the objection at large on their jour- 
nal and proceed to reconsider it, and if after such reconsideration two-thirds of that cham- 
ber shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other 
chamber, by which it shall also be reconsidered and if approved by two-thirds of them, it 
shall become a law, etc. Then the power of the two chambers would be complete and in 
exact similitude with the power vested in every other body corporate in the Christian 
world. But as the Detroit corporation act now stands, of which the foregoing extract is 
the most important part, I defy the most enlightened age to produce anything so ridicu- 
lously absurd. By it the mayor is clothed with an absolute negative in all cases whatsoever, 
and by it the two councils are clothed with absolute insignificance. They are, if I may be 
allowed the expression, a body without guts. Instead of having power to open one street 
and prevent the removal of another, they have not power to open a hog pen or prevent the 
removal of a hen roost." 

All this, however, was far within the limits of the presumption of the despots. Before 
Governor Hull took oath of office ; before, indeed, he came west to enter upon his duties in 
Michigan Territory, he conceived the idea of establishing for the suffering tradesmen of 
the frontier nothing less than a bank "of deposit and exchange." He even went so far, it 
seems, as to present the matter to certain of his friends in Boston. These persons looked 
with favor on such an enterprise for the upbuilding of trade in the west. Incidentally, it 
was conceived that such an institution might prove itself somewhat profitable to its 
promoters. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 53 

In the spring of 1806, therefore, six Boston financiers asked leave to estabhsh the 
Bank of Detroit, the pioneer of the city's financial enterprises. It was set forth at the 
time that the promoters proposed a capitalization of no less than four hundred thousand 
dollars and, later on, one William Flannigan presented a bond in the sum of fifteen thou- 
sand dollars for the faithful performance of the duties of cashier, "if the bank is organized." 

Evidently agreeable to the satisfaction of the desires of his eastern friends, Governor 
Hull introduced a bill before the territorial "legislature" providing for the chartering of 
such a bank. His bill having been conveniently referred to its sponsor by his colleagues, 
the Bank of Detroit was, after due deliberation, of course, formally incorporated by the 
act of September 19. 

For the subsequent history of this financial stronghold and its relations to the Michi- 
gan territory and to the world in general, we are again indebted to Mr. John Gentle, who 
took particular note of the affairs of his times. Mr. Gentle wrote : 

"In 1805, a few days after Governor Hull and Judge Woodward arrived, the writer 
accidentally stepped into the legislative board while the honorable members were deliber- 
ating on the situation and circumstances of the territory and the measures necessary for its 
future elevation. Judge Woodward said : 'For my part I have always considered these 
territorial establishments at best a most wretched system of government. And the measures 
hitherto pursued by former territorial governments have all proved exceedingly defective. 
We will, therefore, adopt a system for the government of this new territory that shall be 
entirely novel.' Governor Hull then observed : 'Before I left Boston I had a very imper- 
fect idea of this country, but since I arrived I am quite delighted with it. Gentlemen, this 
is the finest, the richest country in the world, but from its remoteness it is subject to many 
inconveniences which it behooves us to remove as speedily as possible. And the first object 
which merits the special attention of this honorable board is the establishment of a bank. 
Yes, gentlemen, a bank of discount and deposit will be a fine thing for this new territory. 
Before I left Boston I spoke to several of my friends on this subject and they were quite 
taken with it and even made me promise to allow them to be connected with it.' A bank, 
said I to myself, a bank of discount and deposit in Detroit? To discount what? Cabbages 
and turnips ? To deposit what ? Pumpkins and potatoes ? Thinks I to myself, These folks 
must either be very wise men, very great fools, or very great rogues. A bank in Detroit, 
where the trade is all traffic and the bills all payable in produce! A bank in the bosom of 
the deserts of Michigan! That will be a novelty indeed! 

"The following fall Governor Hull and Judge Woodward went down to congress and 
during the winter and spring they settled the necessary preliminaries with their Boston 
friends for the establishment of the Detroit bank. Early in the summer of 1806 Gov- 
ernor Hull returned and about six weeks afterward Mrs. Hull and the rest of the family 
arrived, escorted by Mr. Flannigan, cashier of the proposed Detroit bank. He brought 
along some strong iron doors and several tons of bar iron to strengthen the vaults. Mate- 
rials were soon collected, the governor stopped his works, and all his workmen were 
employed to expedite the erection of the bank. 

"Nothing was done that summer and nothing thought of but the bank. Early in Sep- 
tember Judge Woodward and Messrs. Parker and Broadstreet, both proprietors in the pro- 
posed bank, arrived with nineteen thousand dollars in bright guineas of Britain's Isle to 
pay the first installment of Boston shares in the Detroit bank; and they also brought an 
immense cargo of bank bills not filled up. The real capital of the Detroit bank is twenty 
thousand dollars, eight thousand dollars of which has been expended in building the bank 



64 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

and in other contingent expenses. The nominal capital is one million dollars, divided into 
ten thousand shares of one hundred dollars each, eight thousand of which is already 
engrossed by the people of Boston. Towards the last of September, while the principal 
inhabitants of the territory were in town attending the supreme court, a subscription of 
the remaining two thousand shares was opened for a few hours only at Smyth's hotel, by 
Parker and Broadstreet, who informed us that it was not yet decided what the amount of 
the first installment would be; but at the same time assured us that it would not be less 
than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars per share. Being uninformed of its 
object, only ten or twelve shares were taken up at this time. We saw no more of the sub- 
scription until about three weeks afterward. In the interim the legislature met and framed 
a charter for the bank; also a law making it lawful for Michigan Territory to hold shares 
in the bank ; and empowering Governor Hull to purchase ten shares for the Territory of 
Michigan with money from the territorial treasury; and also making the Detroit bank 
notes a lawful tender in all payments wherein the territory was concerned. 

"The bank being nearly completed, the subscription was again offered, not publicly as 
before, but only to a few gentlemen of spirit and enterprise; but the first installment, which 
only three weeks before was not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars, 
was now reduced to two dollars per share; and instead of giving every person an oppor- 
tunity of subscribing, Messrs. Parker and Broadstreet, at one dash, swept off for themselves 
and friends in Boston the fifteen hundred shares which remained after satisfying their new 
converts in Detroit. When Parker and Broadstreet opened the subscription at Smyth's 
hotel they asserted that they did not know what the amount of the first installment would 
be, but assured us that it would not be less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty 
dollars. They knew then that they asserted a falsehood; for they brought just money 
enough with them to pay for the Boston installment at the rate of two dollars per share. 
At the same time they were deceiving the public with fifty dollar installments to prevent 
a general connection. Meanwhile they were busily engaged in sounding the moral char- 
acters of certain individuals whose opposition they dreaded, whose support was indispens- 
ably necessary, and whose virtue, alas, was too flexible to resist the golden allurements of 
the Detroit mint. 

"Having brought matters to a favorable issue, a meeting of the founders and their new 
converts assembled, and appointed Judge Woodward president and William Flannigan of 
Boston cashier. Parker and Broadstreet then embarked for Boston with a small venture 
of one hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars of Detroit Bank notes. The appearance 
of the notes excited the curiosity of the Bostonians, but on inquiring they were given to 
understand that they were very safe notes and that the rich territory of Michigan was 
concerned in them. Agents were also stationed throughout the northern states, who dis- 
posed of immense quantities of them to the unwary, at from ten to twenty-five per cent, 
discount. Not long after the introduction of the notes in New England the following 
remark appeared in the Boston Sentinel, developing the motives of the Detroit bank, sup- 
posed to be the production of Mr. Parker: 'The enterprise the Detroit banking com- 
pany have in contemplation, of which this bank is but a part, involves in it as much public 
advantage as any enterprise that ever was undertaken, viz : the diversion of the valuable 
trade of Canada to the ports of Boston and New York.' Yes, and peddling Detroit bank 
notes through the New England states is the very plan to effect that object. Every lover 
of sport must admire this choice diversion — diverting the cash from the Atlantic states 
into the Detroit bank. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 55 

"The amount of their paper currency circulating here never, until very lately, exceeded 
two thousand dollars, and how even that much got afloat is a mystery, for no person ever 
deposited money in the bank, and no person ever borrowed from them ; neither do I know 
that any notes of hand, bills, or bonds were ever discounted. * * * 

"In the month of March or April, news came to Detroit that Parker and Broadstreet 
had sold their interest in the Detroit bank to a Mr. Dexter, at or near Boston, and it 
appeared by the length of their faces that our Detroit proprietors were somewhat suspicious 
that their late associates had swindled them. Before our mock bankers were entirely recov- 
ered of this shock, a Mr. Latimer, of Presque Isle, arrived and brought on one of the New 
England five dollar Detroit bank notes, which he presented at the bank, but it was refused 
admittance. The week following Mr. Conrad Ten Eyck returned from Albany with a 
small cargo of five hundred dollars' worth of Detroit bank notes, which he purchased from 
one of the agents at or near Albany at twenty-five per cent, discount. He made a tender of 
them at the bank, but to his great surprise the directors refused to discount them. 

"The appearance of Ten Eyck with so much of Detroit paper at first determined the 
directors to shut the bank. On that occasion Governor Hull delivered the following very 
learned oration : 'It is reported there are now in circulation in New England from four 
hundred thousand to six hundred thousand dollars of Detroit paper money, and I believe 
it. It is verj' strange that I was not informed of it before. I assure you, gentlemen, I 
never knew that a single bill of this bank went down the country. This bank business I 
find is one of the damnedest swindles I ever heard of; but,' laying his hand on his breast, 
'thank God, I have no hand in it !' Mon Dieu ! What an example of piety and virtue ! 

"For about three weeks the bank gentry assembled daily, no doubt to deliberate on the 
propriety or impropriety of shutting up the bank. If they shut the bank on the bills from 
below, the report would very soon reach Boston and put a final stop to the circulation of 
bills in that quarter; on the contrary, if they satisfied Ten Eyck, and maintained the credit 
of the bank a few months longer, they would easily dispose of five hundred or six hundred 
dollars' worth more of their paper, which would amply compensate for Ten Eyck's five 
hundred dollars. Accordingly, after a series of consultations, it appears that the latter 
proposition prevailed. The cashier was dispatched with tidings to Ten Eyck to repair to the 
bank and receive the cash for his notes. There were in circulation at that time in Detroit 
and its vicinity seventeen hundred dollars of the Detroit paper currency, and the report 
having gone abroad that the bank refused to discount its own bills, the people crowded 
in from all quarters with their bills, and without any diiificulty received cash for them, 
which was more than they expected. 

"Just at this time the following conversation accidentally took place on the subject of 

the bank : Mr. S , who was one of the largest share holders, said that that 'Parker 

and Broadstreet had acted a very treacherous part, and for that reason the directors were 
determined not to pay the bills that are in circulation below;' but he pledged his word and 
honor 'that no person in this country would be suffered to lose a single cent by the bills 
which had been circulated here.' It was answered, 'How will you avoid payment of your 

own notes? You can surely be compelled by law to pay them.' Mr. S replied, 'We 

never will pay them, neither can we be compelled by law to pay them, unless we please.' Mr. 
S 's observations are perfectly correct, for the Territory of Michigan holds an inter- 
est of ten shares in the bank, and congress, not having the fear of God before their eyes, 
nor the interest of the Detroit Banking company, at the last session, wilfully and malici- 
ously, destroyed the charter of the bank; and every stockholder is now bound for the 



56 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

bank debts to the full amount of his fortune (and that is not much). * * * The ter- 
ritory being a stockholder involves a general interest in the bank, and the property of 
every person therein is bound to these promises for the payment of the Detroit bank notes, 
and no person, agreeably to the laws of the land, being eligible to serve as judge or jury 
or evidence, in processes wherein his interest is concerned, consequently no suits can be 
instituted in this territory for debts due by the Detroit Bank. 

"The people through their grand juries have three different times remonstrated to the 
government of this territory against the illicit connection with the bank, but their respect- 
ful solicitation has been disregarded. 

"The directors say that the intentions of the banking company are honest, their views 
extensive, and their prospect of pecuniary remuneration incalculable ; that the Michigan gov- 
ernment has no concern in the bank, nor the bank with the schemes of government. * * * 
First, — Governor Hull and Judge Woodward, in the spring of last year, while they so- 
journed in the states, spent a great deal of time and a great deal of money, negotiating 
with the good people of Boston and New York, for the establishment of the Detroit bank. 
Still the government have no concern in the bank. Second, — The governor and Judge 
Bates accommodated the bank with two of the most valuable lots in the new town, 
in total disregard of the act of congress and the interests of the people. Still the govern- 
ment have no concern in the bank ! Third, — Although Governor Hull was himself living in 
an old store house he stopped the building of his own mansion, and sent all his workmen 
to expedite the erection of the bank ! Still the government have no concern in the bank ! 
Fourth, — Last September Judge Woodward, in his charge to the grand jury recommended 
this infant bank to their particular protection. Still the government have no concern in 
the bank! Fifth, — The governor and judges made a law incorporating the Detroit bank, 
in utter contempt of a law of congress, in favor of the United States Bank, which says in 
plain terms 'That no other bank shall be established by any future law of the United 
States, during the continuation of the corporation hereby created, for which the faith of 
the United States is hereby pledged.' Still the government have no concern in the bank! 
Sixth, — Judge Woodward is president of the bank. Still the government have no concern 
in the bank ! 

"Seventh, — The governor and judges removed one of the streets forty to fifty feet 
nearer the bank, to make it form the corner of two streets, to the great damage of the 
principal range of houses in the new town. Still the government have no concern in the 
bank ! Eighth, — The governor and judges are proprietors of a few shares publicly, and 
an immense number clandestinely in the Detroit Bank. Still the government have no con- 
cern in the bank! Ninth, — The governor and judges passed a law making it lawful for 
this territory to become proprietors in the bank. Still the government have no concern in 
the bank ! Tenth, — The governor and judges made a law authorizing Governor Hull to 
purchase ten shares in the bank for the territory of Michigan. Still the government have 
no concern in the bank! Eleventh, — Governor Hull did purchase ten shares in the Detroit 
Bank, for the territory of Michigan, without the advice or consent of the inhabitants 
thereof. Still the government have no concern in the bank ! Twelfth, — The people have 
often solicited the governor and judges through the grand juries, and otherwise, to exon- 
erate the territory from its dangerous connection with the bank, but their respectful solici- 
tations are to this day totally disregarded. Still the government have no concern in the 
bank ! Thirteenth, — The governor and judges passed a law making the Detroit bank notes 
a lawful tender. Still the government have no concern in the bank ! Fourteenth, — In the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 57 

winter of last year Governor Hull made a tour through the New England states, sounding 
the praises, as he went, and jingling the unaccountable riches of Michigan, in the listening 
ears of the astonished Yankees. 'Come all to Michigan! It is the richest country, and 
the richest land for raising pumpkins in the world.' Immediately on his return to De- 
troit, he instituted the bank, and shipped with all possible speed to New England an im- 
mense cargo, consisting of one hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars in Detroit bank 
notes, peddling them through the country ever since, and passing them away on the credit 
of the immense riches of Michigan. And yet the government have no concern in the 
bank!" 

Of the connection of Governor Hull and Judge Woodward with the Bank of Detroit, 
the authors of "Landmarks of Detroit" say : 

"In reviewing the circumstances connected with the founding of this, the first mone- 
tary institution of Detroit, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that both President 
Woodward and Governor Hull were not men of integrity. Both were active promoters 
of the fraudulent concern. The latter confessed in an official letter to President Madison, 
in 1807, that eighty thousand dollars to one hundred thousand dollars of the bank's bills 
were sent to agents at Boston. There they went into circulation, scattering all over 
New England, but they were never redeemed at Detroit with the exception of five hundred 
dollars which were redeemed under threat of publicity. * * * Hull and Woodward 
denied receiving any part of the proceeds, but it is contrary to probability that they told 
the truth. * * * When Woodward came to Detroit he was a poor man. * * * 
He certainly acquired money while in Detroit and became a very extensive land owner. 
He was a rich man when he left the city, yet he never engaged in trade nor in any visible 
business save the purchase and sale of land, and his sales did not aggregate a tithe of his 
wealth." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Woodward Code — Judicial Districts in the Territory — Early Courts — Judge James 
Witherell — First Printing Press in Detroit — Efforts to Separate Legislative and Ju- 
dicial Departments of Territorial Government — Conditions Leading up to the War 
of 1812 — Renewed Alliances Between British Agents and the Indians — Tecumseh, 
the Indian Leader — Battle of Tippecanoe. 

Under a code of laws adopted by the governor and judges during the first year or two 
of their service — a compilation known as the Woodward code — Michigan Territory was 
divided into three judicial districts. Courts were established in each of the districts of 
Mackinac, Huron and Erie and had jurisdiction in both civil and criminal procedures, save 
those processes of so petty a nature as to fall within the province of the justices of the 
peace. The sessions of the Huron and Detroit district court were held at Detroit, following 
a proclamation providing for its establishment issued July 3, 1805. 

As the people had become disgusted with the executive efforts of the governor, so they 
became dissatisfied with the procedure of the judges and governor acting as legislators and 
jurists. From the records of the times it is evident that little heed was given by the terri- 
torial officials to any principles of justice in the conduct of affairs. Court proceedings were 
characterized by the most unusual practices. Though the grand juries had repeatedly con- 
fronted both Hull and Woodward with alleged irregularities, nothing definite was at first 
accomplished in way of remedies. Upon the withdrawal from the territory of Judge 
Bates, President Jefferson appointed James Witherell as his successor. In this appointment 
the people were more fortunate. Witherell, who assumed the duties of his position in April, 
1808, was an honest man, and possessed of sufficient courage to prove himself a thorn in 
the flesh of his colleagues. Usually he stood with Hull as opposed to Woodward and 
Griffin, in cases of executive division. 

Despite the apparent uselessness of their deliberations, the grand juries began to be 
troublesome to the officials of the territory following Witherell's appointment. This fact 
and the circumstances incident to the rivalry and ill feeling between Hull and Woodward 
constituted almost the sole defense of the people against the high handed practices of the 
governor and judges. In 1809 the grand jury, of which George Hoffman was foreman, 
made so bold as to present an official accusation against Hull. One Whipple, a former 
army officer and a friend of the governor, had called Judge Woodward a rascal, following 
litigation in which Whipple had been unsuccessful. For this the offender was promptly 
brought to trial by Woodward and was convicted, the court assessing a fine of fifty dollars. 
Hull remitted the sentence of the court, thus straining to the breaking point his relations 
with Woodward and incurring much popular censure. It was generally conceded that the 
governor's act was one of personal spite. Public indignation found expression in this formal 
accusation from the grand jury : "History, the record of facts, shows that under every form 
of government, man, when vested with authority, from the weakness and imbecility of his 
nature has a strong propensity to assume powers with which he is not legally clothed. Fully 
persuaded of this truth from reflection and observation, we, the grand jury for the body of 

58 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 59 

the Territory of Michigan, after having heard witnesses and a free and impassionate dis- 
cussion and consideration of their testimony, on our oath present that William Hull, governor 
of this territory, did on the 27th day of February, 1809, illegally and vi^ithout any color of 
authority, sign an instn:ment in writing as said governor of the territory, remitting the fine 
of fifty dollars imposed on Whipple * * * and we, the said grand jurors, have a con- 
fident hope that the supreme court will carry into effect their own judgment." 

This document was one of the first to be printed on the first printing press brought to 
Michigan Territory. It was widely circulated among residents of the city and was even 
posted on trees and about taverns and public places, somewhat to the governor's chagrin. 
Wherever his excellency was pleased to go, the noxious notice met his eye. 

The formal accusation was significant in that its actuating cause was the last straw 
under which public forbearance seemed about to refuse to stagger on. This act of the gov- 
ernor's incited the most calm of the citizens to insist that the legislative and judicial depart- 
ments of government be permanently divorced. In October, 1809, a committee consisting 
of Solomon Sibley, Judge Woodward, George Hoffman, James May and James Henry, met 
at the house of one of its members, with an organization of citizens by which it had been 
named. The committee had been appointed for the purpose of inquiring into the legality of 
the ordinance of 1787 on which the laws governing the territory were supposed to have 
been based. For the publication of the following resolutions, which the citizens' organization 
adopted, the new printing press was again brought into service : 

"That it is expedient to alter the present form of government of this territory and to 
adopt a form of government by which two bodies, elected annually by the people, should make 
the laws, instead of the executive and the three judicial magistrates, appointed by the gen- 
eral government, adopting them; the first to consist of five representatives, and the sec- 
ond of three councillors; the executive to have a qualified veto, under such modifications as 
congress in their wisdom may think proper to provide. 

"That the congress of the United States be respectfully solicited to appropriate the sum 
of six hundred dollars annually towards defraying the expenses of the territorial legisla- 
ture, constituted on the foregoing principles. 

"That it is expedient that the people of this territory should be represented in the con- 
gress of the United States by a delegate to be elected by the people." 

Though these resolutions were presented in congress early in 1810, by Peter B. Porter, 
it was not until nine years subsequent to the latter date that Michigan was so represented 
by a delegate in the congress of the United States. The resolution assumed the form of a 
petition and is of particular interest, inasmuch as it may be said to have been the first effec- 
tive step of the citizens in attempting to throw off the yoke of political abuse under which 
they had been galled from the time of the birth of the territory. Reassured by their own 
boldness in this matter and by the evident concern it occasioned the governor, a subsequent 
grand jury attacked the acts of all four of the territorial officials, in 1810. So popular did 
this practice on the part of the people become, indeed, that it is probable that the rule of 
the governor and judges would have been overthrown with comparative dispatch had not 
the nation's final struggle with Great Britain intervened to claim the public attention. 

Though Mad Anthony Wayne had wrested the northwest from English greed, his 
majesty the king was not disposed to allow an upstart government in the western world 
to balk the royal will without some punishment. Characteristic Yankee energy had begun 
to push the American flag and the American carrying trade into the ports of the world. 
Rich cargoes from the Indias and from European ports were traversing the seas in Yankee 



60 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

bottoms. Rich prizes were to be had for the taking on every hand and as the young govern- 
ment was innocent of naval defense, the taking of its merchantmen and the harassing of its 
foreign trade were shining marks for British vengeance. Sailor citizens of the United 
States were impressed into the British service and subjected to a quasi-slavery by brutal 
sailing masters, under the pretext that no English born individual could expatriate himself 
at will. Indignity after indignity was suffered by the American flag. That a "sailors' 
war" should follow was inevitable. 

Naturally the young government was much concerned in the occurring of events of 
international magnitude that at the time made for some serious doubt as to the very continu- 
ance of the colonial federation ; and these circustances were no doubt largely responsible 
for the seeming oversight of abuses obtaining in the west. 

Reports of impressment and "right of search" were sent westward from the Atlantic 
seaboard. Simultaneously equally startling revelations went eastward in exchange, chron- 
icling a general state of imeasiness over the Indian situation in the west. From all appear- 
ances it was evident that the old and well known British practice of employing Indian sav- 
agery in inducing American tracticability, was again about to be employed. 

Apparently the English were to have the advantage of finding an Indian leader ready 
to appreciate their presents and to understand clearly their attempted subtle urgings. This 
man was Tecumseh, an Indian leader who has been frequently likened to his predecessor, 
Pontiac. Indeed, Tecumseh's imagination embraced a plan of Indian confederacy similar 
to Pontiac's former enterprise. Drake's memoir of this celebrated chief says : "Pucke- 
shinwa, the father of Tecumseh, was a member of the Kiscopoke, and Methoataske, the 
mother, of the Turtle tribe of the the Shawanoe nation. They removed from Florida to 
Ohio about the midde of the last (eighteenth) century. The father rose to the rank of 
chief and fell at the battle of Point Pleasant, 1774. Tecumseh was born at Piqua, Ohio, 
about the year 1768. When seventeen years of age he manifested signal prowess in an 
attack on some boats on the Ohio near Limestone, Kentucky. The boats were all captured 
and all in them killed except one person who was burned alive. Tecumseh was a silent 
spectator, never having before witnessed the burning of a prisoner; after it was all over he 
expressed his strong abhorrence of the act and by his eloquence persuaded his followers 
never to burn any more prisoners." 

Following this incident his influence over his followers increased to such an extent that 
he rose rapidly in the favor of his tribe. His subsequent respect for the valor of the whites 
originated in the battles occurring prior to that at Fallen Timber during Wayne's cam- 
paign in the west. Three years after his tribe had made him chief, in 1795, Tecumseh 
went into Indiana to live among the Delawares. He established his lodge on White river in 
that state, and began to extend his influence rapidly among other tribes. Through the 
influence of his brother Laulewasikaw, the prophet, a large village of Shawanoes was estab- 
lished at Greenville, Ohio, in 1805. Here the prophet began that famous career of sorcery 
that later made him a man of great influence with his people and a source of constant danger 
to the settlers. 

At this time comparatively little of the land in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan had legally 
passed out of the hands of the Indians. Both Governors Harrison and Hull were seeking 
to acquire title to the Indian lands in their respective territories, but save for the somewhat 
meager results of their efforts, the savages owned practically all of the country not in- 
cluded in the treaties of Greenville. Notwithstanding this fact, however, white settlers 
made a common practice of appropriating such of these lands as they needed and even dese- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 61 

crating the Indian burial grounds. Naturally the Indians were quick to respond to this 
unfortunate antagonism. This tendency did not escape the eyes of the British agents. The 
time was opportune for well directed gifts ; and these were readily forthcoming. 

Incidentally it was suggested to the savages by English envoys that the Americans 
were robbing the rightful owners of their choicest hunting grounds, a fact easily verified. 
As in the days of Pontiac, Indian runners began to pass to and fro between the various 
tribes. Tecumseh himself actively exploited a propaganda of confederation. The prophet 
was active in working on the superstitions of his brothers. Such were the circumstances 
which led Governor Harrison to make energetic efforts towards defense. Of these events 
Henry Howe has written: "In the spring cf 1808 Tecumseh and the prophet removed to 
a tract of land on the Tippecanoe, a tributary of the Wabash, where the latter continued 
his efforts to induce the Indians to forsake their vicious habits, while Tecumseh was visiting 
the neighboring tribes and quietly strengthening his own and the prophet's influence over 
them. The events of the early part of the year 18 10 were such as to leave but little doubt 
of the hostile intentions of the brothers. The prophet was apparently the most prominent 
actor, while Tecumseh was in reality the mainspring of all the movements, backed, it is sup- 
posed, by the insidious influence of the British agents, who supplied the Indians gratis with 
powder and ball in anticipation perhaps of hostilities between the two countries, in which 
event a union of all the tribes against the Americans was desired. * * * in August he 
(Tecumseh) having visited the governor at Vincennes, a council was held at which, and a 
subsequent interview, the real position of affairs was ascertained. 

"In June of the year following (1811) General Harrison sent a message to the Sha- 
wanoes bidding them beware of hostilities, to which Tecumseh gave a brief reply, promis- 
ing to visit the governor. This visit he paid in July, accompanied by three hundred fol- 
lowers, but as the Americans were prepared and determined, nothing resulted and Te- 
cumseh proceeded to the south, as it was supposed, to enlist the Creeks in the cause." 

Nevertheless Harrison determined to increase his forces. After warning the Indians 
that they must observe the provisions of the treaty of Greenville to the letter, he at once 
proceeded to break up the establishment of the prophet. Having further recruited his forces 
and received reinforcements, Harrison proceeded to a point on the Wabash river, some 
sixty miles above Vincennes in October. There he built Fort Harrison, near the site of what 
is now Terre Haute, Indiana ; and there in the following month he was victorious in a 
brilliant action with the Indians, known as the battle of Tippecanoe. The prophet had promised 
victory for his brothers in this battle. Its adverse results to the Indians spelled the loss of 
popularity and power for the prophet and were conducive to the temporary cessation of hos- 
tilities along this part of the frontier. 



CHAPTER IX. 

(CONTRIBUTED BY C. »L BURTON.) 

War Declared Against England, June 18, 1812 — Hull Appointed Brigadier General — Raising 
of Volunteers — Failure to Notify Hull of Formal Declaration of War — Packet 
"Cuyahoga" Captured by the British — Militia Companies in Detroit — Arrival of 
Hull and His Army — Preliminary Operations in Canada — British Capture Fort 
Mackinac — Hull Delays Attack on Fort Maiden — Van Horn's Command Attacked 
by Indians — British Learn Plans of Operation — Hull Retires From Canada — Battle 
of Monguagon — Brock Assumes Command of British Forces — Americans Retreat 
from Sandwich — Brock Demands Surrender of Detroit — Hull Refuses and Detroit 
is Bombarded — British Forces Cross the Detroit River — Hull's Letters to Brock — 
Surrender of Detroit by Hull — Articles of Capitulation — Captured Officers Taken 
to Montreal. 

On June i8, 1812, while Governor Hull was absent from the Territory of Michigan, the 
United States declared war against England. In spite of the embargo and repeated pro- 
tests against continued outrages on American shipping by the British admiralty, the final 
breach between the two countries opened even more widely. The war is directly attrib- 
utable to the indignity suffered by the American ship "Chesapeake" at the hands of the 
British ship "Leopard," off the Virginia coast. 

The list of grievances against Great Britain had been, it will be remembered, accumu- 
lating for ten years, Although it was well understood for several years before the final 
declaration, that war must sooner or later follow, the country was not prepared for the 
event when the time arrived. Within the limits of the present state of Michigan there were 
two fortified posts of importance, — Detroit and Michillimackinac. The latter post was lo- 
cated on the island of Mackinac, situated on the strait between the two peninsulas of 
Michigan, and was under the command of Lieutenant Porter Hanks, with a force of fifty- 
seven effective men and officers. Fort Lernoult was within the limits of the Detroit post, 
and at the time of the declaration of war contained Major Whistler's company of infantry 
and Captain Samuel Dyson's company of artillery. 

Governor Hull was called into frequent consultation with the president at Washington, 
and the subject of the expected war was uppermost in their interviews; plans for raising 
forces for the protection of the northern frontier were fully discussed. At first Hull de- 
clined an appointment as brigadier general, which would place him in command of the army 
of the northwest, but he finally consented to accept the appointment. In April, 1812, the 
newly made general set out for Detroit. Descending the river Ohio, he reached Marietta 
May 3d, and Cincinnati May 8th. At the latter place he met Return J. Meigs, who had 
been enlisting volunteers for the army to accompany Hull to Detroit. A draft of ten com- 
panies was rendezvoused at Dayton. Volunteers from Kentucky poured north across the 
Ohio to supplement this force. Three companies of Ohio volunteers were formed to still 
further swell these numbers. Though the country had been engaged in various wars for 
years; though the men of the west had borne the brunt of the Indian fighting on the fron- 
tier, everyone was anxious to help defeat the British. 

62 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 63 

At Dayton Hull met, on May 23d, twelve hundred men, comprising the three militia 
regiments of volunteers. The field officers of these troops were : Duncan McArthur, col- 
onel , and James Denny and William A. Trimble, majors of the First Regiment ; James Find- 
lay, colonel, and Thomas Moore and Thomas Van Horn, majors of the Second Regiment; 
Lewis Cass, colonel, and Robert Morrison and J. R. Munson. majors of the Third Regi- 
ment. Colonel Meigs, governor of Ohio, turned over the command of these troops to Gen- 
eral Hull on the 25th of May, and on the ist of June they marched to Staunton. At Urbana, 
on the loth they were joined by the Fourth Regiment of United States regulars, consisting 
of about three hundred men. From Urbana to Detroit, a distance of some two hundred 
miles, a pathway had to be cut through nearly unbroken forests. The line of march as 
laid down on a modern map shows that Hull passed through Urbana, Kenton and Fort 
Findlay, and reached and crossed the Maumee river near the falls, not far from where the 
battle of Fallen Timber had taken place in 1794. 

Proceeding down the northerly bank of the Maumee to a point near the present site of 
Toledo, Hull took a direct course to Monroe, or Frenchtown as it was then called, on the 
river Raisin, and thence proceeded along the line of the government road, — probably at 
that time an Indian trail, — hugging the shore line of the Detroit river until he reached De- 
troit. On the way, four block houses were built, in which were left the invalids and a few 
soldiers for the protection of convoys. 

Although there is so'.ne evidence to the contrary, there seems to have been an inexcusa- 
ble delay on the part of the Washington government in notifying Hull of the declaration of 
war. While warlike preparations were openly being made, no formal advice that war ex- 
isted had been issued and until that notice was given, either side was at liberty to proceed 
about its own affairs without fearing to be molested by the other. As before stated, the 
declaration was dated June i8th, and notice was at once given to the British officials. They 
made haste to convey the news across the border and the soldiers in the various garrisons 
as well as the militia officers were notified as quickly as special messengers could convey 
the news to them. On the other hand, the president trusted to the slow movements of 
the mail carriers to give to Hull the notice that was of more importance to him than to any 
other American. When Hull was at Findlay, Ohio, he received a letter announcing that 
war would soon be declared. This letter was dated June i8th, the very day that the dec- 
laration of war was issued, but the letter did not convey that news to him nor inform him 
when he might expect it. 

Hull proceeded with his army and was well on his way to Detroit before the letter con- 
taining the official news of the declaration of war reached him, on July 2d. The letter 
that Hull received at Findlay did not convey news of great importance but was sent by 
special messenger, while the other letter, containing news of the greatest possible impor- 
tance, reached Cleveland in the ordinary mail, and might have remained there several days 
longer had it not been ior a young attorney named Charles Shaler, who was hired to 
take the letter forward, for the consideration of thirty-five dollars. This inexplicable de- 
lay resulted in a serious loss to Hull. 

There was a small force of British regulars and quite a force of Canadian militia 
stationed at Maiden, as the fort at Amherstburg was called, at the time Hull crossed the 
river Maumee. This British force was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel T. B. St. 
George. He had been informed of the declaration of war and was on the lookout for the 
approach of Hull's army. When the latter reached the Maumee river, he employed a small 
packet, called the "Cuyahoga," Captain Chapin, to carry his luggage and some sick sol- 



64 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

diers up the river to Detroit. At this time Hull did not know that war liad been declared. 
When the packet undertook to pass between Fort Maiden and Bois Blanc island, it was 
easily captured by the British soldiers. Its officers were made prisoners and the luggage 
was ransacked. In the luggage was a dispatch box containing the private letters and in- 
structions of Hull and the plans for his future work; the possession of these gave informa- 
tion of much importance to the British. 

Hull pushed on with his troops, but his progress was greatly delayed by rains and bad 
roads. It was not until the 7th of July that he reached Detroit. On the 6th of July, at 
about the time the troops reached the river Rouge, Hull sent Colonel Cass and Captain 
Hickman, Hull's son-in-law, to Colonel St. George at Amherstburg, with a note demand- 
ing the return of the baggage captured on the "Cuyahoga." He also suggested the com- 
pletion of an understanding for the exchange of prisoners. The captured baggage was not 
returned. 

In anticipation of the declaration of war, the citizens of Detroit had made some prep- 
arations for arming the militia. There were many men living in the place who had taken 
active part in the Revolution, and their ardor was not abated by the trials they had passed 
through. Their desire now to punish England for her constant insults and aggressions 
since the close of that war, revived their spirits, and they enrolled themselves in militia 
companies and were drilled, preparatory to the conflict that for years had seemed to be in- 
evitable. A committee of safety was chosen and a popular subscription was started to obtain 
funds to purchase a supply of powder to be distributed by the committee. Hull, as governor, 
was also commander of the militia and in his absence such duty fell upon Reuben Att- 
water, secretary of the territory and acting governor. James Witherell, one of the judges 
of the supreme court, was appointed major in command of the detachment of militia raised 
at the rivers Huron, Raisin and Maumee. A troop of cavalry and a company of infantry 
were organized at Detroit, and a three-gun battery was erected close by the military store 
on Jefferson avenue, near the present Wayne street, on the bluff that overlooked the river. 
Other officers of the militia, George McDougall, Solomon Sibley and Elijah Brush, were 
present with their companies to welcome Hull with his army on his arrival, and to put 
themselves under the command of the general. The soldiers spent a few days resting and 
employed themselves in cleaning and repairing their arms, and getting ready for active 
work. Early in the morning of the 12th of July, the army passed along the river road to 
the eastward of the village and crossed the river at Belle island, to the Canadian shore, 
meeting with no opposition. 

The Canadian militia had been summoned to the aid of the regulars and had gathered 
at Maiden and Sandwich. At the latter place there were four hundred and sixty men 
under Colonel James Baby and Mathew Elliott. These were supported by a detachment of 
regulars. In addition to troops at Maiden there were, as allies, between two and three 
hundred Indians under command of the chief Tecumseh. The militia were but partly 
armed. They had left their farms at the call of their officers, but were impatient to return 
to their homes and harvests. 

St. George, who was in command of the troops and militia, did not have a very high 
opinion of the latter. In his letter of July loth he says that if the Kent and Essex coun- 
ties' militia continue to be so much alarmed as they then were, he would withdraw them 
from Sandwich to Maiden. Continuing he writes : "I am at present so disagreeably sit- 
uated from the prevailing disposition of both officers and men. that I have no doubt in an 
attack on Sandwich, which the enemy appears to be preparing for, the force there will be 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 65 

obliged to retreat to this place (Amherstburg) before that happens, which would throw the 
militia into a state of confusion liable to disorganize the whole body. Before it is too late 
I shall most likely think it incumbent on me to bring them down to this place, and make 
the most of them — perhaps they will show a better spirit when they have a larger body of 
regulars to set them an example." 

Immediately upon seeing Hull cross the river the Canadian militia withdrew to Am- 
herstburg, taking with them all the cattle and provisions that could be found, Mr. Francis 
Baby having been commissioned to carry off everything that might assist the Americans if 
captured by them. The Canadian militia began to desert the army in large numbers and 
St. George reported a few days later that only four hundred and seventy-one men were 
left. These were in such a state as to be entirely inefficient in the field. 

General Hull was now ?.t Sandwich and took possession of Mr. Baby's house as his head- 
quarters. Intrenchments were thrown up, and batteries were erected along the line towards 
Maiden. Hull issued a proclamation promising protection to the Canadians and directing 
them to remain in their houses. The proclamation is dated July 13th, and Lewis Cass claimed 
to be its author. Hull's army at this time, as reported in "Defense of General Dearborn." 
consisted of 2,075 soldiers as follows : 

Fourth regiment of infantry 483 

Colonel Findlay's regiment of volunteers and militia 5°9 

Colonel Cass' regiment of volunteers and militia 483 

Colonel McArthur's regiment of volunteers and militia 55^ 

Colonel Sloan's troop of Cincinnati light dragoons 48 

Total 2,075 

Hull claimed, however, shortly after his surrender, that but fifteen hundred men passed 
with him into Canada, and that none of the Michigan militia, and only a portion of the Ohio 
militia, would cross the river. In his proclamation Hull threatened to put to death any 
white man of the Canadians, found fighting by the side of an Indian. The proclamation 
quickly circulated among the Canadians and found its way to the militia assembled at 
Maiden. Assured that their lives and property would be protected in any event, the 
militia hastened to leave for their homes. A letter from Mathew Elliott, the British Indian 
agent, explains the situation as follows: "Their proclamations have operated very power- 
fully on our militia (who had come forward with as much promptitude as could have 
been expected). Since their issuing our militia have left their posts and have returned to 
their homes, so that since Sunday the number is reduced to about one-half, and I expect 
that in two or three days more we shall have ver\' few of them at the post. We expect to be 
attacked to-day or to-morrow. The Indians with us are between three and four hundred, 
who have resisted every allurement which General Hull lay before them. Tecumseh has 
kept them faithful — he has shown himself to be a determined character and a great friend of 
our government." 

Hull did not proceed at once to attack Maiden as predicted by Elliott. A council of 
officers decided to wait until preparations could he made for heavy ordnance. Work was 
begun for this purpose, and continued till August 5th. Not to keep the American forces 
idle in the meantime. Colonel McArthur was sent with a detachment to the river Thames 
(La Tranche) to secure some flour and other provisions belonging to the British. He 
returned with a quantity of goods for which he had given receipts. Hull had given com- 
mands forbidding his soldiers to take anything from the Canadians, but his official seizure 



66 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

of supplies from McGregor, Baby and David, three Canadian citizens, was in retaliation 
for the taking of the baggage captured on the "Cuyahoga" by the British. 

Colonel Cass, with two hundred and fifty men, went down the river to reconnoitre 
and to determine the enemy's position. On reaching the river Canard, he found the bridge 
that spanned tlie stream gxiarded by British troops. By ascending this river for some dis- 
tance he was able to ford it, and with a part of his force he returned on the other side 
and drove the guard back to Maiden, taking possession of the bridge and thus opening a 
road to that place. 

The delay of our government in neglecting to notify the frontier posts of the declara- 
tion of war caused a serious disaster at this time. Lieutenant Porter Hanks was in com- 
mand of the fort at Mackinac. He was in entire ignorance of the existence of war. Cap- 
tain Charles Roberts, in command of the British post. Fort St. Joseph, was better informed, 
however, and planned to capture Fort Mackinac. With three hundred and twenty men, 
Canadians and Indians, Roberts took the Mackinac post by surprise. His expedition 
crossed the island, dragging a six-pound gun. The attack was made on July- 17th and a 
flag of truce was sent to the fort, demanding its surrender. Lieutenant Hanks felt com- 
pelled to yield, as he was unable to resist the threatened assault. The fort fell into the pos- 
session of the British without the firing of a shot. John Askin, Jr., in command of the In- 
dians, reported that had the Americans resisted, not a soul would have escaped the hatchet. 
Lieutenant Hanks and his fifty-seven men were paroled and sent to Detroit, where they were 
again captured a month later. 

Lieutenant Colonel St. George had, according to the report of July 30, 181 2, four hun- 
dred and seventy militia and tiiree hundred regulars at Fort Maiden. The militia continued 
to desert and those that refnained could not be depended upon. The fort was in poor con- 
dition, but had twenty pieces of ordnance. It was believed that Hull would attack the 
place at once, and every effort was made to put it in condition to resist him. An armed 
ship, the "Queen Charlotte," was used by the British to guard the bridge at the river 
Canard, over which the Americans would be forced to march in attacking Maiden. In 
order to advance, Hull endeavored to drive off the "Queen Charlotte" and set about build- 
ing floating batteries heavy enough to attack the ship. Three such batteries were begun and 
two of them were completed. At this time a foraging party under Captain Robert Forsyth 
captured a large drove of cattle and sheep, at Baldoon, on the river St. Clair. At Hull's 
trial by court marshal it was was alleged that these supplies were given the general as a 
reward for his perfidy in surrendering Detroit. Colonel Cass testified to the recapture of 
the sheep at the surrender of Detroit. 

St. George was superseded by Colonel Henry Procter, who arrived at Maiden July 
26th, with reinforcements of about three hundred regulars. On August ist news was re- 
ceived at Detroit of the fall of Mackinac. There was an occasional skirmish with the Brit- 
ish and Indians but no decisive battle took place, nor was there any effort made to pro- 
ceed against Maiden with the army. A spot for the erection of a picket fort was chosen 
near Sandwich and work was begun under the supervision of Colonel John Anderson. A 
few days after the receipt of the news of the fall of Mackinac the officers in Hull's army 
were called in council and it then appeared that the floating batteries and the heavy guns 
would be ready, soon, for an attack on Maiden. Although the officers were anxious to 
make the attack at once, Hull was not confident of success and was afraid that his defences 
on the American side were in great disorder. Again he delayed. Hull's dispatches to the 
secretary of war, fell into the hands of the British, a habit they seem to have acquired. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 67 

Thus the enemy were given full knowledge of the situation of the American army. Hull 
stated in these dispatches that the council of officers had determined that it was not advisable 
to attempt to storm Maiden. At his subsequent trial, however, nearly all the testimony 
introduced directly contradicted this statement. Our general was much depressed by the 
news of the approach of Major Chambers, of the British army, who was proceeding across 
country from Niagara to attack him in the rear. He was also afraid that the fall of 
Mackinac would let loose a horde of savages from the north, who were allied to British 
interests. He proposed to complete the work on the floating batteries and then march 
down the river to attack Maiden, unless it became necessary to send a portion of his troops 
across the river to the American side in order to keep open his communications with Ohio. 
Just what he feared regarding his food supply happened. The Wyandotte Indians, who 
were friendly to the Americans but who had not taken any part in the war, were seated on 
their reservation in Monguagon, some fiften or eighteen miles below Detroit. On August 
2d a detachment of Indians and British troops crossed the river and drove the Wyandottes 
as willing prisoners to Maiden, in expectation that they would join the other savages on 
the British side. 

Governor Return J. Meigs of Ohio notified Hull that Captain Henry Brush, with a de- 
tachment of soldiers, and Captains Rowland and Campbell, with their companies, were on 
the road to Detroit with supplies for the troops. At the time this news was received. 
Brush had not entered the territory of Michigan. Hull was again afraid. He feared that 
communication between his army and its supplies would be cut off and that the supplies 
would be captured by the enemy. At a council of the officers Hull stated that he proposed 
to send Major Van Horn down the river on the American side to keep open the com- 
munication with the party under Brush. Accordingly Van Horn was dispatched with two 
hundred men, though Colonels Cass, Findlay and McArthur protested that the number 
of troops was too small to successfully resist an attack. The Detroit-Ohio road passed 
along the margin of Tihe river so close to the water as to be easily guarded by boats. 

While Van Horn was en route, his command was fired upon at the river Ecorce, and 
when the advance guard of the detachment had reached Brownstown creek, it was again 
attacked by Indians. Van Horn's men were escorting the mail and a retreat was ordered to 
a point of cover in the woods. However, the soldiers fled at least a quarter of a mile be- 
fore they could be reformed. A short stand was made but the troops again retreated 
under direction of Van Horn, to once more form under a clump of trees that appeared like 
an island in the prairie. The soldiers did not obey the order to halt at these trees, but 
continued their flight in great confusion, closely followed by the savages. The loss in killed 
was eighteen; about seventy were missing and twelve were wounded. Van Horn reached 
Detroit the same evening, August 5th, and was soon rejoined by most of his scattered men. 
On this occasion the Indians, numbering about three hundred, were under the command of 
Tecumseh. The mail was captured and thus Hull's letters, containing full plans for the 
American operations, fell into the hands of the enemy. 

On the morning of August 7th preparations were made by Hull for the long delayed 
attack on Maiden, but his activities in this respect were discontinued at noon. It is prob- 
able that at that hour Hull had received news of Van Horn's defeat and that the general felt 
it was of more importance to keep open the road to his supplies on the south than to attack 
Maiden. Preparations were accordingly made for a retreat, much to the disgust of both 
officers and men. On August 8th the army passed over the river, leaving only a few sol- 
diers, under Major John Anderson, to hold a position at Sandwich. At his trial Hull 



68 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

stated tliat he had built a work opposite Detroit and had garrisoned it with two hundred 
and tliirty infantry and twenty-five artillerists. Alajor Denny in command of the ordnance, 
was instructed to hold the position, to afiford protection to all well disposed inhabitants 
and to fall back onh' in case of an attack by artillery. On the day of his retirement from 
Canada. Hull wrote Secretary Eustis of the movement and stated that his action was 
necessitated by the defection of the Wyandotte Indians, the fall of Mackinac, the advance 
of British reinforcements from Niagara and the resultant interruption of communication 
with Ohio. 

In the general's defense it may be said that the defeat of Van Horn placed the Ameri- 
cans in a position of decided disadvantage. Hull, separated from his base of supplies and 
the reinforcements under Brush, feared lest Detroit would soon be at the mercy of the In- 
dians who were even then overruning the American farms, destroying crops and driving 
ofif cattle. Hull was afterward sharply criticised for not falling back, with his army, to 
the Maumee and thus abandoning Detroit but saving his army. He was separated from 
his source of supplies and practically surrounded by a force that was daily increasing in 
numbers and in fortified strength. He had neglected the only opportunity that' presented 
itself to proceed against the enemy and it was doubtful if he could, at this time, have made 
a juncture with the south if he had attempted it with his entire force. Certainly he could 
not have retained Detroit and held open the communication with Ohio unless he first de- 
feated and captured or drove off the British. He contemplated a general retreat down the 
river, but feared, so he subsequently stated, a defection in the troops. This would indicate 
that his officers and men wercnot troubled with the temerity and caution with which their 
general seems to have been so generously supplied. Hull resolved, however, to do what 
he could to keep open his communication with Captain Brush, who was still at the river 
Raisin. For this purpose Colonel James Miller, with Majors Van Horn and Morrison and 
a force of si.x hundred regulars, was ordered to proceed down the American side of the 
river. The detachment set out on the night of August 8th and marched to a point near the 
present site of the village of Trenton, then a wilderness. The ne.xt morning they met the 
British and Indians under Captain Muir, who was accompanied by Tecumseh, a force of 
four hundred regulars and Canadian volunteers and between two and three hundred In- 
dians. The British were in position behind a breastwork of logs and the savages were de- 
ployed in the woods. Captain Josiah Snelling led the advance guard of the Americans 
and was the first to receive the fire of the enemy. He stood his ground until supported 
by the main body under Colonel Miller. On the arrival of the latter the engagement known 
as the battle of Monguagon became general. Both sides took advantage of whatever cover 
the fallen trees in the vicinity afforded and for some time no decisive movement was made 
by either. At length Miller ordered an advance which resulted in the dislodging of the 
enemy and their full retreat. They were enabled to make good their escape by means of 
their boats. Captain Maxwell was ordered forward to reconnoitre and on his report that 
the enemy could not be found. Miller believed that the road to the Raisin was now free 
and that his further advance was unnecessary. The American loss of twenty killed and 
sixty wounded in this engagement far exceeded that of the British. Miller's forces camped 
on the field of battle and Captain Snelling was sent back to Detroit for provisions. 

As soon as Hull was notified of the battle of Monguagon he dispatched Colonel Mc- 
Arthur with one hundred men to carry provisions to Colonel Miller and to assist in bring- 
ing back the wounded and dead. McArthur returned on the 13th and was sent on the fol- 
lowing day with Colonel Cass and a detachment of three hundred men to assist Captain 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 69 

Brush. This detachment set out without provisions, on the assurance from Hull that food 
would be sent them at once. The party marched twenty-four miles before they halted, on 
August 14th, but having no provisions and seeing no traces of Indians, it was decided, upon 
consultation, to return to Detroit. In the meantime affairs had been quite active on the 
other side of the river. 

General Isaac Brock arrived at Amherstburg with three hundred soldiers on August 
13th, and immediately assumed command of the entire British forces. His presence instilled 
an enthusiasm into the militia that they had not before possessed. All the troops, regulars, 
militia and Indians, began preparation for an aggressive movement against the Americans 
at Detroit. All British troops were concentrated on the Canadian side of the river. The 
Americans at Sandwich retreated to the American side and the enemy, taking possession of 
the position so vacated, began the erection of batteries, unmolested. Their work continued 
for two days before they were in a position to commence the bombardment of Detroit. 

On Saturday, August 15th, shortly after midday, a flag of truce was sent by Brock to 
Hull, demanding the immediate surrender of the latter. This flag was carried by Lieu- 
tenant Colonel McDonald and Captain Glegg of Brock's army. The two officers were 
blindfolded and taken to a house near the fort, where they were met by Hull, who refused 
to surrender. The British then began cannonading the city. There were three batteries 
on the American side within the village enclosure, one of them being placed in what was 
then called Judge Woodward's garden, near the corner of Jefferson avenue and Wayne 
street, on an elevation ; and the others near the river bank, one being near the garden above 
mentioned and the other near the foot of Woodward avenue. These batteries returned shot 
for shot until late in the night, one of the enemy's batteries being silenced. 

During the night six hundred Indians, under Colonel Mathew Elliott, crossed the river 
and encamped along the line of the river road in Springwells not far from the present Fort 
Wayne. Hull was informed that Brock's forces had moved away from Sandwich prepar- 
atory 10 crossing the river. Captain Snelling was sent down the river with a detachment 
and a small gun to attack the enemy's ship, "Queen Charlotte," which lay in the stream. 
No shots were fired by this detachment, which returned to the fort in the morning. Before 
daylight of the i6th, Hull aroused Major Thomas S. Jessup of the regulars and directed him 
to send a messenger recalling McArthur and Cass. The artillery fire was again begun on 
both sides of the river and the British soldiers who were already below the town began to 
cross to the American side under cover of two of their gunboats. No effort was made by 
Hull to check this advance. Major Jessup was directed to order Colonel Findlay's regi- 
ment and what remained of the commands of McArthur and Cass, in line of battle about 
a quarter of a mile below the fort, where there was a line of high pickets. The enemy 
were soon seen marching along the river road toward the fort. Jessup hastened back to 
give Hull information of the approach of the British and to obtain orders to open fire. 
These orders were not given, although the detachment occupied a most advantageous posi- 
tion. A gun was also mounted which could have raked the advancing columns, which 
were in close formation. Jessup's announcement was the first information Hull had that 
the enemy had crossed the river. x\t Hull's trial every particle of evidence that could be 
obtained against him was produced and printed, but there were two of his letters that were 
not then known to be in existence. Indeed, they were considered of so little value by their 
possessor that it was not until recently that they were published. Evidence that the letters 
were sent appears in several places in the trial record, but their contents are not given. 



70 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

As soon as it was light on the morning of the i6th, and as early as five o'clock, Hull 
sent his son. Captain Abraham F. Hull, across the river with a flag of truce and with a 
letter reading as follows : 

General Brock: D^t'"°'t- '^^ ^"S"^^' '^'^- 

I propose a cessation of hostilities for one hour to open negociations for the surrender 
of Detroit. Yours &c. William Hull, 

B. Gen'l. Com'g. 

Captain Hull did not deliver this letter in person to Brock, as the latter had passed 
down the river some time before the messenger's arrival, and was either on the point of 
passing to the American side or had already done so. Young Hull did not deliver the letter 
to anyone at the time, but remained with it on the Canadian side until the surrender of 
Detroit. 

The heavy gun fire of the English from the Canadian batteries continued to be 
exceedingly wild even after it was broad daylight. Though some damage was done the 
houses of the town, few of the inhabitants were injured. A court martial was in progress 
at this time in the fort, investigating the action of Lieutenant Hanks in surrendering 
Mackinac. While his trial was being held, a shell from the enemy's camp crashed through 
the building and killed Lieutenant Hanks, two officers, two privates and a surgeon. A 
second surgeon was wounded. The trial record shows that at this time the main body of 
the troops "were so crowded inside the fort as to render it impossible for them to act 
offensively — that is, just before the articles of capitulation were agreed upon ; — the orders 
(to place the regulars inside the fort) were given to Colonel Findlay immediately after 
fire, when the flag was sent by Captain Hull." Many of the townspeople were also within 
the enclosure at this time. 

Major Anderson was in command of the battery in Woodward's garden. A British 
ofiicer with a flag of truce rode up and asked why the flag of truce had been sent across 
the river. He was told that General Hull had sent a letter to Brock. Lieutenant Henry 
Jackson Hunt was sent to notify Hull of the errand of the British oflicer. Lieutenant 
Duer, and to ascertain what reply should be made to him. Hunt returned with a sealed 
paper addressed to General Brock and with directions to Major Snelling to return with 
Lieutenant Duer and to deliver the letter to Brock. Brock was a little in advance of 
his troops, the latter having marched as far as the Henry farm, a point where the 
Michigan Central railroad crosses River street. 

The letter borne by Snelling to Brock reads as follows : 
Sir: Detroit, i6th. August, 1812. 

The object of the Flag which passed the river, was to propose a cessation of hostilities 
for one hour for the purpose of entering into a negociation for the surrender of Detroit. 

Yours &c. 
William Hull. 

Gen. Brock. B Gen'l. 

Comg. 

It does not appear that any person in the American army, save General Hull himself, 
knew of the contents of these letters at the time they were sent, nor did he have the assist- 
ance or advice of any of his officers in their preparation. Major Snelling knew of the 
general nature of the letter he bore, for he was asked by Brock if he was authorized to 
settle the terms of the surrender. Upon Snelling's negative reply Colonel McDonald and 
Captain Glegg were directed to return to the fort with him. They were immediately 






/X^l-t^t~%- 



/ 



/Xc^ • /^^-^-^> - ^i^ ^^- ^^ ^>^^-^^ - 



v-'T 



^/.^ -.^--r^--^: 



[__ 



FACSIMILE OP Hri.l.'S I.ETTER 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 71 

taken to a marquee which had but recently been erected in front of the fort, on the south- 
east corner near the present location of Congress street. Here the Bnt.sh officers con- 
ferred with General Hull. Captain Elijah Brush and with Lieutenant Colonel Miller. 

As mentioned above, Colonel Findlay, with some of his own troops and a portion 
of the regiments of McArthur and Cass, had been stationed at a distance west of the fort 
°o resist the advance of the enemy. After he had asked for orders to open fire, F.ndlay 
was commanded to retire, without firing a shot. As he fell back, he saw the white flag on 
the staff on the fort and was told of the surrender. Aghast at the "^^'^e brave colone 
ushed up to Hull and demanded : "What in h- am I ordered here for ?" Hull a empted 
o tell him that he could obtain better terms from Brock then than if he delayed. lerms 
Damnation! We can beat them on the plain. I did not come here to capitulate; I 
came here to fight," was Findlay's retort. 

In the meantime, and before the return of Colonel Findlay the white flag had been 
hoisted over the fort by Captain Burton, under orders from General Hull, and was seen 
by the troops on their return. The firing from the fort had ceased some time before and 
?he fie from the Sandwich battery stopped soon after the cessation on the American side. 
Though Colonel Findlay's men protested hotly on being ordered to retire they obeyed the 
order and stacked arms, loudly condemning Hull's temerity. . . , ■ 

Hull Brush, Colonel Miller and Captain Charles Fuller, representing the American 
side Colonel McDonald and Major Glegg, representing the British, then agreed upon the 
folLing terms of capitulation, transferring the control of the entire northwest. The 

articles of surrender follow ; 

Camp Detroit, August i6th, 1812. 

r- : i„i™ of sr.rrenderine Fort Detroit, entered into between Maj, Gen, Brock, 
comt^a^' ng te%ri.anrMa™s1y's forces of the one part, and Brig. General Hull, cont- 
ZSntthl N„nh„«. arn. of the Untted tates^^^^^ ^^ ,^,„,,,^^ ,,„, 

Article First, /" ' °''™''i S' ,„„es „„ij he command of Maj, Gen, Brock, 

'''*S5^,I";^'ArX"tr:rm?and";';;bhc documents including everything also 

<" 'T^-::T w'vat prt^';raudTriv"ate''persons of every description will be respected. 

Are ith H is exceltacy Brig Gen, Hull, having expressed a desire that a detach- 

. , ,h, «,ie of Ohio 01, ts way to join his army, as well as one sent from Fort 

S«„?r"nde? thf colSaiTd oVcol. McAt^hur. should be included in the above capitula- 

"°°'U Is how«e?'»Tund'e°rslood, that such parts of the Ohio militia as have no. joined 
the army wffl be permi„ed to return home on condition that they will no, serve during the 

""ileT.^' ^he-garrTr^Sf^:;:?, Z'^Sr':^ ^ this day and the 
British forces take immediate PO-ession oOhe^fort ^^^^^ ^^^ ^.^_^.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

J. B. Glegg, Major, A. D. C. 
James Miller, Lieut. Col. 5th U. S. Inft. 
E. Brush. Col. ist. Reg. Mich. Militia. 
Approved, Approved, . ■; 

Com. Hull, Brig. Gen. Isaac Brock. Maj. Gen. 

Comm'g. N. W. Army. A true Copy: 

Robt. Nichol, Lieut. Col. & Qr. M. Gen. Militia. 



72 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

The articles of capitulation were read to the inen by Major Jessup. At 12 o'clock 
noon, August i6th, the troops stacked their arms before the fort and became prisoners of 
war. Brock made a detailed report, giving the number of his troops, as follows : Thirty 
artillery, 250 Forty-first Regiment, 50 Royal Newfoundland Regiment, 400 militia, and 
600 Indians, making a total of 1,330. Thirty-five pieces of ordnance and a large store of 
ammunition were surrendered, with the brig "Adams." Hull reported 976 serviceable 
men under his command, not including the men under Cass, McArthur and Brush. 

The detachment that had been sent down the river under Colonel McArthur and 
Colonel Cass had proceeded some twenty-five miles when lack of supplies necessitated a 
return. The party met a messenger from Hull ordering a retreat. Nearing the fort on 
the morning of the i6th, Cass and McArthur were told of the surrender. Instead of pro- 
ceeding further toward Detroit, they fell back to the river Rouge and took a position of 
defense. They were soon informed by deserters from the army that they were included in 
the capitulation and shortly afterward, on an order from Hull, the soldiers marched to 
the fort and surrendered their arms. 

Captain Henry Brush was still at the river Raisin. There he received news of the 
surrender but was not willing to credit the story. Captain Thomas Rowland, who was 
present, exclaimed with an oath: "It is treason!" A council was at once called, which 
concluded that Brush was not bound by the articles of capitulation. Captain Elliott, son of 
Mathew Elliott, the British Indian agent, was sent to the Raisin by the English to take 
over Brush's command. He was at once made prisoner and forced to retreat with the 
command until it was well into Ohio. 

The captured officers at Detroit were hurriedly put on board the vessels belonging to 
the English government and were sent down the river and lake to Montreal. Hull, who 
was accompanied by his daughter, was put on board the "Queen Chariotte" and left Detroit 
August 17th. Captain Dyson, with his company of regulars, was left at Amherstburg 
and the other regulars proceeded to Montreal. The Ohio volunteers were taken to Buffalo 
and there permitted to return to their homes. On :he wall of a building at the northwest 
corner of McGill and Notre Dame streets in Montreal, is a tablet bearing this inscription • 
•General Hull, United States army, 25 officers, 350 men, entered prisoners of war loth 
September, 1812." 

General Brock, although a relentless enemy, inspired the respect of the Americans by 
his bravery and honorable conduct. A few weeks after leaving Detroit he was killed at 
Queenston Heights, while gallantly attempting to rallv his men. 




\ 



> \ 



XP< 



/^^.^ Z3i^ .^ ,, 



/A 



/^.^ ^ /;^i^ >^^^ 



.'t r^.:^^'' ■ 



■^ Z^'-e'-^ /Y^ y^^ / '-r^'^ ^-- <-. 






^^ji-x t. 



'7^->' /^fe' f^'^**^^'^ * < 






\ 






.-<. 



-^ 



l^,-^ J'p-^"^'^ 



FACSIMII-E OF HUI>T>'S T.ETTER 



CHAPTER X. 

(CONTRIBUTED BY C. M. BURTON.) 

Hull's Trial by Court Martial— Members of the Court— Hull Sentenced to be Shot— Execu- 
tion of Sentence Remitted — Efforts to Exonerate Hull in Later Years — The Lewis 
Cass Account of Surrender of Detroit — Extracts from Hull's Arguments at Time of 
Trial. 

Governor Hull was tried by a court martial that convened in Albany, in January, 1814. 
The charges against him in connection with the surrender of Detroit were (i) treason, 
(2) cowardice, and (3) neglect of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer. The mem- 
bers of the court were Major General Henry Dearborn, president; and Brigadier General 
Bloomfield, Colonel Peter Little, Colonel WiUiam N. Irvine, Colonel J. B. Fenwick, Colonel 
Robert Bogardus, Lieutenant Colonel James House, Lieutenant Colonel William Scott, 
Lieutenant Colonel William Stewart, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Dennis, Lieutenant 
Colonel Samuel S. Conner, Lieutenant Colonel S. B. David and Lieutenant Colonel John 
W. Livingstone. The special judge advocate was Martin VanBuren. 

The trial began on the 3d of January and was continued until March 23d following. 
Hull was acquitted of the charge of treason and of some of the other specifications, but 
he was found guilty of cowardice, and was sentenced to be shot. The sentence was 
approved by President Madison, but its execution was remitted. 

It is thought probable that the excited condition of the country and the bias of mili- 
tary ofificers of the state had much to do in forming the opinion of the military court. A 
constant and untiring effort for nearly one hundred years has been made and is still being 
made to exonerate Hull and to show that his actions were justified by his situation and 
surroundings. The first official account of the surrender of Detroit was made by Lewis 
Cass. His letter was written at Washington, September 10, 1812, and purports to have 
been made by direction of Colonel McArthur. It was in consequence of this report that 
the torrent of abuse was heaped upon Hull, who was then a prisoner. The report consists 
of a succession of charges and was followed by a series of similar attacks when Cass was 
called as the first witness at the subsequent trial of Hull. Whether Cass, at this time, had 
in mind the possibility that he might be a successor to Hull in the ofiice of governor of 
Michigan Territory, is difficult now to determine, but it is certain that Hull had no more 
bitter or relentless enemy. 

Next to the charge of treason, against which Hull successfully contended, that of 
cowardice most deeply affected him, and he resented it with all the powers of a man over- 
burdened with the disgrace of his surrender. In the course of his argument on this point 
he said : 

"But, gentlemen, upon the charge of cowardice, I am bold to say, I have no dread. I 
have fought more battles than many of the young men who have impeached "me of this 
crime have numbered years. I appeal to the history that bears record of those who were 
engaged in the bloody contests for our liberty ; there you shall find my name,— but not as 
a coward! I have brought before you the testimony of the few who remained of those 
who were my companions in arms in times that tried men's souls. Do they say I am a 

73 



74 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

coward? I invoke the spirits of the departed heroes who have died at my side by the 
sword of the enemy, to say if I am a coward. 

"I would call the shades of Gates, Wayne, Schuyler and of Washington to tell you how 
often they have led me into battle and to say if they found me a coward. Will you believe 
that the spirit which has so often prompted me to risk my life for my country should now 
have so far forsaken me as that I have become a traitor and a coward? 

"Will you believe that the years in which I have grown gray in my country's service 
should so far have changed my nature as that I could have been the base and abject thing 
my enemies have represented? No, gentlemen; that blood which animated my youth, age 
has not chilled. I at this moment feel its influence, and it makes me dare to say that no 
man ever did or can think me a coward." 

Hull asserted in his defence that he surrendered Detroit because he felt that he could 
not hold it against the British army, and that if he undertook to resist and failed, the 
place would be made to suffer the horrors of an Indian massacre. Brock threatened, in 
his demand for the surrender of the post, sent to Hull August 15th, that we would turn 
the Indians loose on the helpless citizens, and Hull feared the threat would be carried into 
execution. 

Brock, who had personally conducted the campaign against Detroit, left the place to 
attend to other duties along the Niagara frontier. He gave the territory of Michigan into 
the civi' and military charge of Henry Procter. Judge Woodward served as secretary. 
Such soldiers as were not necessary to take the prisoners down to Amherstburg and Mon- 
treal were left with Procter to maintain the British possession of Detroit, and to protect 
the people from the Indians. Captain Eastman, an American soldier and at this time a 
prisoner, remained in Detroit twenty-four days after the capitulation. He stated that on 
the third day following the surrender two hundred and fifty Indians came from Saginaw 
and that on the loth or nth of September, eleven hundred or twelve hundred more came 
from Mackinac. It was intended to have these Indians aid the British in the attack on 
Detroit, but the siege ended so quickly and unexpectedly that the services of these savages 
were not required, and now that they had arrived, their presence was unwelcome alike to 
the Americans and to the British. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Progress of War of 1812 — British Occupy Detroit — Hull's Memoirs — Attempts to Re-estab- 
lish American Prestige — Expedition Under General Winchester — Surrender of 
Winchester — Massacre of Americans by Indians — Efforts of General Harrison — 
Expedition Against Fort Maiden — Procter Lays Siege Before Fort Meigs and 
Attacks Fort Stephenson. 

After the capitulation of Detroit the British, evidently realizing the true weakness of 
their position and fearing that the American troops would disregard the terms of surren- 
der and reopen hostilities, were prompt to take possession of the fort. The American 
troops were marched out of the enclosure and formed in line for the surrender. The local 
militia dispersed to their homes, the Ohio volunteers were escorted to the mouth of the 
Cuyahoga river and allowed their freedom, but Hull and his regulars were transported to 
Montreal. There they were held as prisoners of war until exchanged. 

Hull's memoirs, written after his pardon by President Madison, are generally consid- 
ered to be a weak attempt to justify his ofificial actions. Of late years an attempt has Ijeen 
made to exonerate the unfortunate brigadier-general and governor, and in the spring of 
1908 a field piece was even dedicated in his honor by a post of the Detroit Grand Army of 
the Republic. It is altogether probable, however, that so long as the memory of man shall 
endure; so long as the standards of courage and achievement and loyalty to duty remain 
what they now are, Hull's official career will always be regarded with scorn, as a disgrace 
to the northwest, to the army, to himself and to his government. In the rush of events 
incident to the regaining of what his cowardice, and possibly his greater culpability, lost to 
his country, a most generous fate allowed this man to sink into obscurity. While an endur- 
ing government was being builded on the ruins of his misdirection, this once arrogant man 
of parts — peculiar parts they were — was permitted to live that he might endure the severest 
punishment : that of seeing others accomplish in honor and under difficulties what he had 
in dishonor failed to achieve under the most favorable conditions. 

Paralyzed as was the army, deeply chagrined as was the government, disheartened as 
were the prisoners, not a moment's time was lost in attempting to re-establish American 
prestige. Governors Harrison and Meigs began at once the recreation of the northwestern 
army. Again volunteers were rendezvoused in Ohio. Again Kentucky contributed a gen- 
erous quota of her best fighting stock. The mobilizing of this second army of the north- 
west occupied the fall of 1812. In January following, General Winchester, in command of 
the Ohio and Kentucky volunteers, started northward with the object of retrieving the 
American losses under Hull. Reaching the rapids of the Maumee, Winchester sent two- 
thirds of his army of nine hundred men to the relief of Frenchtown, which was being 
threatened with an Indian massacre. A force of Indians and British were defeated by this 
command on January i8th, and two days later the entire force of volunteers arrived. On 
the 22d a sortie was made from Maiden, which ended disastrously for the Americans. 
Though scouts are said to have warned Winchester of the probability of an attack, his 
army was unprepared. The British and Indians advanced and opened fire with such 
ferocity that Winchester's army was thrown into immediate confusion. Small detachments 

75 



76 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

sought escape by retreating into the surrounding woods but almost invariably these parties 
were overtaken and massacred by overwhelming hordes of savages. 

Winchester finally accepted the terms of surrender offered by Procter, who commanded 
the allied British and Indians. All available boats were placed at the disposal of even the 
slightly wounded British and Indians, regardless of the pitiful plight of many of the severely 
wounded Americans. Procter agreed, however, to transport the Americans to Maiden as 
soon as his own injured were given attention and promised to leave a guard as protection 
against the infuriated savages. This he evidently had no intention of doing. With the 
withdrawal of his main force, but one otflcer and a few men were left in fulfillment of 
his agreement. Scarcely were the English out of sight, before the Indians held council 
and determined to avenge their own losses by killing every American who was unable to 
stand a forced march to Maiden and Detroit. Two houses in which were confined most of 
the wounded prisoners were fired ; and other prisoners not confined in these buildings were 
scalped and thrown into the burning ruins. Such of the volunteers as were able to crawl, 
showed fight, and many escaped from the flaming prisons only to be mercilessly killed out- 
right or burned alive. Though these atrocities were perpetrated by savages, it is quite 
probable that the massacre was not beyond Procter's expectations. No record has been 
brought forward to show that he ever sent back his boats for the American wounded, as 
he would have done had he expected to take them to Detroit alive. While such damnable 
practices cannot be entirely disassociated with the "honor" of the British arms at that time, 
Procter's perfidious inhumanity can only be compared to that of the beast, Hamilton. 

The savagery of the massacre at an end, those of the Americans who were not wantonly 
tomahawked en route were marched into Detroit. There, as in the days of the Revolution, 
human lives were peddled about among the residents for redemption in cash or barter. 
Household goods, money, clothing and provisions were offered by the citizens as the price 
for the lives of the prisoners. Many a volunteer owed his existence to the sacrifice of the 
northern housewives, who literally stripped their homes in offering ransom, and bargained 
their last treasures in competition wdth money paid for scalps by the British. 

Angered by the determination of the citizens to prevent the massacre of their country- 
men, Procter ordered several of the most active offerers of ransoms to leave the country. 
Regardless of the terms of Hull's surrender, the property of Americans generally was 
given over to plunder. Only such property as was specially marked as being that of Cana- 
dians or British sympathizers was exempt from pillage. 

In the meantime General Harrison was actively engaged in recruiting a sufficient force 
to avenge Winchester's disaster. Upon hearing of the latter's defeat he dispatched Surgeon 
McKeehan and two men from Portage river, in Ohio, to Maiden. The surgeon bore medi- 
cines and money for the relief of the American prisoners and wounded, and carried a letter 
from Harrison addressed to any British officer. The party was met at the Maumee rapids 
by several British and Indians. Notwithstanding the humane and peaceful object of its 
advance, it was set upon, one man was killed and the surgeon and his remaining com- 
panion were taken to Maiden as prisoners. There Dr. McKeehan was promptly placed in 
irons and subjected to every insult. Needless to say, neither the money nor medicine was 
devoted to the relief of the suffering Americans. 

Early in February, 1813, according to the journal of Lieutenant Joseph Harwell, one 
of Harrison's command, "the general established his advance post at the foot of the 
(Maumee) rapids. He ordered the fortification of the position, as it was his intention 
to make this point his grand depot. The fort erected was afterward named Meigs, in honor 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 77 

of Governor Meigs. Harrison ordered all the troops in tiie rear to join him immediately. 
He was in hopes by the middle of February to advance on Maiden and strike a blow that 
would in some measure retrieve the misfortunes that had befallen the American arms in 
this quarter." 

Harrison was unable, however, to make any attempt against Maiden until March. On 
the 2d of that month a most hazardous expedition was undertaken. Of this Lieutenant 
Harwell wrote as follows: "About two hundred and fifty men volunteered to go on an 
enterprise of the most desperate nature. On Friday, the 26th, the volunteer corps destined 
for this duty were addressed on parade by General Harrison, who informed them that when 
they had got a sufficient distance from the fort they were to be informed of the errand they 
were upon, and that all who then wished could return, but not afterwards. He repre- 
sented the undertaking as in a high degree one of peril and privation ; but he promised that 
those who deported themselves in a gallant and soldier-like manner should be rewarded, 
and their names forwarded to the general government. 

"The corps took up its line of march and concentrated at what is now Lower San- 
dusky, where was then a blockhouse, on the site of Fort Stephenson, at that time garrisoned 
by two companies of militia. On the morning of the 2d of March they left the blockhouse 
with six days' provisions and had proceeded about a half mile when Captain Langham (m 
command) ordered a halt. He addressed the soldiers and informed them of the object of 
the expedition, which was to move down to Lake Erie, to cross over the ice to Maiden, 
and in the darkness of night to destroy with combustibles the British fleet and the public 
stores on the bank of the river. This being done, the men were to retreat to the point of 
the Maumee bay, when their retreat was to be covered by a large force under Harrison. 
At this time, independent of the garrison at Maiden, in that vicinity was a large body of 
Indians, and it required a combination of circumstances to render the enterprise successful." 
Passing Portage river, the party encamped on the shore of the lake and on the next 
day advanced across the ice to Middle Bass island, a distance of seventeen miles. On break- 
ing camp the following day it was discovered that the ice to the north was unfavorable. 
Then, too, "sled tracks were discovered on the ice going in the direction of Maiden. They 
were presumed to have been made by two Frenchmen who left Sandusky the day before 
the corps of Langham. They (the Frenchmen) had then stated they were going to the 
river Huron, which was in an opposite direction. The officers now felt assured they were 
inimical to their designs and were on their way to give the British notice of the Ameri- 
cans' intentions. It being the intended route to go by the Western Sister island to elude 
the spies of the enemy, the guides gave it as their opinion that it was impossible to go to 
Maiden ; that the river Detroit and the lake from the Middle Sister were doubtless broken 
up, and that there was only possibility of getting as far north as the Middle Sister ; but as 
the distance from that to the Detroit river, eighteen miles, had to be performed after night, 
they could not attempt going, being fully satisfied that they could not arrive at the point 
of destination, and as the weather was and had been soft, that, should a southerly wind 
blow up, the lake would inevitably break up, and they might be caught on it or one of the 
islands. Captain Langham called the guides and officers together. He stated that he had 
been instructed to go no farther than the guides thought safe, asked the opinion of the 
officers, who unanimously decided that it was improper to proceed, and that they should 
return. The party returned by way of Presque Isle, at which point they met General 
Harrison with a body of troops. From thence they proceeded to Fort Meigs in safety. 



^^ DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

"Harrison had determined to regain Detroit, but the weather had proved unfavorable 
for the transportation to Fort Meigs of a sufficient body of troops for such an object His 
force there was diminished soon after his arrival, by the expiration of the term of service 
of a part of those at the rapids, and nothing more was left for him but to remain on the 
defensive. Satisfied that in his weakened condition the enemy would make a descent from 
Maiden upon the fort as soon as the ice broke up in the lake, he left in March for the 
interior, to hasten on all the troops he could raise to the fort's defense. On the i^th of 
April he returned at the head of a detachment of troops and applied himself with" great 
assiduity to completing the defenses." 

Procter's command, accompanied by about eighteen hundred Indians under Tecumseh 
attacked Fort Meigs on the ist of May. The British placed their guns on an eminence 
across the river and opposite to the fort, the allies taking position in the rear of the 
Americans, who had not yet finished building their fortifications. Procter encouraged the 
a lies by promising to deliver the person of General Harrison over to Tecumseh. immedi- 
ately t^ie fort was taken. The Americans had not completed their wells : thev had no water 
save that obtained from the river, under constant fire. For three days the British batteries 
kept up a continuous shelling of the fort and on the third day the English succeeded in 
mounting a mortar battery within two hundred and fifty yards of the Am.erican entrench- 
ments. Ihe savages climbed trees and from such vantage points poured in a galling fire 
upon the American rear. Procter then demanded the surrender of the garrison but 
received a curt reply from Harrison to the effect that "should the fort fall into vour hand. 
It will be m a manner calculated to do you more honor and to give vou larger claims upon 
the gratitude of your government than any capitulation could possibly do." In anticipa- 
tion of an attack in force upon Fort Meigs, General Harrison had forwarded minute par- 
ticulars regarding his position to Governors Shelby of Kentucky and Meigs of Ohio and 
had asked for reinforcements if such were available. So faithfully had Shelby and Meigs 
endeavored to accede to Harrison's request that at the time Procter was demanding a sur 
render. General Clay of Kentucky was at the head of the rapids with a substantial com- 
mand. Upon the juncture of the two American forces, Procter was forced to raise th- 
siege. He retreated to Amherstburg with all his forces save that portion of the savages 
whose ^I'sgust evxn the persuasion of Tecumseh failed to overcome; these Indians openly 
deserted the British arms, refusing to aid further in the prosecution of the war. 

In the last day's fighting at Fort Meigs, the Kentuckv volunteers under Colonel Dud- 
ley were ordered to attack and spike the guns of the British battery across the river This 
accomplished, they were to return at once to the fort in boats. The Kentuckians, though 
successful ,n their sortie, fell victim to their own bravery. Instead of returning at once as 
ordered, they remained to fall in with a large party of Indians, who easily effected a cap- 
ture after a brief pitched battle. After surrendering, the Kentuckians were tomahawked 
and scalped in full view of Procter, many of their number falling in this way. Tecumseh 
had given orders expressly directing his men to respect the surrender, but the massacre 
was only stopped upon his arrival. Infuriated at the sight, he tomahawked one of his own 
due s for disregarding the order and demanded to know where Procter was. Seeing the 
English commandant at length, Tecumseh exclaimed: "Why have you not made an end 
of this slaughter; why did you allow it? "Sir," said Procter, "your Indians cannot be 
commanded. Begone !" retorted the chieftain, with great disdain, "you are unfit to com- 

mand ; go and put on petticoats." Colonel Dudley was tomahawked and scalped before 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 79 

Tecumseh's arrival and but about one hundred and fifty of Dudley's eight hundred men 

escaped. , . , ■ j r 

On July 20th Procter again laid brief siege before Fort Meigs, then m command of 
General Green Clay of Kentucky, but soon directed his attention to an attack upon Fort 
Stephenson, near Sandusky. This movement proved disastrous to the English and Procter 
again retired to Maiden early in August, after having lost severely in the fighting and by 
the continued desertions of the Indians. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Continuation of War of 1812 — Americans Gain Control of Lake Ontario — Perry Given Com- 
mand of Lake Erie — British Compelled to Evacuate Capital of Upper Canada — Fall 
of Fort George — Perry's Victory on Lake Erie — Description of the Battle — Procter 
Prepares to Retreat — Speech of Protest by Tecumseh — British Evacuation of De- 
troit — American Armies Invade Canada — Pursuit of Procter — Battle of the Thames 
— Death of Tecumseh — General Cass Assumes Command at Detroit — Expedition to 
the North — Progress of War in the East — Indian Depredations About Detroit — 
Treaty of Ghent. 

In the meantime the Americans, under Admiral Chauncey, had secured control of Lake 
Ontario. Following this a young naval officer, Oliver Hazard Perry, then stationed in the 
east, had applied for transfer to the lakes. This granted, Chauncey gave him command 
of Lake Erie. Perry was ordered to Presque He (Erie, Pennsylvania) to command there 
a naval establishment, at which it was hoped to create a superior fighting force on the lake. 
On Perry's arrival, March 27, 1S13, he found under construction six American ships, 
mostly inferior affairs. His equipment, armament and crew were of necessity to be trans- 
ported for the most part, either from Albany or Philadelphia, but he met every obstacle 
with the same characteristic energy and courage that afterward helped so materially to 
turn the war in favor of the American arms. 

The ships while building were frequently threatened by the appearance of the enemy, 
but the presence of treacherous shoals and a tortuous entrance to the harbor in which opera- 
tions were being carried on made the position practically immune from attack. In April, 
Chauncey took aboard his fleet the army of General Dearborn, which was transported from 
the New York shore across Lake Ontario to York (now Toronto), then the capital of 
Upper Canada and an important British supply depot. The enemy were forced to evacu- 
ate York and on May 27th the army under Dearborn and the fleet under Chauncey, who 
was accompanied by Perry, attacked Fort George near the mouth of the river Niagara. 
After the fall of Fort George, Perry returned to Lake Erie with a few small ships and 
completed the fitting of his fleet. 

Both General Harrison and the secretary of war were desirous that Perry should lead 
a land expedition toward the Cuyahoga river, to assist the former, but Perry was deter- 
mined to demonstrate the vital importance of promptly securing control of Lake Erie. 
His fleet was in readiness by the last of July and on August ist he proceeded to act 
upon his own responsibility. The protecting sandbars at Presque He which had placed 
him beyond reach of the enemy, now, however, proved a serious menace, as two of the 
ships were of greater draught than the water gauge over the bar. Immediately contriv- 
ing a plan by which to extricate himself. Perry submerged several large barges alongside 
the two troublesome ships. Making them securely fast, he pumped the water from the 
barges, thus so buoying his vessels as to enable them to pass the shoals in safety. 

The British fleet, which had been hovering about in the vicinity of Presque He during 
the completion of Perry's fleet, had later retired to Maiden, there to await the refitting of 
the brig "Detroit." After leaving Presque He, Perry anchored at Put-in-Bay. His flotilla 

80 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 81 

consisted of the ships "Lawrence" and "Niagara." twenty guns each, and seven smaller 
vessels, — one of four guns, one of three, two of two and three of one, a total of fifty-four 
guns. On September loth the enemy's fleet, under Commodore Barclay, a seasoned com- 
mander who had fought under Nelson at Trafalgar, sailed from Maiden to the attack. 
After a hot engagement lasting three hours. Perry sent the following famous message to 
General Harrison at Sandusky: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." A descrip- 
tion of the battle is taken from Perkins' "The Late War." 

On the loth of September, at sunrise, the British fleet, consisting of one ship of nine- 
teen guns, one of seventeen, one of thirteen, one of ten, one of three and one of one, amount- 
ing to sixty-four, and exceeding the Americans by ten guns, under the command of Com- 
modore Barclay, appeared off Put-in-Bay, distant about ten miles. Commodore Perry 
immediately got under way, with a light breeze at southwest. At ten o'clock the wind 
hauled to the southeast, which brought the American squadron to the windward, and gave 
them the weather gauge. Commodore Perry, on board the Lawrence, then hoisted his 
union jack, having for a motto the dying words of Captain Lawrence, "Don't give up the 
ship," which was received with repeated cheers by the crew. 

He then formed the line of bsttle, and bore up for the enemy, who at the same time 
hauled his courses and prepared for action. The lightness of the wind .iccasioned the hos- 
tile squadrons to approach each other but slowly, and prolonged for two hours the solemn 
interval of suspense and anxiety which precedes a battle. The order and regularity of 
naval discipline heightened the dreadful quiet of the moment. The hostile fleets gradually 
neared each other in awful silence. At fifteen minutes after eleven a bugle was sounded on 
board the enemy's headmost ship, the Detroit ; loud cheers burst from all their crews, and 
a tremendous fire opened upon the Lawrence, from the British long guns, which from the 
shortness of the Lawrence's she was obliged to sustain for forty minutes without being able 
to return a shot. Commodore Perry, without waiting for the other ships, kept on his 
course in such gallant and determined style that the enemy supposed he meant immediately 
to board. At five minutes before twelve, having gained a nearer position, the Lawrence 
opened her fire, but the long guns of the British still gave them greatly the advantage, and the 
Lawrence was exceedingly cut up without being able to do but very little damage in return. 
Their shot pierced her sides in all directions, killing the men in the berth deck and steerage, 
where they had been carried to be dressed. 

One shot had nearly produced a fatal explosion ; passing through the light room, it 
knocked the snuff of the candle into the magazine ; fortunately the gunner saw it and had 
the presence of mind immediately to extinguish it. It appeared to be the enemy's plan 
to destroy the commodore's ship; their heaviest fire was directed against the Lawrence, and 
blazed incessantly from all their largest vessels. Commodore Perry finding the hazard of 
his situation, made all sail and directed his other vessels to follow, for the purpose of 
closing with the enemy. The tremendous fire, however, to which he was exposed soon cut 
away every brace and bowline of the Lawrence and she became unmanageable. The other 
vessels were unable to get up, and in this disa.strous situation she sustained the main force 
of the enemy's fire for upwards of two hours, within cannister distance, though a consider- 
able part of the time not more than two or three of her guns could be brought to bear on 
her antagonists. 

The utmost order and regularity prevailed during this scene of horror; as fast as the 
men at the guns were wounded they were carried below and others stepped to their places ; 
the dead remained where they fell until after the action. At this juncture the enemy 
believed the battle to be won. The Lawrence was reduced to a mere wreck ; her deck was 
streaming with blood and covered with the mangled limbs and bodies of the slain ; nearly 
the whole of her crew were either killed or wounded; her guns were dismounted, and the 
commodore and his officers helped to work the last that was capable of service. At two, 
Captain Elliott was enabled, by the aid of a fresh breeze, to bring his ship (the Niagara) 
into close action in gallant style, and the commodore immediately determined to shift his 



*2 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

S3'— 5^^^:?Es:aH3^^ 

fit fnr Hiif,, -TT,^ 1 u "*"/.,, * ^^^ Struck but twenty men remained on deck 

uL'nded '-The Br?tish"lo^s"' °'/'>^ ''' u""'' "^"^'^ ^^'^^ °"'>^ «- •^"'"^d and tlSty s x 
Huunaea. ine tintish loss must have been much more considerable * * * tu;. 

opposite snores, waitmg m anxious expectation its result. 

Ten days after Perry's memorable victory his fleet transported Harrison's armv to 

on M if ' "^ V'i:° ^''''' ^''''' '^'^"^- P™^^--' ^' Amherstburg. fearing ^. Tuack 

St 11 adhcTed to th^B t' h"^"^' '"'°" °' ''^ '^^-^^^^^^ "P ^'^ -- Tecumseh. ^ 

o le^i^eat n J "r'' 'i°'''''^ '^""^' ^'^^ ^^ P^^^^'^^^ ^° be preparations 

th t ir would tfj" T '° ^"'^'" ''^ ^'"' ^"'^^ "^°" ^°'^ ---'- -d children 

!/°\r ^°?'^ '"■' °^ y^"*" S^"-"^"" here, which made our hearts glad 

hard to %ht people who hve like ground hogs. (At the siege of Fort Meigs Harrison 
constructed bomb proofs by shallow tunneling.) Father, listen! Our fleet ha ' goneTut 

has hann 7\ ^f''' "' '^^^ '^^"' '''' ^'''' ^"^ = ^ut we know nothing of wht' 

has happened to our father with one arm (Commodore Robert H. Barclay). Our fhips 1 ave 
gone one way, and we are much astonished to see our father tving up everything and pre 
panng^to run away the other, without letting his red children know what hJiiSi^ :s fre" 
You always told us to remain here and take care of our lands; it made our hearts 
glad to hear that was your wish. Our great father, the king, is the head, and vou T presen 
h.m. You always told us you would never draw your foot off British .ground- but now 
father, we see that you are drawing back, and we are sorry to see our father doii'.^. so witl' 
out seeing the enemy. We must compare our father's conduct to a fat dog that caTs" 

te- Th"A ' '"',"'^" ""'""^'''^ '^°P^ '' ^^'^^^- ^'^ '^^- -^d runr'of^^ FathTr 
hsten! The Americans have not yet defeated us by land; neither are we sure that they 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 83 

have done so by water; we therefore wish to remain here and fight our enemy should 
they make their appearance. If they defeat us we will then retreat with our father. At 
the battle of the rapids, last war, the Americans certainly defeated us; and when we 
returned to our father's fort at that place, the gates were shut against us. We were afraid 
that it would now be be the case; but instead of that we now see our British father pre- 
paring to march out of his garrison. Father, you have got the arms and ammunition which 
our great father sent for his red children. If you have an idea of going away, give them 
to us and you may go and welcome, for us. Our lives are in the hands of the Great 
Spirit. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it be His will, we wish to leave our 
bones upon them." 

Regardless of the taunts of his ally, Procter, who was a stranger to courage, pushed 
forward his plans for retreat, and finally evacuated Detroit on September 28th. Many of 
the smaller guns, a portion of the lighter stores and all supplies that could be readily 
moved, were transported across the river to Windsor. Amherstburg was as hastily aban- 
doned after whatever valuable property that could not be removed had been burned to 
prevent it from falling into the hands of the Americans. Halting at Windsor, the Maiden 
force was joined by the British garrison from the fort at Detroit and the entire command 
accompanied bv a flotilla of small craft, made its way hastily up stream. Harrison had 
been joined at Put-in-Bay by a force of thirty-five hundred Kentucky volunteers, under 
Governor Shelby of that state, and the combined armies, numbering easily five thousand 
men. landed on the Canadian shore of Lake Erie on September 29th, disembarking a 
short distance below Amherstburg. Proctor, however, had acted too quickly and had shown 
the Americans a clean pair of heels. At Maiden the Americans found only a few terrified 
women and non-combatants, who begged for their lives, fearing that the Kentuckians or 
"long knives," as they were called, meant to avenge the massacre of their comrades who had 
fallen at the' river Raisin. By this time Procter was understood to be in full flight along 
the shores of Lake St. Clair. Colonel Richard M. Johnson, who had been stationed at Fort 
Meigs in command of a troop of Kentucky volunteer cavalry, had been ordered to proceed 
to the Raisin. Stopping only long enough to bury the bodies of those slain in the Browns- 
town massacre, Johnson's men, numbering more than one thousand, reached Sandwich on 
October ist. In recognition of the readiness with which Kentucky had responded to the 
call for troops for the protection of the frontier, Fort Lernoult, at Detroit, was at this time 
named Fort Shelby, in honor of Kentucky's governor, who, though an elderly man, had 
braved the fatigue of long forced marches in leading his men to the northwest. Harrison 
and Shelby left Detroit with somewhat more than three thousand troops on October 2d, 
in pursuit of Procter, who was reported as being encamped with the Indians under Tecum- 
seh on the Thames river in Canada. Simultaneously Perry proceeded up the river with sev- 
eral ships en route to Lake St. Clair to aid in supporting the American land column. 

With Sandwich held by Colonels Cass and Ball, and Fort Shelby guarded by McArthur, 
Perry disembarked a considerable detachment from his fleet and joined Harrison. The 
entire command overtook Procter near Chatham, where Tecumseh vainly attempted^ to 
shame his commander into making a stand. and giving battle in the open. But the "fat 
dog" weakened and continued to retreat. The savages held their ground for a time, sus- 
taining a heavy fire from the Americans, but finally fell back, overtaking Procter. On 
October 5th the battle of the Thames was fought, at a point between Chatham and the old 
Moravian settlement at Moraviantown. Colonel Johnson's cavalry outflanked the British 
regulars on the right. Procter's left being protected by the Thames. The British were 



^4 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

thrown immediately into such confusion by the suddenness of the American onslaught that 
their commander left the field in flight before the whole of Harrison's army cc>uld be 
brought mto action. Procter's front had been formed behind a strip of marsh and behind 
this the Indians continued to fight for some time after the English had asked for quarter 
Tecumseh had eritered this battle of the Thames fully convinced that he would not survive 
he action. He determined to disregard the movements of Procter, whom he held by this 
time in great contempt, and to stake all on the ability of his Indians to stand off Harri- 
son s columns. Forced to dismount because of the character of the field, Johnson's men 
swung into a charge against the savages, who held their fire until the Americans were close 
at hand. Governor Shelby was compelled to send the reserves to Johnson's assistance before 
the ndians could be dislodged. Tradition has it that Tecumseh was killed in the las^ stand 
of the Indians by a ball from Colonel Johnson's pistol, although the latter had been twice 
wounded in the desperate hahd to hand fight on the edge of the marsh. The English his- 
torian James is authority for the statement that the Kentuckians scalped the Indian leader 
actually flayed his body with their knives and converted parts of his skin into razor strops 
Nearly seven hundred British soldiers were captured and a detachment under Colonel Pavne 
was ordered m pursuit of the fleeing Procter, who had left the scene of battle in a wagon 
The gallant Englishman was finally forced to leave the highway and seek cover in the 
woods, where he successfully secreted himself until after the departure of the Americans 
He was later denounced by his superior officers for his rank cowardice 

nneJ .°" nT"^ ^' '''"^ ^™"' ^^'*'"' '° ^''''''' ""^ '^' dispatching of the English pris- 
oners to Ohio, Harrison proceeded to Buffalo, intending to join the American army on the 
Niagara frontier A sufficient number of officers had been assigned to the army in the east 
however, and Harrison was given permission to retire into Indiana. Brigadier General 
Cass was left in civil and military control at Detroit, with four regiments of regular infan- 
try one company of artillery and a regiment of militia. Cass assumed command at Detroit 
October 29, 1813, resigning his command in the army of the United States, but continuing 
as the military and evil head of Michigan Territory and "Upper Canada " 

aeemlnt° of the' "''°S^ '' ''.' ''''"" "'' ''"^'^' ^"' ^^°"^^ '^ ^^^^^^ in the discour- 
agement of the assemblage of any material force of the enemy in the vicinity of Detroit 
several small parties of British assembled on the Thames shortly after the Jthdrawal of 
the Amenca, troops from that territory. Cass' resources were such, however, as to preclude 
the possibility of any dangerous attack from this source. 

Following the evacuation of the British.who had occupied Detroit a little more than 
one year, the inhabitants were practically destitute. Crops had been destroyed, houses had 
been plundered and almost all the available supplies had been confiscated. Cast off by the 
English, the Indians were in still sadder plight. Many were in a state bordering on starva- 
tion, a circumstance which induced detached parties to attack and rob isolated settlers 
Several whites were killed, their buildings burned and their cattle stolen. As a result of 
these forays the local militia was assembled and severe punishment was ministered in sev- 
eral instances the bulk of the hostile savages finally withdrawing either into Canada or into 
the vicinity about Saginaw bay. 

Following the example of General Harrison, Cass sought to placate the unfriendlv sav- 
ages by assuring them fair treatment at the hands of the whites. During the governor's 
temporary absences from Detroit, Colonel Butler of Kentucky and Lieutenam Colonel 
Croghan were left in command of the post. Butler led an unimportant expedition against 
the English to the eastward of Lake Erie and shortlv after his return to Detroit left for 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 85 

his home. Lieutenant Colonel Croghan assumed the American command and on March 
21, 1 814, Fort Maiden was evacuated by the American force, which had held the place 
since Procter's flight. 

The British, under Colonel McDougall, still held Mackinac and the Lake Superior re- 
gion, and were reported to be fitting a naval force at Georgian Bay, preparatory to again 
contesting the supremacy of the lower lakes. For some time prior to the war of 181 2, the 
English had also maintained a garrison at St. Joseph's island, between Mackinac island 
and the Sault. Captain Arthur St. Clair, who was in command of five vessels of the lake 
fleet, was joined by Croghan and a portion of the Detroit force in July, the resultant com- 
mand leaving Detroit during that month to attack the enemy in the north. Proceeding to 
St. Joseph's island, the Americans found the fort unoccupied. In the meantime McDoug- 
all, at Mackinac, had opportunity to strengthen his position and on the arrival of the Ameri- 
cans at the straits, was enabled to show a much superior force. A shore party was landed, 
however, which, with the support of the guns of the ships, engaged the English advance for- 
tifications in a hot encounter, finally dislodging the enemy. A detachment of hostile Indians 
harrassed the Americans from the cover of the woods and as the landing party were unable 
to reply from shelter, it was forced to retire, leaving several killed, among whom were 
Major Holmes, Captain Van Horn and Lieutenant Jackson. A second attack being deemed 
inexpedient, St. Clair withdrew his fleet with the exception of two ships, the Scorpion and 
Tigress, a council of officers having decided that an effective blockade would soon force the 
enemy to surrender their temporarily invulnerable position. Following the withdrawal of 
St. Clair, however, McDougall surprised one of the ships in a night attack from small 
boats and later succeeded in capturing her consort. He held Mackinac until the fort was 
turned over to the American government under the terms of the treaty of Ghent which ter- 
minated the war. 

Prior to and during July, both General Harrison and Governor Cass were engaged in 
the promotion of treaty agreements with the Indians of the northwest. Both followed a 
policy of purchasing lands from the savages and of recommending the strict observation on 
the parts of the settlers of Indian property rights except on the lands so purchased. On 
July 22d the second treaty of Greenville was concluded with the Wyandots, Delawares, 
Shawnees, Senecas and Miamis, General Harrison and Governor Cass acting as commis- 
sioners on behalf of the United States. Under this agreement these tribes engaged to assist 
the United States in war with the British and with the hostile tribes. Thus peace was tem- 
porarily restored in and about Detroit. Freedom, however, from Indian raids was short 
lived, repeated outbreaks occurring within the year. 

The war in the east, along the Niagara frontier, was still being vigorously waged by 
both the British and Americans. Congress now adopted extreme measures to add to the 
efficiency of the army. General Wilkinson, in command in the east, had suffered defeat 
and a heavy loss in an expedition agamst the British at the Canadian river La Cole. Every 
available man was needed in this emergency to swell the command of General Izard, Wil- 
kinson's successor. General Brown, of the eastern army, advanced into Canada and Gov- 
ernor Cass sent from Detroit nearly all of the regulars comprising the garrison of the place. 
This encouraged the Indians in Michigan to further depredations. Ananias McMillan, a 
resident of Detroit, was shot from ambush, almost in sight of the fort, and other settlers 
suffered similar fates. With no regular soldiers at his disposal. Governor Cass called for 
volunteers whom he could lead against the savages. A considerable force responded, and so 
determined an advance was made that the savages who had fled to the woods for protection 



86 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

were overtaken and severely punished, many of their number falHng before the muskets 
of the volunteers. A flag of truce was sent to the Americans and most of the hostile Indians 
withdrew to the Saginaw valley, leaving Detroit again safe from attack. 

The war with England was ended by the treaty of Ghent, December, 1814. England 
hastened to sign this treaty because she needed all of her troops to defend herself in Europe. 
Shortly after the treaty Napoleon escaped from Elba and began gathering his troops to 
oppose the northern armies; he met them at the battle of Waterloo, in 1815. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Readjustment of Affairs in Detroit Under Cass — Record Concerning General Lewis Cass — 
Dawn of Brighter Era in Detroit and Michigan Territory— New Order of Govern- 
ment—The Cass Code— First Newspaper Established— Birth of the University of 
Michigan— Liberal Appropriations and Subscriptions for the Support of the New 
Institution — Building of New Highways— First Steamboat Arrives in Detroit— En- 
largement of Michigan Territory — Development and Prosperity— Bank of Michigan 
Established— Bishop Flaget Visits Detroit— Cass Effects Further Indian Treaties- 
Expedition to Lake Superior District — General Cass Secures Treaty with the Chip- 
pewas— Governor's Expedition One of Great Value— Michigan Secures Federal 
Representation— Woodbridge Elected— Other Delegates From the Territory— A 
Remarkable Campaign— Father Richard, a Catholic Priest, Elected Michigan Dele- 
gate to Congress. 

Though the war with England still retained the characteristics of a hot and somewhat 
doubtful contest in the east, Detroit, now that the Indians had been forced into submission, 
was enabled to concern itself with the readjustment of its own affairs. The community, long 
the victim of arrogant misgovernment and but recently relieved of the brunt of the burden 
of frontier warfare, had arrived at a crisis whose vital import was fully appreciated by one 
man. Fortunately for the town of Detroit and for the Territory of Michigan, that man 
was none other than the new governor, Lewis Cass. Though his motives in pressing so 
vigorously the charges brought against his predecessor have been severely impugned, his 
zeal for the public welfare and his untiring efforts to meet with precision and force the 
difficult governmental problems confronting the early days of his administration, have 
stamped him as a loyal citizen and a man of unquestionable merit and ability. 

Of the forebears and early days of Lewis Cass, Andrew C. McLaughlin has written: 
One who examines the genealogical records of New England will observe that the name 
Cass appears not infrequently. One branch of the family is easily traceable to James Cass of 
Westerly, from whom seems to have come Joseph Cass, who was living in Exeter, New 
Hampshire, in 1680. A son of Joseph who bore the national praenomen of Jonathan, was, 
in the latter half of the last century, a young man of vigor and promise in Exeter. At the 
outbreak of the Revolution Jonathan was an energetic young blacksmith, too full of life and 
eager restlessness to be wedded to the fiery joys of the forge, and too full of patriotism to 
await the second call to arms when the battle of Lexington proclaimed that war was 
actually begun. * * * in 1781 he married Mary Oilman, who belonged to a branch of 
the Oilman family which traces its ancestry back to Norfolk, England, where in 1558 were 
living the forefathers of those who in 1635 landed in Boston, and began life in the New 
World. In a house which stood on the east side of Cross street, now Cass street, Exeter, 
Lewis Cass was born October 9, 1782. Lewis was the eldest of six children, the youngest 
of whom was only eight years his junior. His boyhood fell in the uneasy, anxious times 
of the confederation. The air was ful! of political clamor, and electric with dreaded disas- 
ter. State selfishness and political greed were the accompaniments of personal selfishness. 
Avarice and dishonesty were the natural effects of a demoralizing war. In after years 

87 



^^ DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

Le^^•is Cass looked back upon those boyhood years with a memory retentiye of their de^n 
.mpress:ons If m later years he had a neyer failing loye for the Union and the constit^ 
.on, he might trace .t m part to the relief that came when the constitution was adopted and 
cIZT "^,V^^°"§^^- ^ shadow. "You remember, young man/" he said to Jame's A. 
Garfield m 1861, that the constitution did not take efifect until nine states had ratified it 
My natiye state was the ninth. It hung a long time in doubtful scale whether nine would 
agree; bu when at last New Hampshire ratified the constitution, it was a day of great re- 
joicmg. My mother held me, a little boy of six years, m her arms at the wmdow and 
pon: ed to me the bonfires that were blazing in the streets of Exeter, and told me t^^t the 
people were celebratmg the adoption of the constitution. And so I saw the constitution 

It usually falls to the lot of the biographer to narrate at least a few instances of prophet- 
c precoc,^-. But none are to be told of Lewis Cass. It is clear that in early years he was 
fond of study, and eyn.ced a capacity that encouraged his father to giye him an education 
beyond the means, one would think, of the mechanic and soldier, who must haye had some 
difficulty m makmg both ends meet. In 1792, when the boy was scarcely ten years old. he 
en ered the academy of Exeter and came into the stimulating presence of Benjamin Ab- 
bott. The stern disaplme and accurate scholarship of the principal had a moulding influ- 

n ±e°hfe o^T A^ ''''''''\ ''1 ''' ^^^" ^^^"^ '' *^^ ^^^^^^^ --^ -P-^-^ ones 

m the hfe of Cass. Meantime h,s father, who had been unsuccessfully presented to Wash- 
ington as a suitable marshal for the state, had accepted a commission in the army raised 
for the defense of the western frontier, and was with "Mad" Anthony Wayne in his cunnino- 
and yigorous campaign. Major Cass (the father) was left in command at Fort Hamilton 
(Cincinnati) and retained command until the treaty of Greenyille. * * * A few months 
passed in teaching in an academy seem to haye satisfied young Cass that the uneyentful life 
o a schoolmaster vyas not to his liking. The Major had returned from the new west with 
glowing accounts of opportunities, and pedagogics were laid aside for the hardships and 
excitement of pioneering. The family slowly made their way into the Ohio yalley. Lewis 
with his bundle on his back, plodded oyer the mountains into the "Old Northwest " 

Lewis Cass seems to haye settled in Marietta in 1799 and to haye begun there his 
study of the law, in the office of Mr. R. J. Meigs, who was afterward goyernor of the state 
of Ohio. Lewis spent a portion of his time on his father's farm in the wilderness The set 
tiers in the west of after years needed to tell him nothing. He knew their needs, he real- 
ized their capacities, he sympathized with their longings. All this appreciation of north- 
western characteristics moulded his career and increased his usefulness 

Cass came to Detroit as an officer in that army of Ohio yolunteers which Hull led to 

d 1 ieTof 7" '''°" °^>^^°"- ^^ ^^- thirty-one years old when he assumed the arduous 
duties of his new office as goyernor of Michigan Territory 

Under the peculiar circumstances of location and pohtical enyironment, Detroit had 
neyer been considered, saye for the fur trade, as a place of substantial business importance 
s strategic yalue alone had made the town the bone of contention first between the French 
and English and later between Great Britain and the newly established American con 
federacy. But during the Cass administration dawned a broader and bri^^hter era 

At the time the new goyernor assumed office. Michigan Territory vyas still struggling 
mder the onus of those unprecedented laws enacted by the goyernor and judges subse|.en^ 

n, .?r\ , r '°"'''"' °' ^°^''""°'" ^''' ^^^ *° --^P^-' ^1- Woodward code 

and to establish a truly democratic form of goyernoment for Detroit. On October 24 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 89 

1815, Judges Witherell and Griffin, acting in conjunction with Cass, adopted an enactment 
recreating the rule of the town trustees. The act provided that the highest municipal au- 
thority should be vested in the chairman of the trustees, to be chosen from its numbers by 
the board, instead of in the mayor. At the election of November 30, 1815, the town 
board was elected, Solomon Sibley being made chairman and Thomas Rowland secretary. 
This board held office until the election of its successors, which occurred on the first Mon- 
day in May, 1816. Following that date the town elections were held annually. The new 
town board was formally organized at a meeting held on December 4, 181 5, at which time 
sixteen general regulations were adopted for the government of the community. The last 
vestige of the British regime was obliterated by the setting aside of the old English laws, 
some of which were still in force in Detroit. Tn their stead what was known as the Cass code 
was ratified and this superseded in their entirety, as well, whatever laws of the Northwest 
Territory had been applicable in Michigan. 

But the planning of the readjustment of the laws of Michigan Territory was not the 
only problem arising to vex the administration during 1815-16. Aside from the settling of 
the' Indian troubles, Cass, in order to maintain the dignity of his government, became in- 
volved in a sharp controversy with the British military authorities who sought, in more 
than one instance, opportunity for a breach of any good feeling that might otherwise have 
been possible. As late as 18 16 the English openly violated American rights by stopping 
and searching, at various points on the Great Lakes, Detroit bound vessels. In addition to 
this, a series of letters in the archives of the state department at Lansing, attest a vigor- 
ous correspondence between Cass and Colonel James in command of the British forces, rela- 
tive to various troubles with the soldiers in Canada. Nine months after the close of the 
war a British lieutenant and boat's crew entered the United States in search of a deserter 
from one of the men of war. Several houses were entered and searched, much to the dis- 
comfort of their owners. Niles states that the party even policed a section of highway with 
sentinels and fired on American citizens. The invaders finally found and arrested the de- 
serter, but McLaughlin writes : "Meanwhile the behavior of the party had so exasperated 
the citizens that they flew to arms and turned the tables on the intruders by arresting the 
lieutenant and conducting him with due pomp to the fort, while the boat's crew hurried 
their captive on board their vessel." Colonel Miller gave up jurisdiction in the matter to 
Governor Cass as the head of the civil authority. Commodore Owen demanded the return 
of the lieutenant. Cass answered at some length. With only a half starved territory at 
his back he knew how to resent contempt and neglect for well known principles of law. 
Instead of complying with the demand for the lieutenant, the man was imprisoned, tried, 
convicted and fined. The Washington government was then appealed to by the British, but 
the action of Cass was upheld. 

Two of the most important events occurring in 1817 were the establishment of De- 
troit's first semi-permanent newspaper, the Gazette, and the birth of the University of 
Michigan. The first issue of the Gazette appeared July 25th, under the management of Shel- 
don and Reed. Its original home was in what was known as the old Seek house, in the 
vicinity of Wayne and Atwater streets. Governor Cass encouraged the new journal and 
was for many years its patron. 

Sitting as a legislative body, the governor and judges passed, on August 26th of that 
year, an act which provided for an appropriation of three hundred and eighty dollars for 
the establishment of a university. So great was the zeal of the pioneers and so proud were 
they of this new institution, which was destined to rise and outstrip many of the older centers 



90 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



of learning in the east, that they were wilHng to make sacrifices that few can fully an.re 
ciate to-day. The act provided for an additional tax of fifteen per cent and vvithTn . . 
rnne days of the passage of the act. the corner stone of the uniJ^Trs^bui n t^l^H: 
chosen site benig on the west side of Bates street, midway between Larned and Vo 
streets. In addition to several succeeding appropriation J for rh::upport f h nlX^ 
tut,on, mdiv:dual. subscriptions were made by many of the ambitious citizens of thi Zl 
and a portion of the rehef funds sent to Detroit for the relief of the fire sufferer of 80 ' 
which had never been distributed, was also added to the university fund. Under the ori'mai 
act, which was drawn up by Judge Woodward with all the flourishes of his grandi oau^'e 
the university was to include thirteen professorships and was to be known^ s the ''C th 
olepistemiad, or University of Michigania." 

The youth of the territory were to receive instruction in universal science to be taught 
by the president o the university; in "literature, embracing all the sciences relltive to l^n 
gv:ager m natural history, mathematics, chemistry, natural philosophy, astronomy eth cs" 
economics mediane military science, and in what was termed "intellectual science ' 7h ic h 
was to embrace the 'sciences relative to the minds of animals, to the human mmd sp.ntual 
existence, to tl^ Deity and to religion." Before the comer stone had been pu nto po on 
before even it had been cut, the thirteen professorships were divided between two men the 
president and vice-president of the university, the Rev. John Montieth, the palT of the 
Protestant church, and the Rev. Gabriel Richard, Roman Catholic priest o the par sh of Ste 
Anne s, respectively. In 1818 what was known as the "Classical Academy" wa tabl shed 
as a part of the university, in charge of H. M. Dickie, and in the summer of the same vear 
James Connor, Oliver Williams and Benjamin Stead were appointed as directors ofT "Lan 
casterian school, which opened under the tutelage of a Massachusetts man, Lemuel Shattuck 
The original university act was superseded, April 30, 1821, by a subsequei^t act unde which 
the jurisdiction of the affairs of the university was placed in the hands of he govern- of 
Michigan Territory and a body of twenty trustees. Many names prominent in the ear^y 
annals o Michigan were associated with the university, which continued at Detroit w th 
varying fortunes, until its removal to Ann Arbor, its present location, by act of the sTa t e 
legislature, approved March 20, 1837. ^^^ 

Almost as important as the adjustment of the territory's internal civil affairs was the 
es abhshment of convenient transportation facilities between Detroit and the settlements in 
Ohio and Indiana. The only roads of consequence were those forced through the w Ider 
ness by the movement of troops and military supplies. The settlement of the territ^rv hv 
eastern immigrants was one of the governor's fondest ambitions, but this could not be real 
ized as long as the territory was inaccessible. Before reliable communication could be es- 
tab ished an extensive policy of road building was necessary, but this could not be carried 
on to advantage until the title to large tracts of land in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana could be 
egally wrested from the Indians. In :8i6, Indiana Territor^ forced its way m o the uln 
the new state taking with it a portiori of the southwest corner of Michigan This sm"rred 
Michigan to action. The construction of roads was a necessity. Accordfngly D i c n Mc ' 
Arthur was appointed to co-operate with Cass in affecting additional treaties with the In- 
dians. In 1818 large portions of Ohio and Indiana were ceded by the Indians I„ the 
same year Governor Cass impressed upon the federal government the importance of a 
road "around the end of Lake Erie, as a highway for commerce and an actual necessity for 
military movements in case of war." The struggling territory then made an appropriation for 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 91 

the building of a road between Detroit and Chicago. A passable wagon road was the re- 
Important as these measures were, however, August 27th of this year of 1 818 brought 
forth an event of the greatest moment to the town of Detroit. Before the astonished 
caze of the populace, nearly all of whom thronged the river front, a strange vessel, sans 
canvas, sans sweeps, ploughed her way past the islands and up stream towards the cty. 
Whitened foam sprang from her glistening paddlewheels and fiery sparks fell from her 
stack She was the "Walk-in-the-Water," the first steamboat to stem the current of the 
Detroit river or to plough the waters of the western inland seas. The steamer made regular 
trips between Buffalo and Detroit and her owners solicited both freight and passenger 

patronage. ^^^ ^^^.^.^^ ^^ Michigan during this year, of Wisconsin and a part of Minnesota. 
Cass sought the establishment of a general assembly for the territory. Of the governor s 
effort in this respect Andrew C. McLaughlin says, in his life of Lewis Cass : He adhered 
with tenacity to the doctrine that the people should have a direct voice in appointments and 
in other political affairs in the territory. In the spring of 1818 the people were invited to 
decide by a general vote whether or not to proceed to the semi-representative government 
permitted by the ordinance. But the lethargic French and others who appreciated the good 
they had voted against change. For five years the governor and judges retained their au- 
tocratic position, at the end of which time the second form was established." 

The changes already wrought in governmental affairs; the re-establishment of the 
rights of the people, marked the beginning of an era of business development and pros- 
perity Settlers began to arrive; government land began to be sold; there began to be a 
demand for reliable banking institutions. To meet this need, the Bank of Michigan. De- 
troit's second financial institution, was established during this year (1818). The new e^-- 
tablishment occupied a building at the corner of Jefferson avenue and Randolph street and 
numbered among its stockholders Catherine Navarre and Mary Devereaux, and the follow- 
ing prominent citizens of the territory: General Alexander Macomb. Otis Fisher, James 
Abbott Stephen Mack. Solomon Sibley, Benjamin Stead, Charles Lanman. DeGarmo 
Tones Henry Jackson Hunt, Joseph Campau, Henry B. Brevoort, John R. Williams, Au- 
gustus B Woodward. Andrew G. Whitney, William Woodbridge, James May, Peter Des- 
noyers, Ebenezer Sibley, John Anderson, John H. Piatt, Barnabas Campau, 
John J Deming, William Brown, Philip Lecuyer and Abraham Edwards. John K. Will- 
iams was made the bank's first president and James McCloskey served as cashier until suc- 
ceeded by C C Trowbridge, who assumed the office only after McCloskey had been dis- 
missed under accusation of having applied a portion of the bank's funds to his own uses. 

Earlier in the year plans were laid for the disposition of certain public lands which 
were ordered placed on sale following the completion of the government surveys. The 
reports of the government surveyors had been such that a general opinion was disseminated 
to the effect that most of Michigan was a desolate waste. On this account the federal gov- 
ernment altered the allotments formeriy made to cover grants to soldiers, by limiting Michi- 
gan's quota, offering instead lands in Missouri and other states. Governor Cass had been 
doing all in his power to promote settlement within the territory and this action on the 
part of the Washington government promised to greatly retard the realization of the gov- 
ernor's plans A local organization, known as the Pontiac Land Company, was, however, 
perfected two prominent merchants. Mack and Conant. acting as the active promoters 
The company included neariy all of the stockholders of the Bank of Michigan, and acquired 



92 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



a considerable acreage in Oakland county, adjacent to and including the present city of 
Pontiac A busniess directory of Detroit compiled in 1819 shows that there were at that I 
time ,n the c.ty watchmakers, blacksmiths, gunsmiths, carpenters, coopers, cabinet-makers 
coach-makers, wheelwrights, tanners, harness and shoe makers, masons, tailors hatters' 

fn" ke'eperT'"'''' '""^ ^'^"''" '^^'" ""'" '"*"" ^'"""'''^ '^""^^ *^^^ "merchants, and eighi 

FI.P-e?"o{Ti? '^'V^' '°™"' ''°"' °^ '^' "'^ ^''- ^"""'^ ^'^"'•'^'^ ^^^ l^'d, Bishop 
Flaget, of Baltimore, being present at the ceremony. Shortly prior to this time a division 

had arisen in the parish of Ste. Anne over the removal of the dead from the bunal ground 
necessitated by the extension of Jefferson avenue, and because of the efforts of Fathi Gab^ 
nel Richard to build a new church. Bitter feeling had forced the issue to an open quarrel 
This brought forth a letter from the bishop sharply reprimanding Father Richard's oppon- 
ents and interdicting the church. Bishop Flaget's visit was made primarily for the purpose 
of restoring peace in the parish. His party was met at some distance from the city by an 
escort and following his arrival a reconciliation was soon affected. The congregation con- 
ented to the removal of the burial ground and agreed to contribute to a fund fof the buHd- 
ng of the new church. The bishop "promised to raise the interdict against their chu" h 
to permi burials in the cemetery, and to send them a priest once a month. The prelim 
maries of the reconciliation having been satisfactorily adjusted, the bishop determined to 
render the ceremony of removing the interdict as public and solemn as possible. Accord- 
ingly, on Tuesday the 9th of June, he was conducted to their church in grand procession 
the di charge of cannon announcing the approaching ceremony, and the music of the regi^ 
mental band mingling with that of the chorister.. An affecting public reconciliation took 
place between the schismatics and their pastor, Gabriel Richard, who shed tears of joy on 
the occasion. A collection of five hundred dollars was taken upon the spot, which the 
bishop considered a substantial omen of a permanent peace." That the erection of the church 
was begun at once is evidenced by an advertisement quoted from the Detroit Gazette of 
tTVi f!'u "^'■^ J-^-"' Offered by Gabriel Richard, rector of Ste. Ante two 
hundred hard dollars will be given for twenty toises of long stone, of Stony island dd7v 
ered at Detroit on the wharf of Mr. Jacob Smith, or two hundred and forty dollars' if dl- 
hvered on the church ground. One hundred barrels of lime are wanted immediatelv 
Five shillings will be given per barrel at the river side, and six shillings delivered on the 
church ground." During the building of the church. Father Richard'f shin plas ers 1 ch 
he issued in payment for material and labor, were counterfeited so extensively as o 
hrea en rum for the good father. The culprit who committed the forgery, however wis 
frightened out of the territory before the authorities could succeed in apprehending him 

While the beginnings of industrial progress were under way in Michigan Territory the 
governor was directing much of his attention to the framing of important treaties wiU th 
ndians. Serving as Indian commissioner for the territory between the Great Lakes and 
the Mississippi river north of Illinois, most of the treaties of the time bear the .^overno "s 
signature. During t8i8 Cass met with the savages at St. Mail's, Ohio, secu -ing Thi 
conference title to a large area for the government. During the next year and in isL I e 
secured reaties at S.aginaw and Chicago respectively, which transferred to the vvhit 
nearly a 1 of the present state of Michigan south of the Grand ri^.er. Much of the topog- 
raphy o the lake region was known only in a most general way even at this time the onfy 
information available having been derived from trappers and missionaries. Vague rumos 
of mineral wealth had long been in circulation. Cass determined to inform himself of the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 93 

extent c f the territory's resources and asked authority to map the country and to investigate 

its flora and fauna. 

I Having secured the desired authority and the services of an officer of enguieers, Cass 

set out for the Lake Superior country, accompanied by Henry R. Schoolcraft who was to 
I conduct the scientific observations. With the expedition went an escort of ten soldiers 
j from the regular army and a corps of interpreters and voyageurs, the party being further 
j augmented upon its arrival at Mackinac. Near the Sault Ste. Marie was a plot of ground 
! which had been ceded to the United States. This, however, had never been occupied by the 
' American government, though the right of the United States to the land had always been 
I observed in the various treaties with the northern tribes. As the Chippewas were still re- 
I ceiving gifts from the British government, much to the concern of the Americans, Cass now 
determined to take possession of the lands in question, and to effect a treaty with that 
tribe. On his arrival at the Sault, Cass perceived at once that the Indians were completely 
under the influence of the English. Decisive measures were necessary. Perhaps the best 
idea of the courage and precision with which the governor met this and similar difficulties 
can be gained from McLaughlin's narrative which is based on Schoolcraft's "Summary Nar- 
rative" and on the account of Charles C. Trowbridge, who likewise was with the party. Mc- 
Laughlin says : 

The braves, evidently restless and out of humor, assembled to meet the Americans. Ar- 
rayed in their best attire, and many of them adorned with British medals, they seated 
themselves with even more than their wonted solemnity and dignity, and prepared to hear 
what Governor Cass desired. At first pretending not to know of any French grant, they 
finally intimated that our government might be permitted to occupy the place if we did 
not use it as a military station. The governor, perceiving that their independence and 
boldness verged on impudence and menace, answered decisively that as surely as the rismg 
sun would set, so surely would there be an American garrison sent to that pomt, whether 
they received the grant or not. The excitement which had been ready to break forth now 
displayed itself. The chiefs disputed among themselves, some evidently councilling mod- 
eration, others favoring hostilities. 

A tall and stately looking chieftain, dressed in a British uniform with epaulets, lost 
patience with moderation and delay. Striking his spear into the ground, he drew it forth 
again, and, kicking away the presents that lay scattered about, strode in high dudgeon 
out of the assembly. * * * The dissatisfied chiefs went directly to their lodges, and in 
a moment a British flag was flying in the very faces of the little company of white men. 
The soldiers were at once ordered under arms. Everyone expected an immediate attack 
for the Indians, greatly outnumbering the Americans, had not disguised their impudence 
and contempt. In an instant Governor Cass took his resolution Rejecting the offers of 
those who volunteered to accompany him, with no weapon in his hands, and only his in- 
terpreter beside him, he walked straight to the middle of the Indian camp, tore down the 
British flag, and trampled it under his feet. Then addressing the astonished and terror- 
stricken braves, he warned them that two flags could not fly over the same territory, and 
should they raise any but the American flag, the United States would puts its strong foot 
upon them and crush them. He then turned upon his heel and walked back to his own 
tent, carrying the British ensign with him. An hour of indecision among the Indians en- 
sued. Their camp was quickly cleared of women and children, an indication that a battle 
was in immediate prospect. 

The Americans, looking to their guns, listened for the war whoop and awaited attack. 
But the intrepidity of Governor Cass had struck the Indians with amazement. It showed a 
rare knowledge of Indian character, of which his own companions had not dreamed. Sub- 
dued by the boldness and decision of this action, the hostile chiefs forgot their swaggering 
confidence, and in a few hours signed the treaty which had been offered them. 



^4 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

Following the perfecting of the treaty with the Chippewas, the governor's expedition 
proceeded to explore and n.ap the Lake Superior region at its leisure^choolcraft making 
crful observations of the n.ineral resources. After investigating the territory at the ha5 
of he M,ss>ss,pp,. the travelers returned home, via Green Bay and Chicago. Cass is cred 

'agold Detfo'^V, "7"'; "^" ^° '^^'^ ''''"''' ''^ ^^^ ^"^-" ^-'^ ^^^-^ Chi- 
cago and Detroit^ The charts and maps, as well as the other information obtained bv this 

expedition proved later on to be of the utmost value in furthering immigration into the the, 
more remote parts of the territory. In 1820 a regular survey fystem was adopted which 
enab ed the du-.s.on of the land into townships and sections, fhe'latter numbering from a 
north and south mendian, and from an east and west base line. 

Owing to the failure of the people to follow the governor's effort to bring about the 

ZITT:!: r'^°'1 '^f '^^"^^- '^^ ^^^^-^^^-^^ ^^-'^ '^^^ - representative t c':! 
gress. The old ordmance of 1787 was still operative 'in the northwest and though Michigan 
had a population sufficient to justify federal representation, the ordinance specifically pfo 

was a « ;;: Zf '.T'^'^T' '°"" '^ ^^^^^^ ""^'' '^'^ ^^■■"^°'->' ^ad advanced to what 
was called the second form of government, by establishing an assembly. In 1810 however 

congress passed an act relieving Michigan of the fulfillment of this requirement 

iam wln^', "^''' if ^"^"'f representation granted, an election was held, in which Will- 
iam Woodbndge. collector of customs and secretary of the territorv. defeated Henrv 
Jackson Hunt Judge Woodward. John R. Williams and James McCloskey. Woodward re- 
eved but half as many votes as did the third lowest candidate and his defeat erdenced 
hat unpop.dan ty which later led to his enforced retirement from the public affairs of the 
nmrl7\u 1 ^''' """"^ ^'' '^'''''''' Woodbridge was forced to resign his new 

tifn Th 1 7 f IT' *? '"^^"' ^^^'"^* ^^^ ^^°^^'"^- -°- ^'-" °- federal posi- 
tion. The election of Solomon Sibley filled Woodbridge's unexpired term. Sibley being suc- 

c^gres ' fI hir R r^ T'''''\ T '''' ^^^'^°''^ ^"^^^ ^^^^^P--^^ ^ constituency in 
13/ .^I^'^^-^d ^^'-ved from 1823 until 1825. In those davs there was no civil 

service and no cavilling about officials mingling in politics 

c.nH-f r'^."^"? r ^- ^^'^"^ '"^ -^°^" ^'^^'^' '■^^^'^^'- '" '^'^ land office, were prominent 
andidates for delegates to congress in iS^a.Major Biddle placed the management of hi 
campaign in the hands of Attorney William Fletcher, and Wing entrusted his cause to the 
vigilance of John Hunt afterward supreme justice. Just as L canvass was well unde 
way the candidates were inform.ed that Father Richard was being boomed as a third can- 
didate by the French residents. At first the idea of a Roman Catholic priest, in charg of 

the United State . should become a candidate for so important an office, seemed preposter- 
ous, but the popular priest gained ground in an alarming fashion. 

On June 9, 1823, Father Richard applied for citizenship papers, but Mr. Fletcher who 
^bt T '^'"^"PP^'"^^^ '^'^'^ J^^tice of Wayne county by Governor Cass, raised the point 
hat the county court was not the proper tribunal for granting such papers His col 
leagues. Judges Witherell and Lecuyer, however, issued the papers on Jtme 28th. and the 
presiding judge found his political candidate face to face with a dangerous competitor 
The first candidates in the field had already subsidized the press. The Gazette utterly i^^ 
nored the pretensions of Father Richard. The campaign caused great excitement and prt 
duced some remarkable ruptures. John R. Williams, a merchant of the town and son of 
Thomas Williams a prominent Briti.sh official, and Celia Campau, sister of the wealthy Jo- 
seph Campau, had been reared in the Catholic faith and was a warden of Ste Anne's He 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 95 

had been elected a delegate to the convention and he undertook to head off Father Rich- 
ard's campaign and to compel him to withdraw from the race. He issued a circular m the 
French language setting forth the trials and perils of a church deserted by its pastor and 
calling upon the straying shepherd to return to his flock. Father Richard said he had a 
perfect right to become p candidate and upon his refusal to withdraw, John R. Williams 
and his uncle Joseph Campau left the church never to return. They became Free Masons 
and died full of years, honored and wealthy, but they were apostates and were buried in uncon- 
secrated soil. (Campau had been a Free Mason many years and was treasurer of the Ma- 
sonic Lodge in 1803.) Then the rival candidates looked about for some means to compel 
the withdrawal of the priest, and at first they were apparently successful. Three years be- 
fore this time Francis Labadie had been accused of leaving his wife, Apoline Girardin, in 
the parish of St. Berthier, Canada. He came to Detroit, became a member of Ste. Anne's, 
and married Marie Ann Griffard. widow of Louis Dehetre, the ceremony being performed 
on February 17, 18 17. Father Richard, in the discharge of his duty, tried to make Labadie 
abandon his new wife, and return to his lawful mate, but Labadie refused to obey. Then 
Father Richard gave three public warnings to Labadie for his contumacy, but without effect, 
whereupon he formally excommunicated him on July 16, 181 7. Labadie took his revenge 
by bringing suit for defamation of character and employing Lawyer George A. O'Keefe 
to prosecute the case. Father Richard employed William Woodbridge to defend him. In 
the winter of 1821 the supreme court rendered a verdict for Labadie in the sum of 
$1,116, but Father Richard refused to pay. As the judgment was still hanging over him, 
and Wing, one of the candidates for congressional delegate, was sheriff, the priest was 
taken on a writ of execution and locked in jail. This merely served to increase his popu- 
larity, for his parishioners now considered him a persecuted man, and the French popula- 
tion rallied to his support. As a final resort the Wing and Biddle factions tried to unite 
against Father Richard. Both managers were scheming for their personal advantage. 
Hunt thought that if Biddle would resign the land ofBce to Wing, the latter would be 
content to retire from the field. Fletcher, it is said, wanted Biddle to promise that if he 
was elected to congress he would favor the appointment of himself (Fletcher) to the su- 
preme court, then about to be reorganized. Fletcher denied that he had tried to make such 
a bargain, and in the wrangling that ensued between the managers. Hunt and Fletcher came 
near meeting on the field of honor. The election occurred on the first Tuesday of Septem- 
ber, and the early returns showed that Father Richard was probably elected. The returns 
were slow in coming in. John P. Sheldon, editor of the Gazette, delayed issuing his paper 
for three days in the hope that full returns would show a different result, but with the coun- 
ties of Macomb and St. Clair unreported, the paper came out with the following result : 
Father Richard, 372; Wing, 286; Biddle, 235; Whitney, 143; McCloskey, 134, and Will- 
iams 41. Subsequent returns did not alter the result, and the notice of election was handed 
to Father Richard in jail, and he was thereupon released. The defeated factions were very 
glum over the election, but the French were jubilant. A member of congress cannot be 
held in jail on a civil process during his term of office, so Sheriff Austin E. Wing un- 
locked the doors that shut Father Richard from his liberty, and the triumphant priest 
walked forth to be greeted by his ardent supporters. Major Biddle contested the seat, but 
the committee on elections allowed his petition to slumber in a pigeon-hole and never in- 
vestigated it or reported on the subject. 

Of the successful candidate's subsequent career much has been written. The authors of 
Landmarks of Wayne County say: "Father Richard's personality excited much interest m 



96 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Washington, as no Catholic priest had ever before been a member of congress His eaunt 
sepulchral figure and face, his attire, which was black throughout, with small clothes silk 
stockmgs, silver shoe buckles, his broken English, his quaint ways and copious use of snuff 
attracted much attention. A number of his fellow congressmen talked with him one dav' 
and in answer to questions he said he came there to do his people some good 'But ' he 
modestly added, 'I do not see how I can do it; I do not understand legislation- I want to 
give them good roads if I can.' His hearers then and there said they would aid him and 
the result was the law of 1825. making appropriation for a road from Detroit to Chicao-o 
Father Richard died in Detroit September 13, 1832, following a collapse resulting from 
ministering to the Asiatic-plague sufferers." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Important Governmental Changes— Political Discontent— Petition to Congress— Establishing 
of Governor's Council— New Territorial Judges — Council Holds its First Meeting — 
Message of Governor Cass — Further Congressional Acts Relative to Michigan Ter- 
ritory — Important Indian Treaties Effected — Completion of the Erie Canal — Internal 
Improvements in Michigan — Detroit Municipal Government — New Capitol Occu- 
pied — Protest Against Formation of Huron Territory — Arrest of Editor of Ga- 
zette Arouses Popular Indignation. 

Probably no period Jn the history of the northwest has been productive of broader, 
more significant and more interesting governmental changes than that between the years 1820 
and 1825. With the coming of eastern settlers, and the resultant infusion of the fresh and 
vigorous political blood of the New England states, the public attention in Detroit during 
these years began to focus more sharply upon the community's civil needs. It is probable 
that the history of the United States affords no more striking political anomaly than that 
which presented itself at this time in Michigan Territory. This was the result of an inev- 
itable collision between the sturdy American ideas of self-government and the Old World 
belief in the necessity of submission to a preimposed authority. Into a community in which 
these latter ideas had become thoroughly implanted during the regime of both the early 
French and that of the later English occupation, came now the sons of Massachusetts, aflame 
with that zeal for political liberty which was the fruit of the New England town and local 
governments. These eastern institutions had flourished and waxed strong since the years 
prior to the Revolution, and now the influences of the most truly democratic government the 
world has known began to make themselves felt on the edge of the wilderness. Though 
the newcomers were but the vanguard of that tide of settlers that later flowed into Michi- 
gan upon the completion of the Erie canal, they brought with them an influence that not 
only afforded a stimulus to the dissatisfaction then existing politically in Detroit, but pro- 
vided fertile ground for the support of the policies of Governor Cass. 

There now began a period of gradual but constant withdrawal from previously existing 
civil standards. The public opinion became ever more firmly united in opposition to any 
form of government which sought to place the people under officials in whose selection the 
public had no part. The rule of the governor and judges and the centering in these offi- 
cials of both judicial and legislative powers now became an absurd impossibility. Wood- 
ward and his ally Griffin were still nominally a part of the Michigan government, but they 
stood for the old and now thoroughly detested regime. As a consequence, each rapidly lost 
any footing he might even then have had in the public esteem. Sensible of his unpopularity, 
Woodward absented himself for much of the time, and Griffin, left to stand by himself, 
made no attempt to press any original legislative ideas upon the public. 

As the culmination of the political discontent, a meeting of citizens was called at the 
council house, on March 11, 1822. Congress was petitioned to divorce the judicial and 
legislative branches of the government and was asked to "vest the latter in a certain num- 
ber of our citizens." Again, in October of the same year, a similar meeting was called and 
a second petition was drafted. Finally, in January of the following year, a statement of 

97 



98 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

facts was addressed to the judiciary committee of congress. This statement of facts recited 
at some length the reasons necessitating a new form of government in Michigan Terri- 
tory. These the Detroit Gazette, under date of January 24, 1823, set forth as follows: 

"The legislative board do not meet to do business at the time fixed by their own stat- 
utes for that purpose, and they have no known place of meeting; and, when they do meet, 
no public notice of the time or place is given ; and when that can be ascertained by inquiry, 
they are found sometimes at private rooms or offices, where none have a right, and few 
except those immediately interested in the passage of the laws have the assurance to intrude 
themselves, or can find room or seats if they should. Laws are frequently passed and others 
repealed, which take effect from the date, and vitally affect the rights of the citizens, and 
are not promulgated or made known to the community, for many months."' 

This concise arraignment had some weight with the judiciary committee and bore fruit 
much sooner than the most sanguine citizen had dared to hope. The congressional act of 
March 3, 1823, provided for the establishment of a governor's council which, with the exec- 
utive, should form the territorial government. To the people was left the election of 
eighteen candidates, from whom nine were selected by the president as the governor's coun- 
cillors. The news of the passage of the new law reached Detroit on March 27th, and though 
the act did not take effect until the following year, both Woodward and Griffin at once 
resigned as judges. They were succeeded by Solomon Sibley and John Hunt. The latter was a 
lawyer who had lived in the territory but four or five years, laeing a brother-in-law and part- 
ner of General Charles Larned, the attorney general. Judge Witherell, who still retained 
his office, was then made presiding judge of the territory. At about the same time an addi- 
tional judge, James Duane Doty, was appointed for the northern portion of the territory. 

Abraham Edwards was made president, and John P. Sheldon, editor of the Detroit 
Gazette, was appointed clerk of the newly made council, which held its first meeting June 
7, 1824. In his message to the councillors. Governor Cass advocated the completion of In- 
dian treaties under which operations might be carried on for the development of the mineral 
resources in the north, and the passage of legislation providing for the early establishment dl 
a general system of public schools. No important measures were adopted, however, by the 
first council. In 1825 congress passed further acts relative to Michigan Territory, under 
which is was provided that thirteen instead of nine councillors should constitute the local 
representation. Twenty-six instead of eighteen candidates were allowed, they being propor- 
tioned among the counties as follows : Wayne county, eight : Monroe county, six ; Oakland 
county, four; Macomb county, four; St. Clair county, two; and Brown, Crawford and 
Mackinac counties, two. 

A strong influence on public affairs was exerted during all this time by Governor Cass, 
most of whose attention was directed toward the further completion of Indian treaties, the 
popularization of government and the advancement of education. In one of his addresses 
on the latter subject, as reported in the Journal of the Legislative Council of the Territory 
of Michigan, 1826, he said: "Of all purposes to which a revenue derived from the people 
can be applied under a government emanating from the people, there is none more interest- 
ing in itself, nor more important in its effects, than the maintenance of a public and general 
course of moral and mental discipline. Many republics have preceded us in the progress of 
human society ; but they have disappeared, leaving behind them little besides the history of 
their follies and dissensions to serve as a warning to their successors in the career of self 
government. Unless the foundation of such government is laid in the virtue and intelligence 
of the community, they must be swept away by the first commotion to which political circum- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



99 



stances may give birth. Whenever education is diffused among the people generally, they 
will appreciate the value of free institutions ; and as they have the power, so must they have 
the will to maintain them. It appears to me that a plan may be devised which will not press 
too heavily upon the means of the country, and which will insure a competent portion of 
education to all youth in the territory." 

As the constant warfare between the Sacs, Foxes and Sioux Indians to the west was 
proving itself a source of danger on the frontier, as well as one of trouble to the federal 
government, Cass, in company with Governor Clark of Missouri, effected important trea- 
ties during the summer of 1825, at Prairie du Chien. The following year Cass and Colonel 
McKenney met the Chippewas at Fond du Lac. In return for annuities for school pur- 
poses promised by Governor Cass, the Indians granted the whites permission to locate and 
mine the valuable minerals of the north. 

In 1825 the Michigan government was further popularized by an act of congress which 
endowed the governor and council with authority to establish townships and arrange for the 
election of local officials as need arose. Though judicial officials were not at that time in- 
cluded in the provisions for elective selection, they became so at the instance of the governor. 
Of this example of the executive democracy of Cass, McLaughlin says: "Counties were 
laid out as rapidly as convenience directed. As the Americans came into the territory in 
greater numbers, the governor allowed the settlers in each locality to suggest names of 
persons to be appointed to local offices, and thus practically deprived himself of a prerogative 
which he might have used for his own ends. He adhered with tenacity to the doctrine that 
the people should have a direct voice in appointments and other political affairs in the ter- 
ritory." 

During the summer of 1825, settlement in Michigan received its greatest impetus as 
the result of the completion of the Erie canal. This important project marked the begin- 
ning of a fever for internal improvement; and this immediately stimulated that immigra- 
tion which alone could bring about the conquest of the northwest. Indeed, the term "internal 
improvement" soon came to be the shibboleth of the true pioneer. Such a conjunction of the 
waters of Lake Erie and her sister lakes with those of the Hudson river and the ^Vtlantic, 
resulted not alone in a material addition to the population of Detroit and the occupancy of 
much of the adjacent wild lands; it served as an example which, in later years, led the new 
state of Michigan into what, for a time, promised to be a most disastrous attempt toward 
internal improvements of her own. The exodus from the east, which threatened the pros- 
perity of many of the eastern cities, added continuously to the importance and general 
wealth of Detroit. As the land lying near the center of the city became of greater value, 
congress surrendered, in 1826, the last of the military reservation that had surrounded 
Forty Shelby, which stood, it will be remembered, on the present site of the federal building. 
This area, extending from the line of the Cass farm on the west, easterly to Griswold street, 
and from a point midway between Jefferson avenue and Earned street, 'northward to Michi- 
gan avenue, had included the old post burial ground. In this had been interred the bodies of 
those soldiers who died at the fort during the epidemic following the return of the troops 
from the battle oi the Thames, in 181 3. The opening of streets through this cemeter>' and 
the subsequent improvement of the vicinity led to a mild recurrence of the epidemic, which 
carried off among its victims the mayor of the city, Henry Jackson Hunt. In May of this 
year Detroit ceased to be, for the time, a regularly garrisoned post. Two companies of 
troops stationed at Fort Shelby were ordered to Green Bay and twelve months later the 
historic fort was razed to the ground. Detroit was organized as a city in 1824, and John R. 



100 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

Williams became the first mayor. In 1827 a new act of incorporation was passed, and in 
the same were noted "The mayor, recorder, aldermen, and freemen of the City of Detroit." 
The municipal officials at this time were made to include mayor, recorder, five aldermen, 
clerk, marshal, treasurer, supervisor, collector, assessor, and three constables. Shortly after 
this, two more aldermen were added to the city council, and work was begun for the im- ' 
provement of the river front and the completion of a sewage system. The public schools, 
which had hitherto been under the supervision of the governor and university trustees, were 
now given into the charge of the various local township governments. 

Following the delivery of an impressive address presented by the president of the legis- 
lative council, that body formally occupied for the first time the new capitol building on 
May 5, 1828. This edifice, an imposing one for those days, was located on the present Cap- 
itol Park, then the head of Griswold street. Twenty-two years of procrastination and neces- 
sitated delays were required before this building could be completed. After the fire of 1805, 
and the laying out of the town lots and the "ten thousand acre tract," the governor and 
judges passed an act providing for the appropriation of a portion of the proceeds from 
the sale of the town lots, for the erection of a court house and jail. Shortly afterward 
twenty thousand dollars were appropriated for the completion of the court house, which was 
to be located "in the center of the Grand Circus." The next step was the act of 1815, re- 
pealing that providing for the Grand Circus location, and favoring instead a site at the head 
of Griswold street. In 1823 it occurred to the progressive citizens that plans must be se- 
lected and a contract let before the capitol could become a reality. After some confusion 
over bids, the governor and judges selected D. C. McKinstry, Thomas Palmer and Degarmo 
Jones as the contractors, agreeing on an estimate of twenty-one thousand dollars for the 
completion of the building. The laying of the corner stone was accomplished with much 
ceremony on September 23, 1823. 

In those days the financing of a public improvement of such magnitude was not ac- 
complished without some difficulties. These were somewhat mitigated by the issuing, on the 
part of the governor and judges, of scrip which, it was originally planned, should be re- 
deemed with moneys received from land sales. In 1828, however, the council authorized the 
endorsement of the scrip by the territorial government. 

In 1828 and 1829 there occurred two events which, though they did not result in vital 
concern, nevertheless, roused the public feeling almost to fever heat. In 1828 an act was 
introduced in congress suggesting the segregation of a portion of the Lake Superior country 
and the addition of such area, with a part of Wisconsin, to form a new territory, to be 
called Huron. Naturally this measure met with the instant disapproval of the citizens of 
Detroit and lower Michigan. Speeches were made and a popular meeting was called for 
the expression of a formal protest. Every public-spirited man of the times entered so 
heartily into the objection that the proposal wilted soon after its inception, and the rich 
northern section wa§ saved to Michigan. Early in the following year John P. Sheldon, 
editor of the Gazette, became the hero of a popular demonstration against the administration 
of the authority of the supreme court of the territory. In this the acts of the judges were 
severely attacked. In decrying a decision of the court in the case of a man on trial for the 
larceny of a watch, the Gazette said editorially : "Many a poor, plodding attorney in the 
states, when he shall read the above decision of the supreme court of Michigan, will kick his 
Blackstone out of his office and acknowledge himself a nincom." The dignity of the court 
could suffer no such discourtesy, and Sheldon was immediately ordered arrested for his 
presumption and contempt. Upon his refusal to pay a fine of one hundred dollars assessed 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 101 

against him by the court's verdict, he was promptly thrown into jail. This action so greatly 
angered the public that a storm of popular wrath was soon bursting about the heads of the 
unfortunate judiciary. A public meeting was held at which a subscription was started for 
the securing of a fund sufficient to meet Sheldon's fine, and as soon as the money was thus 
raised a representation of prominent citizens gave a dinner at the jail in honor of the im- 
prisoned editor. Nearly every one present responded to toasts in which the court was made 
the butt of the general disgust, expressed in no uncertain terms of frontier wit. Sheldon's 
sympathizers escorted him to his home in state and the judges were driven to the necessity 
of meeting the public disfavor with an elaborate pamphlet, in which was set forth the court's 
detailed defense. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Porter Succeeds Cass as Governor — Cholera Epidemic in Detroit — Black Hawk War — Stev- 
ens T. Mason Appointed Secretary of the Territory — Cholera Epidemic of 1834 — 
Mason Becomes Acting Governor of the Territory — Steps Toward Statehood — Con- 
stitutional Convention — Boundary Dispute Between Michigan and Ohio — The To- 
ledo War — Horner Serves Brief Term as Acting Governor — Election of 1835 — 
Michigan Admitted to the Union — Mason First Governor — Supreme and Chancery 
Courts of the New State. 

Upon his appointment, in 1831, as secretary of war in the cabinet of President Jackson, 
Lewis Cass was succeeded as governor of Michigan Territory by a leading Pennsylvania 
politician of the day, George B. Porter. But two events of importance obtrude themselves 
in the Porter administration, — the bringing into prominence of Stevens T. Mason, the first 
governor of the state of Michigan, and the outbreak of the Black Hawk war. Though this 
short conflict, which resulted from the uprising of the western Indians under Chief Black 
Hawk, in Wisconsin, did not directly affect Detroit, indirectly it brought about much distress 
to the citizens and much loss of life. In July the steamer "Henry Clay," having on board 
a detachment of troops en route to the front, touched at Detroit, and on the following day 
one of the soldiers fell victim to cholera. Some little concern had been felt for the public 
health during the summer months prior to the death of the unfortunate soldier, and as 
soon as his fate became noised about the city, the vessel was immediately ordered away. 
She proceeded upstream as far as Belle Isle and later to Fort Gratiot, at Port Huron. Here 
she was forced to stop by the general outbreak of the dread disease among the troops. 
Those who had not already been struck down, made their way back to Detroit, where they 
attempted to re-embark on board the steamer "William Penn." But again they were 
forced ashore. Quickly the plague spread among the citizens, and those who were able 
fled from the city. By the residents of the smaller surrounding towns a strict quarantine 
was maintained against all who came from Detroit, and even the bridges and roads were 
destroyed or blockaded. Armed patrols guarded the roads outside Pontiac; and mail 
coaches were held up for examination of passengers, all of whom were fleeing from the 
stricken city. Emergency hospitals were established in the capitol and other buildings, and 
in these Father Richard, priest of the parish of Ste. Anne's, and other devoted nurses worked 
day and night in a warfare against the scourge, to which they, too, finally succumbed. De- 
spite the efforts of the priest, his friends and the health officers, nearly one hundred lives 
were sacrificed before the disease had run its course. The epidemic lasted from July 4, 1832, 
until the middle of the following month. At the time of the epidemic of cholera many of 
the citizens of Detroit were absent at Chicago, under John R. Williams, for the purpose of 
aiding in the protection of that village against Black Hawk and his warriors. 

During the year prior to the resignation of Governor Cass, who became secretary of war 
in 1831, the president appointed as secretary of the territory of Michigan, John T. Mason, 
a member of a Virginia family prominent in the political and official history of the United 
States. His son, Stevens Thomson Mason, destined to become one of Michigan's most bril- 
liant men, had been born in Virginia during the memorable year of 1812. The father served 

102 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 103 

as secretary of tlie territory until the appointment of Governor Porter, at which time he 
resigned, after bringing sufficient pressure to bear at Washington to insure the appointment 
of his son as his successor. The pohtical ambitions of many of the older families of Detroit 
easily matched those of the Mason family, and this appointment of a comparative stranger 
over the heads of several older aspirants met with an almost general objection. This was 
raised to white heat by the discovery of the fact that the young secretary had not yet attained 
legal manhood. Meetings were held in several places in the territory to bring sufficient 
public sentiment to bear to prevent the realization of the Mason ambitions, and a commis- 
sion was named to investigate the age of the younger Mason. It was discovered that in 
case of the illness, absence or death of the governor, the affairs of the territory would be 
left in the hands of a "mere stripling." Before effective demands for the resignation of the 
young secretary could be formally placed before the president, however, John Mason, the 
father, was enabled to take advantage of an opportunity for ameliorating the public senti- 
ment. This afforded itself, so tradition has it, at a farewell dinner given by former Gov- 
ernor Cass. On this occasion the elder Mason made so pathetic an appeal for a fair trial 
of his son that many of the family's bitterest opponents were completely won over. Thouo-h 
there still remained a strong undercurrent of feeling against the sou, he assumed the du- 
ties of his office and soon proved himself to be a man of resource and ability. 

In 1834 the cholera again broke out in Detroit; this time with increased severity. Be- 
ginning with August and continuing through that month and the next, the streets were 
daily filled with funeral processions; many of the city's most prominent residents, including 
Governor Porter, were taken off. Throughout these trying days the young secretary of 
the territory, the mayor of the city, C. C. Trowbridge, Father Martin Kundig, a Catholic 
priest, and many volunteers worked untiringly to save or ease the sufferings of the afflicted. 

Upon the death of Governor Porter, Mason became acting governor of the territory. 
During the time subsequent to his appointment as secretary he had made many friends even 
among those who had at first sought his removal. Now these former opponents sought to 
have Mason made governor by presidential appointment, but President Jackson turned a 
deaf ear to all such suggestions. Instead of acceding to the popular demand, he attempted 
to thrust Henry D. Gilpin upon the people of the territory as their executive head. Jack- 
son's desires were, however, frustrated by the action of the Mason family, who were of 
sufficient political importance to induce many senators to disapprove the president's se- 
lection. 

A census of the territory taken in the fall of 1834 gave Michigan a population of 8y,2y^, 
of which nearly 5,000 were residents of Detroit. 

With a population exceeding, by about twenty-five thousand, that legally entitling 
Michigan to become a state, the people now began to look toward placing the commonwealth 
on a footing equal to that of her older sisters in the federal union. The first definite step in 
this direction was taken in May, 1835, when a constitutional convention was held at De- 
troit. This body framed a constitution which gave the right of franchise to all residents 
of the territory who should have attained legal age whenever the constitution became effect- 
ive, and provided for an election to be held on the first Monday in October, 1835. At this 
election the people were to select a governor and lieutenant governor, a state legislature and 
a representative in congress. During the same year, however, an event that for a time 
threatened to embroil the territory in a war with Ohio, diverted all efforts towards statehood. 

The Ohio trouble, known as the Toledo war, was occasioned by a boundary dispute be- 
tween Michigan Territory and her southern neighbor. Under the ordinance of 1787, provi- 



104 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

sion was made for the division of the Northwest Territory into either tliree or five states. 
The ordinance stipulated that if five states were to be created, the three states on the south 
were to be divided from those to the north by a Hne drawn eastward from the southerly 
extremity of Lake Michigan, and extending to the line of the Northwest Territory in Lake 
Erie. When Ohio was admitted to the Union, however, the constitution which was accepted 
by congress contained a provision which stipulated that in case this line should not pass as 
far north as the northerly cape of the Maumee bay, then a line extending easterly from the 
foot of Lake Michigan to the north cape of Maumee bay, should serve as the northern boun- 
dary of the state. When Michigan Territory was cut ofif from Indiana, the residents in 
the territory later in dispute preferred to be governed under the Michigan laws, which were 
accordingly extended to cover the area. The disputed .territory consisted of a strip of land, 
about eight miles in width, which lay between two lines of survey, — one known as the Ful- 
ton and the other as the Harris line. 

In 1833 an Ohio senator brought the question of establishing a definite boundary be- 
tween Ohio and Michigan before the Ohio legislature, but nothing was accomplished fur- 
ther than the passage of a resolution asking congress to determine the difficulty. In 1835 
the matter came before congress and John Ouincy Adams made an elaborate report against 
the claim of Ohio. Following this, the Ohioans petitioned their legislature asking for an 
extension of the laws of Ohio over the territory in dispute. On the pas'sage of an act granting 
the prayer of the petitioners, the disputed area was added, by the Ohio legislature, to the 
Ohio counties of Wood, Henry and Williams. This occasioned a counter-action on the 
part of Michigan. A double set of officers were created at the spring election, and war be- 
came inevitable. The Michigan sympathizers living in the trouble zone formed a posse 
which, under the direction of their sheriff, carried off some of the would-be citizens of Ohio 
to Monroe. Under advices from Acting Governor Mason, the Michigan legislative assembly 
made a ruling which prevented any official from assuming or carrying out the duties of any 
local office unless commissioned to do so either by congress or the territorial council. This 
action was ignored by Governor Lucas of Ohio, who directed the officials elected at the 
Ohio elections to serve without regard to the authority of the Michigan council. Lucas 
further attempted to survey the boundary in accordance with the Ohio ideas, but the Michi- 
gan citizens managed to assemble in sufficient force to swoop down upon the surveying 
parties and arrest them as often as they trespassed on land claimed by the territory. 

The Michigan militia, under General Joseph Brown, were ordered to hold themselves 
in readiness for immediate mobilization by Governor Mason and an appropriation was made 
to cover the expenses of a campaign against the Ohioans, in case a decisive movement should 
prove necessary. Ohio at once took similar steps. With the two armed commonwealths 
facing each other and each waiting only some overt act on the part of the other to precipi- 
tate a bloody encounter, it was thought best at Washington to dispatch to the west two peace 
advocates, in the hope of bringing about a peaceful compromise. Accordingly, Richard 
Rush of Pennsylvania, and Colonel Howard, of Maryland, appeared in the role of ambas- 
sadors, armed with full powers for the completion of amicable negotiations with the bellig- 
erants. As the Ohioans were fighting mainly to save for themselves a port on Maumee Bay, the 
state legislature had passed an act creating Lucas county, of which Toledo is the principal 
city, and ordering the assembling of a county court at that place. The surveying commis- 
sion were still active and it was against them that Michigan vented her wrath for what 
her citizens considered the last straw of presumption. The surveyors were fired upon and 
several taken prisoners. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 105 

Governor Mason was determined to prevent if possible the convening of the Lucas 
county court. With a force of about one thousand men, he entered Toledo and formally 
took possession of the town. Governor Lucas had assembled a small force of Ohio militia 
at Maumee, but was powerless to move against so imposing a command as that from Michi- 
gan. Stealthily stealing into Toledo with the judge and court officers, Lucas proceeded to 
open court as provided by the legislative act. The session was immediately adjourned, the 
Michigan men being unaware of the strategy until the following day. The dispute was finally 
settled at the next session of congress, Ohio being given title to the disputed territory, and 
Michigan being granted the invaluable lands of the upper peninsula, and also her state- 
hood. 

In the meantime Jackson had appointed John S. Horner, of Philadelphia, as secretary 
and acting governor of Michigan Territory, to succeed Mason. Horner was commissioned 
early in September but served less than thirty days. Shortly after his appointment the new 
acting governor addressed the citizens of Detroit, relative to his ideas of the needs of the 
territory. Unfortunately for the man, his suggestions met with instant disapproval. This, 
coupled with the fact that his appointment over Mason was resented by almost every citi- 
zen in the territory, made Horner's position most disagreeable. Following his address, the 
citizens passed the following resolution, in which their views were expressed with painful 
frankness : "Resolved : That if our present secretary of the territory should find it beyond 
his control, either from the nature of his instructions, his feelings of tenderness towards 
those who have for a long period of time set at defiance as well the laws of the territory as 
those of the United States, or any feeling of delicacy toward the executive of a neighboring 
state, who has in vain endeavored to take forcible possession of a part of our territory, to 
enable him to properly carry into effect the exacting laws of this territory, it is to be hoped 
he will relinquish the duties of his office and return to the land of his nativity." 

In accordance with the provisions made by the first constitutional convention, an election 
was held in Detroit on the first Monday in October, 1835. Stevens T. Mason was elected 
governor; Edward Munday, lieutenant governor; and Isaac E. Crary, congressman. The 
legislature met in November and took action preparatory to the admission of the territory 
into the Union. As the first draft of the constitution extended the right of franchise very 
liberally and included provisions prohibiting slavery, the question of admitting the aspiring 
territory was hotly debated at Washington, many of the southerners objecting to Michigan's 
slavery ideas. Finally it was decided to accept the territory's constitution, on condition that 
Michigan surrender her claims in the Toledo dispute and accept in lieu of the eight-mile- 
wide strip on the southern border, the entire northern peninsula. It was decided at Wash- 
ington that the territory could not hope for admission until a convention of delegates had 
acceded to these conditions. 

When this became known, the legislature issued a call for the election of delegates to 
a convention to be held on the last Monday in November, 1836, at Ann Arbor. The con- 
vention so elected promptly refused to accept the terms of the Washington government, and 
adjourned. So bitter had been the feeling over the Ohio dispute, that the general consensus 
of opinion in the territory agreed at first with the decision of the Ann Arbor convention. 
But as the citizens began to consider more coolly what it meant to Michigan to be deprived 
of her rights as a state, and as information as to the value of the mineral lands in the north 
became more widely disseminated as a result of the Schoolcraft-Houghton exploring expedi- 
tion, a sharp division of sentiment took place. Those in favor of the acceptance of the im- 
posed terms held conventions, in Wayne and Washtenaw counties, at which resolutions were 



106 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

passed demanding a reconsideration of the issue at another convention. Though Governor 
Mason expressed strong pro-acceptance tendencies, not much importance was attached to the 
proposal for the additional convention by the opposition. The result was that, for the 
most part, only the supporters of the new movement were active in the election of delegates. 
This made the convention, held at Ann Arbor, December 14, 1836, almost unanimously in 
favor of statehood, under the congressional provisions. Forty-two days after the last Ann 
Arbor convention, Michigan was admitted to the Union as the twenty-sixth state. Con- 
gress further enacted that the state should be recognized as having existed from and after 
the election of 1835, at which the state officers had been chosen. 

The history of the state supreme court dates from the assumption of the office of chief 
justice by William A. Fletcher in the year prior to the admission of the state. Of the or- 
ganization of the court George Irving Reed has written : "The constitution, which became 
operative upon the admission of the state, provided for the division of the state into three cir- 
cuits and the appointment of three judges of the supreme court, each to hold court in the 
several counties of his circuit, and all of whom should sit together as a court in banc, to 
consider and determine appeals. The powers of these judges in circuit were restricted and 
their labors correspondingly reduced by a provision in the constitution for a separate court of 
chancery. To this court was granted exclusive primary jurisdiction of all chancery cases, 
with the right of appeal from the chancery to the supreme court. The judges were ap- 
pointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate, for a term of seven years." The first 
supreme court was composed of William A. Fletcher, chief justice, George Morrell and 
Epaphroditus Ransom, associate justices. The circuit assigned to the chief justice comprised 
the counties of Monroe, Lenawee, Hillsdale, Jackson, Washtenaw, Oakland and Saginaw ; 
that assigned to Judge Morrell comprised Wayne, St. Clair, Lapeer, Michillimackinac and 
Chippewa. As under the territorial system, two assistants were chosen for each county, who 
were not necessarily lawyers and whose presence on the bench was not essential to the valid- 
ity of a proceeding; they were elected for a term of four years. The supreme court was a 
peripatetic body under the constitution, holding one term each year in Wayne, Washtenaw 
and Kalamazoo counties. Of Judge Fletcher's career the author continues : "Chief Justice 
Fletcher came to Michigan several years before the organization of the state government, 
as one of the commissioners for that purpose. He rendered valuable service in preparing 
the compilation of territorial laws known as the code of 1827, and the first revision of the 
statutes of the state, known as the revised statutes, 1838, was prepared by him and under 
his supervision. He was a man of commanding presence, a good lawyer and an able judge." 

The early history of the chancery court has been outlined by former Governor Alpheus 
Felch, in a paper read before the Michigan Historical Society, to this effect : The Michi- 
gan court of chancery was established and the office of chancellor created, by act of the leg- 
islature approved March 26, 1836. This act was amended in July of the same year, and 
the year following both statutes were repealed and a new law continuing the independent 
court of chancery, with more specific provisions as to its powers and jurisdiction, was en- 
acted. By this statute the powers and jurisdiction were made coexistive with the powers 
and jurisdiction of the court of chancery in England, with the exceptions, additions and lim- 
itations created and imposed by the constitution and laws of the state. * * * yiig 
state was divided into three circuits, afterward increased to five, in each of which two terms 
were to be held annually, and an appeal was given from the decrees of the chancellor to the 
supreme court of the state. In July, 1836, Elon Farnsworth received the appointment of 



DETROIT AND WAYKE COUNTY 107 

chancellor, and soon afterward the court of chancery was organized and the exercise of its 
functions was commenced. 

From the time of the British evacuation until Michigan was admitted to the Union, 
Detroit and the territory were under the authority of the following governors and military 
commandants: 1787-1800, General Arthur St. Clair, governor Northwest Territory; 1800- 
1805, General William Henry Harrison, governor Indiana Territory; 1805-1812. General 
William Hull, governor Michigan Territory; 1812-1813, General Procter, British command- 
ant; 1813-1831, Lewis Cass, governor and military commander; 1831-1835, Stevens T. 
Mason, secretary and acting governor; 1835-1835, John S. Horner, secretary and acting 
governor; 1835, until and after admission, Stevens T. Mason, governor. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Internal Improvements — Commissioners Appointed — Influx of Settlers from the East — Pur- 
chase by the State of the Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad — Clinton and Kalamazoo 
Canal — Famous Five Million Dollar Loan Approved — Placing of the State's Bonds 
— Grave Financial Situation of the New State — Canal Projects Abandoned. 

Scarcely had the new state been created and the craze for land speculation reached its 
height, when a mania for what was then glibly termed "internal improvement" took posses- 
sion of the hearts of the early state builders. In his first message to the general assembly 
of the state, Governor Stevens T. Mason, thoroughly imbued with that spirit of proud en- 
thusiasm and ambitious energy which made him for the time the idol of the pioneers, sug- 
gested that an act be passed providing for the appointment of a "board of internal-improve- 
ment commissioners whose duty it should be to ascertain the proper objects of improve- 
ment in relation to navigable rivers, roads and canals." On March 21, 1837, such an act 
was approved by the young legislature and on the same day Governor Mason named such 
a board, consisting of the following men : James B. Hunt, Hart L. Stewart, John M. Bar- 
bour, David C. McKinstry, Gardiner D. Williams, Levi S. Humphrey and Justin M. Burdick. 

Just at this time a fever of immigration swept over the eastern states, fanned by the re- 
ports of the fair lands in Michigan and the fortunes awaiting the hand of those with suffi- 
cient courage and resolution to grasp them. A stream of settlers poured into the country, 
coming mostly from New York via the then new Hudson River railroad and the Erie canal 
as far as Buffalo, and from that point to Detroit by way of the lakes. Young men they 
were, accompanied by courageous wives, fearing to undertake nothing and nerved to the 
struggle of overcoming the mighty forests. The true zeal of the pioneer was theirs, and all 
had but one aim, — the speedy creation of a great and prosperous commonwealth, that influ- 
ence, honor and wealth might be wrought from the wilderness for their children. On the 
journey "out," all had seen the beneficent effects of the Erie canal and the railroads, and 
readily enough they responded to the suggestion of Governor Mason. The whole popula- 
tion was intent upon the realization of an ideal, but so great was the spirit of impatience 
that none was content to wait for the steady, healthful growth which had characterized the 
development of the mother states. Important measures, involving far-reaching projects 
whose magnitude would cause the men of to-day to hesitate, were carried through with a 
swing and a rush on the crest of the wave of popular hope. Surveying crews were mus- 
tered and hurled against the walls of the almost impenetrable wilderness with indomitable 
faith and courage. Lines were run and estimates made with only the thought of the great 
results anticipated in view. All were conversant with the revolution brougth about by the 
gradual improvements effected in the east, and it was clear to every pioneer that if the Erie 
canal had been so efficient in the bringing of settlement and civilization to the west, then sev- 
eral canals across the lower peninsula were all that was needed in the way of allies for the 
redemption of their state. 

So great was the enthusiasm that the internal improvement commissioners, appointed 
in March, met in Detroit on the ist of May and formally organized for the execution of 
their work. One of their first acts was the purchase of the "chartered rights, privileges and 

108 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 109 

franchises" of the Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad, for it was intended that the new state 
shonld own ar.d control its public utilities. Early in 1838 the board reported that the engi- 
neers in charge of the survey of "a canal part of the way and railroad the balance of the 
route commencing at or near Mount Clemens, on the Clinton river, to terminate at or near 
the mouth of the Kalamazoo river" (the line of the Clinton and Kalamazoo canal), had 
found the project to be perfectly feasible, the character of the soil and the abundance of 
available water leaving no doubt of the practicability of the enterprise. 

The work as outlined by the improvement board on the Clinton and Kalamazoo canal, 
as well as the additional canals, river improvements, wagon and rail roads throughout the 
state, required the expenditure of what were in those days of simple individual needs and 
resources, stupendous fortunes. The legislature memorialized congress in an attempt to 
secure the setting aside of five hundred thousand acres of public lands for the benefit of the 
improvement fund, and the famous and disastrous five million dollar loan was approved. 
In all, three hundred and five thousand dollars was appropriated for the work on the Clinton 
canal,' and in July, 1838, with the pomp of a parade and the ceremony of a dinner attended 
by the governor and a party of distinguished guests, ground was broken on the banks of 
the Clinton river at Mount Clemens and the hope of the pioneers was launched under the 
most favorable circumstances. 

At daybreak a gun was fired announcing to the inhabitants the dawn of the great day. a 
day, it was then thought, destined to be remembered as one of the proudest the people of 
the state would ever behold. After predicting the glorious results which could but follow the 
completion of the canal, Governor Mason turned the first shovelful of earth, little reahzmg 
that the zeal of achievement had blinded the eyes of all to the real obstacles about to be 
encountered. Since that time, later events have been ascribed to an ill omen which occurred 
during the ceremony. In loading the first wheelbarrow of earth so little attention was 
given to that vehicle's capacity that, when it was dumped, the frail structure went to pieces, 
its fate being considered by many as prophetic of that of the canal. 

To provide funds for the carrying out of the canal project and the other then colossal 
undertakings, the governor approved an act on March 21, 1837, authorizing the loan of a 
sum not to exceed five million dollars," and as soon as the state's bonds securing this amount 
had been prepared in New York, he left for the east for the purpose of personally dosing the 
deal for the securing of the money. Prior to this time the financial measures which had been 
adopted by the "wildcat" banks, and the stories of Michigan "town-site" speculation which 
had been heralded abroad, had so tended to the detriment of the new state's reputation for 
stabihtv, as well as that of her people, as to make any successful exploitation well nigh impos- 
sible 'Added to this, it must be remembered, very little of a reliable nature was known of 
the state's resources. Its government was entirely new, its organization was characterized 
by no little instability, and its vast mineral riches were known to none. So extensive had 
the prejudice against the state become that scarcely had the enthusiastic young governor 
reached New York when he began to realize that a much more difficult task awaited im 
there than that of arousing the sympathetic concordance with his own ^''''P^.l^\^'''2.!Z 
been. The difficulty of even partially imbuing the hard-headed financiers with the glowmg 
possibilities of Michigan's internal improvements became at once apparent 

In his efforts to place the state's bonds, Governor Mason fell "^-^h the Morn Canal 
& Banking Company, a New Jersey concern with headquarters m ^^^\ ^ 7^^; . /.^^ "^'l^ 
ing was dltined to prove itself the rock on which were to be wrecked no °"ly ^- a r hop s 
of the earnest pioneers, but the political future and life of their idolized governor as well. 



110 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

The immediate result of tliis meeting was the closing of a contract between the Michio-an 
government and the banking company, in which the latter was made the state's agent for 
the floating of the five million dollars in bonds. For this service the company was to receive 
a commission of two and one-half per cent, with the understanding that if the bonds were 
sold above par the company was to receive as a bonus one-half of such premium up to one 
hundred and five. If the bonds sold above one hundred and five, the state agreed to allow 
the company the excess above that point as an additional premium. Bonds to the extent of 
one million three hundred thousand dollars were then turned over to the company upon its 
agreement to place one-fourth of their par value to the immediate credit of the state in cash 
and to hold the balance available as needed, subject to the governor's order. The remain- 
ing three million seven hundred thousand dollars was to be paid in quarterly installments at 
the rate of one million a year, after July i, 1839. 

This arrangement would no doubt have given the state the construction funds as rap- 
idly as they were needed, but unfortunately little regard was given to the fact that the state 
would be paying out interest at the rate of six per cent on five million dollars long before 
all of the money was actually received. 

The senate and house documents for the year 1839 show that after the closing of the 
above contract further changes were made in the arrangement of the negotiations, which 
afterward turned out to be even more embarrassing. The banking company's notes were 
to be taken in payment for the first installment of bonds, in lieu of cash. Then, as an addi- 
tional change, it was finally decided that the state would be content with ninety-day drafts 
on the company, instead of its notes. Later on, in the same year, the remaining portion of 
the five million dollar bond issue was turned over to the company without security other 
than the company's obligation for one-fourth of the amount and the understanding that the 
United States Bank, a Pennsylvania corporation, would undertake to float the rest. 

In justification of the course followed by Governor Mason in connection with the 
placing of this loan, the conditions of the times and the peculiar financial exigencies then 
existing must be considered. To his scheme of financiering is attributed directly the down- 
fall and ultimate failure of many of the projects he so earnestly endeavored to further, 
including that of the Clinton and Kalamazoo canal. The governor's faith in Michigan's 
future and his ready belief in the honesty of the men with whom he was associated tend to 
explain the anxious desire on the part of the banking company to be of assistance, which 
was manifest in the way it took advantage of every circumstance favorable to itself in the 
promotion of the hopes of the fledgling state. 

In 1838 an appropriation was made by the legislature of two hundred and five thou- 
sand dollars for work on the Clinton and Kalamazoo canal, and in the following year an 
act was passed authorizing the payment of sixty thousand dollars for the same purpose, "out 
of any moneys that shall hereafter come into the treasury of this state, to the credit of the 
fund for internal improvement." 

Following the final location of the canal route and the elaborate ceremonies attendant 
upon the initiation of its construction, agents of the improvement board were sent along the 
route securing, as the needs demanded, rights of way, and grants of other necessary priv- 
ileges. The ease with which these were acquired demonstrates clearly the popularity of 
the project, most of the land necessary being freely donated by the pioneers. Public opinion 
had been so thoroughly roused to the benefits of a canal that none seemed to stop to con- 
sider the possibility of the failure of the commissioners to meet promptly their payment to 
the laborers, most of whom, we are told, were Irishmen. The "wildcat" banks had accus- 
tomed everyone to the acceptance of script, instead of specie, in the satisfaction of financial 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 111 

obligations, so that the commissioners experienced little difficulty, if any, in settling with 
the canal diggers on the same basis. 

The absence of specie payments on the canal work began, however, to make itself insid- 
iously felt, and as the pioneers became conscious of the realization, slowly bursting upon 
them, that sudden riches could not be attained by borrowing any more than railroads could 
be built by the mere granting of a charter from the state, or flourishing cities could arise 
from the platting of a beautiful map, their enthusiasm began to wane. Only a slight majority, 
attributed at the time to the votes of the public-improvement laborers, saved the last cam- 
paign of the governor from ending in defeat, so great was the disappointment at his failure 
to realize cash on the five million dollar loan. To the state at large the improvement 
projects became less and less the topic of all-absorbing interest. The "hard times of 1838 
and 1839" became a matter of vital concern. Specie payments even in the east were dis- 
continued, and, to add to the general spirit of gloom, announcement was made that the 
Morris Canal & Banking Company had defaulted in its payments to the improvement com- 
missioners. The United States Bank also became so involved as to be forced to discon- 
tinue payment, and absolute ruin confronted every honest man in Michigan. The state script 
became subject to a heavy discount and was found to be available for little else than the pay- 
ment of taxes or the settling of m'nor obligations to the state. 

The scarcity of money and the necessity of battling for the satisfaction of individual 
needs were important factors in the reversal of sentiment as related to internal improvement 
and did much in bringing about a complete change of front on the part of the administration. 
Strict economy was urged in every department of the government, and finally, upon the 
inauguration of Governor William Woodbridge, it was suggested that "the committee on 
internal improvement be instructed to inquire into the expediency of bringing ^ bill to repeal 
the act to provide for the further construction of certain works." In 1840 such an act was 
approved, except in so far as it related to the completion of the Central and Southern Rail- 
roads, then partially under operation. 

The railroads were soon discovered to far exceed in efficiency even the highest hopes of 
the canal enthusiasts, and thus passed the most roseate dream of Michigan's vanguard of 
progress into the shades of pathetic oblivion. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Geological Survey of the State— Houghton Appointed State Geologist— Early Railroads- 
Railway Stations in Detroit— The Milwaukee Railroad— Progress of the Michigan 
Central and Sale of the Road in 1846— Great Western Railway— First Train from 
the East— Climax of the Railroad Conspiracy — Destruction of Michigan Central 
Properties— Patriot War in Canada— Border States Support the Patriots— Procla- 
mation by President Van Buren— Mass Meeting of Detroit Sympathizers— Capture 
of the Ship "Ann" — General Scott Comes to Detroit to Police the Frontier— Skir- 
mishes Along the Detroit River. 

Following Governor Mason's second campaign for the governorship, in which he de- 
feated C. C. Trowbridge and in which Edward S. Munday was chosen as lieutenant gov- 
ernor over Daniel S. Bacon, a geological survey of the state was made. This was pro- 
vided for by an act of the legislature, under which Dr. Douglass Houghton was appointed 
state geologist. As a result of his investigations and those of his assistants much timely 
information concerning the resources of the state was secured for the benefit of the eastern 
settlers who, passing generally through Detroit, were rapidly settling and developing the 
country. At this time, 1837, the craze for internal improvement was at its fieight. While 
the canals were being surveyed, lines were also being run and grubbing was in progress 
along the rights of way of several lines of railroad. Contracts were let for the building of 
the line of the Detroit and Pontiac railroad in the spring of 1836. The original company 
formed to build this line had been incorporated as early as 1830 and again incorporated 
under the terms of a reorganization in 1834. A year later this last corporation was given 
authority to establish what was known as the Bank of Pontiac, which it was thought would 
facilitate the financing of the enterprise. Only after the state had loaned the company one 
hundred thousand dollars in 1838, however, was any part of the line in operation. During 
this year the track— the timber and strap-iron affair characteristic of all the early roads- 
reached Royal Oak. A year later Birmingham was reached, but not until four years later 
were trains run into Pontiac. 

Before the Pontiac line had arrived at Birmingham, cars were being run between De- 
troit and Dearborn over the Michigan Central. This line was originally promoted as the 
Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad and had been incorporated two years after the Pontiac com- 
pany had received its first charter. Its exploitation was so skillfully handled that a govern- 
ment engineer was detailed by the war department to complete the initial surveys and later 
the company was granted banking privileges at Ypsilanti and was assisted by stock sub- 
scriptions to the extent of fifty thousand dollars by the city of Detroit. In 1837 the state 
purchased the line and placed its control in the hands of the board of internal improvement 
At this time the name Michigan Central was substituted for the original Detroit & St. Joseph. 
At first these lines were operated by horse power, but the crowning glory of early trans- 
portation achievements was left to the Erie & Kalamazoo, which introduced a real steam 
locomotive as early as 1837. This line, chartered in 1833, to extend from Toledo into Mich- 
igan, reached Adrian in 1836. Of it the authors of "Landmarks" say: "A law was passed 
establishing the Michigan Southern Railroad, which was intended to be fostered by the state, 



1' 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 113 

and a perpetual lease of the Toledo and Adrian line was obtained. Another line was built 
from Monroe to Adrian with the idea of making the road a connecting link between the two 
most southerly Michigan ports — Monroe, on Lake Erie, and New Buffalo, on Lake Michi- 
gan. After spending about one million dollars on the construction of the line the state debt 
became burdensome and, the credit of the commonwealth being at a very low ebb, the road 
was sold in 1846 to a corporation for five hundred thousand dollars. The purchasing com- 
pany concluded to make the western terminus at Chicago, instead of at New Buffalo or 
some other Michigan port." 

As the people of Detroit and of Michigan generally were anxious to promote in every 
way the interests of the new railroads the companies entering Detroit were granted every 
privilege. The Pontiac line was allowed to run its cars down Dequindre street and the Gra- 
tiot road to a station situated near the present site of the Detroit Opera House, while the 
Michigan Central Company was granted the use of the Chicago road, Michigan avenue, and 
a station site on the southeast corner of Michigan avenue and Griswold street, on the present 
city hall site. The Pontiac company, however, made itself objectionable to Gratiot avenue 
property owners by neglecting to make passabe that part of Gratiot not occupied by its tracks. 
After several orders of the council directing the company to remedy the evil had been ig- 
nored, the citizens took the matter into their own hands and initiated a series of night 
attacks in which the company's track was torn up. Guards and the arrest of the belligerent 
citizens brought the company no relief. Finally ground on the river front was purchased 
and the line was extended across Jefferson avenue to the Brush street station, which was 
first used in 1852. 

Prior to 1855 a company had been incorporated for the purpose of building a railroad 
from Pontiac to a point on Lake Michigan. This was called the Oakland and Ottawa line. 
Early in the above year the legislature granted authority for the combination of the Detroit 
and Pontiac line with the Oakland and Ottawa road, the two properties to be known as the 
Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad. Grand Haven was selected as the objective point on Lake 
Michigan and in 1858 the line was completed to that place, passing Owosso and Ionia. In 
the following year two transports were put into operation between Grand Haven and Mdwau- 
kee, thus opening through transportation between Detroit and the latter city. Both parties to 
the consolidation were heavily involved financially at the time the combination was effected 
and as a result of the non-payment of mortgages given for construction the entire property 
was later sold to the Great Western Railroad Company which was in turn subsequently ab- 
sorbed by the Grand Trunk. 

In the meantime the Michigan Central had been steadily pushing its rails westward. An 
elaborate entertainment was given Governor Mason and a party of distinguished guests 
from Detroit on the occasion of their excursion to Ypsilanti when the first train was run 
from Detroit to that place, in February, 1838. In the fall of the following year a second 
excursion and celebration marked the arrival of the rails at Ann Arbor. At this time the 
Detroit terminal was extended down Woodward avenue from the Campus Martms towards 
the river and sidings were laid for the accommodation of merchants between the latter 
thoroughfare and Brush street. This track was later abandoned, however, and in 1848 Mich- 
igan Central cars ran into a station that stood on the site of the present Third street depot^ 
In 1846 the track had been completed as far west as Kalamazoo, from which place a hne of 
stages carried passengers to New Buffalo. From there the trip to Chicago, the objective 
point for all western traffic, was completed by steamer. 



114 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

The whole state was anxious for the completion of the line as far as the Lake Michigan 
shore and great satisfaction was voiced upon the publication of the following notice under 
date of April 25, 1846, by the president of the board of internal improvements: The pas- 
senger train will, after the ist of June next, leave Detroit for the west at 8 o'clock a. m., 
arriving at Marshall at 3:30 p. m. They leave Marshall at precisely 9:30 a. m., arriving 
at Detroit at 5 p. m. There is at the western terminus a line of coaches always ready to carry 
passengers to St. Joseph — ninety miles in twenty-two hours. From St. Joseph to Chicago 
by steamboat — sixty-nine miles in six hours. This was thirty-six hours from Detroit to 
Chicago, and for thus being whirled across the state the traveler was assessed six dollars 
and fifty cents. 

Though the operation of the Michigan Central had shown a steadily increasing profit 
from its first year, the financial straits into which the state was now thrown as a result of 
its attempts at rapid development necessitated the realization of at least a portion of the public 
funds so invested. It was therefore decided to sell the road. After failing to negotiate a 
sale at Albany, which would make possible the cancellation of part of the millions of dollars 
in state bonds then outstanding, the attorney general, H. N. Walker, and George F. Porter 
organized a purchasing company in New York. This corporation took over the road Septem- 
ber 23, 1846. For the agreed price of two million dollars the state transferred a going prop- 
erty that had cost it within forty-five thousand dollars of that amount. 

The new company, which had found a special charter from the legislature awaiting its 
formation, promptly placed in operation a line of steamers between Detroit and Buffalo, 
thus forming an eastern connection ; at the same time the promoters hastened forward the 
western extension of the line. State-wide interest now centered in the race for the Lake 
Michigan shore between the Michigan Central and the Michigan Southern, the state's inter- 
est in which was also sold in 1846. The Michigan Central's steel was laid to New Buffalo, 
the western terminus under that company's charter, in the spring of 1849. The Southern 
was pushing on toward Chicago, the goal toward wliich both companies were striving. The 
public protest against the extension of either line into Illinois made necessary the resort to 
some strategy to reach beyond the charter limitations. The Central acquired stock in and 
eventually leased an Indiana road beyond New Buffalo and effected traffic agreements with 
the Illinois Central whereby the Michigan Central gained entrance to Chicago. The South- 
ern also completed traffic arrangements with an Indiana road, thus covering its Chicago en- 
trance, but so active had been the Central management that that road was enabled to send 
its trains into Chicago May 21, 1852, one day in advance of the Southern. 

The Great Western Railroad, originally chartered in 1S34, was the first line to complete 
an all-rail connection with the east. This line was projected to run between Hamilton, On- 
tario, and Niagara, but found an active rival in the Detroit & Niagara, which was chartered 
two years later. The Michigan Central, seeking an eastern feeder, interested itself in the 
Great Western, however, and soon after the expiration of the charter of the Detroit & Nia- 
gara, invested between one hundred and fifty and two hundred thousand dollars in the com- 
pletion of the Great Western. Nearly four thousand five hundred dollars were spent by the 
city of Detroit in celebrating the arrival at Windsor of the first train from the east, January 
17, 1854. A public dinner was given, whistles were blown, guns were fired and the citizens 
paraded, the whole community taking part in the general jubilee. Until 1867 passengers 
and freight were transferred from the Canadian side, and vice versa, by ferry, but in that 
year through trains began running between Chicago and the east, via the New York Central 
the Canadian line and the Michigan Central. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY H5 

The climax of wliat was known as the railroad conspiracy occurred in 1851. Though 
the people had welcomed the railroads and had originally supported liberally every trans- 
portation project furthered by the state, a reversion of feeling soon followed the acquire- 
ment of the properties by foreign investors. This was particularly true in the case of the 
Michigan Central. Disputes over settlements for damages brought many farmers living 
along this line into bitter enmity with the company. Upon their failure to secure, through 
peaceful means, redress for losses, the farmers prosecuted what was at first a mild system 
of annoyance. Growing bolder, some of the more lawless began derailing trains, tearing up 
and blockading tracks and destroying railroad property. Growing still bolder, the malcon- 
tents burned the road's freight station at Detroit, inflicting on the company a loss of nearly 
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The fire took place in November, 1850, but not 
until six months later were the railroad's representatives able to gather sufficient evidence to 
justify arrests. In April, 185 1, thirty-eight suspects, many of them well-to-do men, were 
confined in the Wayne county jail to await trial, which began toward the last of the following 
month. Though twelve men were sentenced as conspirators, the railroad company's prop- 
erty was not safe from further vengeance, the Detroit car shops being burned in 185 1 and 
the Detroit passenger station being laid in ashes by incendiaries three years later. 

During the year 1838 Detroit was kept in a furor of partially suppressed excitement by 
the occurrence of the "Patriot war" in Canada. This was the result of the rebellion of a 
large portion of the Canadian citizens against the high-handed practices of those who pleased 
to consider themselves the aristocracy. The latter party controlled the upper house of par- 
liament and made the commons subservient in so galling a way as to bring about open hos- 
tility and bloodshed. In Michigan, as in the other border states along the Canadian frontier 
between Detroit and Niagara, much sympathy was manifest for the Patriots. In several 
instances this materialized in the form of assistance to the rebels on the part of American 
citizens, and even participation in expeditions against the Canadian government. Though 
constant endeavor was made by the authorities to maintain a strict observance of the neu- 
trality laws, Detroit became a hotbed of Patriot supporters. 

Though the spirit of rebellion had been smouldering in Canada for many years, the first 
overt act of importance was the fortification of Navy island, in the Niagara river. Supplies 
for the island were shipped aboard the steamer "Caroline," at Buffalo, by the rebels and 
several trips were made between the states and the armed fortification. As the good wishes 
of the Americans began to take the shape of arms for the rebels. President Martin Van 
Buren issued a proclamation of warning against such assistance and sent General Scott to 
the frontier to preserve the peace. Finally the British sent a party aboard the "Caroline," 
on December 29, 1837, to whom the vessel was obliged to surrender after a short fight. The 
entire crew was captured and the vessel was burned. The arrival of Canadian refugees at 
Detroit further stimulated the sympathies of many of the citizens and three days after the 
capture of the "Caroline" a mass meeting was held in a Detroit theater. At this assembly a 
popular subscription was started to raise funds for the Patriot cause. Plans were promptly 
laid for the capture of Maiden, many of the wilder spirits along the border joining the 
rebels in an enterprise which sought the rendezvous of a force at Gibraltar for the attack. 
The better class in Detroit realized fully the magnitude of such a breach of neutrality and 
proceeded to block any attempt to carry supplies across the river from Michigan. The first 
step was the secretion of several stands of arms in the Detroit jail, where it was thought 
they would be safe from seizure. But on January 5th the jail entrance was rushed and the 
guns were forciblv taken. Provisions were hastily gathered by the adventurers and these 



116 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

together with the arms and ammunition were placed aboard tlie ship "Ann," which was 
seized for the expedition. Evading both the Enghsh and American authorities, the "Ann's" 
party proceeded to Gibraltar, the agreed rendezvous, and was there joined by a small force 
under T. J. Sutherland, who assumed command. Sutherland led the Canadian militia who 
opposed him a fox and goose chase among the islands of the lower river and finally landed 
at Fighting island, only after his attempt to take Bois Blanc had been frustrated. The "Ann" 
was soon captured, whereupon the rebels retired to Gibraltar. Beside keeping beyond reach 
of the British, Sutherland evaded an expedition led against him by Governor Mason, who 
sought to retake the filched arms. So rapidly had the residents of Detroit become infected 
with Patriot sympathy that the officials were for a time in doubt as to the city's general 
attitude with reference to observing a careful neutrality^ Only after a mass meeting held 
in the city hall had been addressed by several of the more conservative were the governor 
and mayor assured of the support of the community. A few days prior to this meeting 
the government arsenal at Dearborn had been broken open and a considerable quantity of 
=irms carried off. These, however, were found hidden in Detroit. Provisions were also 
stolen in several instances and attempts were made to seize ships lying at their moorings in 
the river. The arrival of General Scott, who came to Detroit to personally superintend the 
policing of the frontier in this vicinity, temporarily checked such attempts. 

Though Governor Mason induced the Patriots assembled at Gibraltar to disperse, they 
immediately reassembled and retook their position on Fighting island. There they were 
attacked February 25th by the British, who were equipped with artillery. The rebels were 
soon dislodged and forced to seek refuge on the American shore, where they were met and 
disarmed by American troops. Desultory skirmishing was kept up along the river throughout 
the spring and summer of 1838, in spite of the watchfulness of the American officials, who 
were charged in Canada with favoring the Patriot cause. Not until early in December was 
the bfickbone of the local struggle broken. On that date a detachment of nearly two hundred 
rebels crossed the river from Detroit, landing above Windsor. Proceeding down stream the 
invaders burned barracks at that place, several loyal troops losing their lives in the fire. 
While the attack on the barracks was in progress reinforcements of British regulars were 
marching to Windsor from Sandwich and Maiden. Before such troops the thin line of 
the rebel forces quickly melted, disaster, death and capture attending an attempt to retreat 
in small boats to Belle Isle. 

Though ugly charges were made by the hotheads in both the States and Canada, 
the British and American forces co-operated effectively and harmoniously throughout the 
entire trouble. Happily, good sense prevailed ; the counsels of the conservative were heeded 
and all danger of an international entanglement was avoided. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Campaign of 1840 — Formation of the Whig Party — Retirement of Governor Mason — Detroit 
Whigs Erect Log Cabin — Vice-President Johnson Attends Democratic Meeting in 
Detroit — General Cass Democratic Nominee for President — State Capital Perma- 
nently Located at Lansing — Constitutional Convention of 1850 — Detroit Opposition 
to Slavery — Arrest of the Blackburns, Fugitive Slaves — The Anti-Slavery Associa- 
tion — Formation of the Republican Party — The Underground Railroad — Detroit an 
Important Station — Zachariah Chandler — Plans for John Brown's Raid Completed 
in Detroit — Bingham Elected Governor of Michigan — Substantial Development in 
Detroit — Campaign of 1860 — The Cloud of Civil War — Attack on Fort Sumter — 
Patriotic Attitude of Detroit and Michigan — Governor Blair Calls for Volunteers — 
Regiments Organized — Military Activity in Detroit — Troops Mustered in at Detroit 
in 1861-2 — Michigan Losses in the War — Malcontents Interrrupt Patriotic Meeting 
on Campus Martius — Disgraceful Mob Attack on Detroit Negroes — Attempt to Lib- 
erate Confederate Prisoners on Johnson's Island — The Plot Frustrated — Precau- 
tions for the Protection of Detroit — News Received of Lee's Surrender — Tributes 
to the Martyred President — Work of Michigan Relief Societies During the War — 
Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Erected in Detroit. 

With the exception of the second Adams administration, the Democratic party had 
been in power for forty years. But now the malcontents among the Democrats joined 
with the shattered Federalists to form the Whig party, Vvhich brought forth the candidacy 
of William Henry Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe and the Thames, for the presidency, 
in opposition to Van Buren's ambition for re-election. In Detroit, as elsewhere, the strong- 
partisan feeling evinced by the supporters of both parties made the campaign one of the 
most exciting in the history of American politics. In addition to charging Van Buren's 
administration with responsibility for the financial depression under which the country was 
struggling, his opponents were loud in deci"ying his alleged extravagance and mismanage- 
ment. A similar feeling was evident in Michigan against the state's former idol, Governor 
Mason, who, under the influence of the popular clamor, was forced to withdraw from public 
affairs in 1840. 

The Democrats hailed Harrison's simple frontier life with derision, ridiculing him by 
such names as "Log Cabin Candidate," "Hard Cider Campaigner." These terms the Whig 
leaders were quick to appropriate as the shibboleth of their party. To fully develop the 
idea, the Detroit Whigs built a real log cabin of generous dimensions, at Jefferson avenue 
and Randolph street, and in it opened their campaign April 21st. The cabin was head- 
quarters for a political mass meeting at which campaign oratory, hard cider, baked beans 
and other frontier delicacies flourished. Richard M. Johnson, who had led the center of 
attack at the battle of the Thames, was at this time vice-president of the United States. 
To counteract the enthusiastic support accorded Harrison because of his military record— 
this support being particularly strong throughout the Northwest— Johnson was invited to 
be present at a barbecue given in Detroit by the Democrats September 28th. The vice- 
president accepted and the Detroit Democrats sacrificed their every interest to the rallying 
of their forces for the celebration ; but the response fell far short of equaling the attend- 

117 



118 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

ance at the Whig meetings, which truly presaged the subsequent victory of the Harrison- 
Tyler ticket. 

Following the Harrison campaign, the people of Michigan began to take a more 
active interest in national affairs, and much of this centered very naturally at Detroit. 
Here, as elsewhere, the principle of state rights, which had been so hotly debated during 
the Jackson administration, and the division between the northern and southern states, 
which was even then making itself insidiously felt in relation to the slavery question, were 
topics for general discussion. In the two ensuing national campaigns, of 1844 and 1848, 
Lewis Cass was twice a candidate for the presidency. In the campaign of 1844 Cass was 
defeated for the nomination by James K. Polk, who was finally elected over Henry Clay, 
a slave-holder. In the next campaign Cass secured the Democratic nomination, but was 
defeated by the Whig candidate, Zachariah Taylor. 

In 1847 came the state-wide fight over the final location of the state capital. In this 
struggle Detroit put forth every effort to retain the seat of government, Wayne county 
and the city co-operating in opposition to the efforts of representatives of nearly every 
other section of the state, all of which were anxious to secure such a prize. After the 
committee on location had failed to come to an agreement at several heated sessions, how- 
ever, the opposition joined forces in support of the selection of a site at Marshall. Still 
no agreement could be reached. Finally James Seymour presented a compromise, offer- 
ing a site for the capital buildings at a point in Ingham county, near which he had secured 
considerable holdings. As a solution of the dispute both the senate and lower house voted 
to accept the Seymour proposal and the present location at Lansing was thus officially 
selected. 

The rapid growth in population and the experiences through which the state had 
passed during the days of the fever for internal improvement, now necessitated a further 
development of the constitution. This was accomplished at what is known as the consti- 
tutional convention of 1850, which met on June 3d of that year, in the new capital build- 
ings at Lansing. The work of this convention consisted mainly in formulating additions 
and amendments to the old constitution of 1835, concerning the judiciary, the salaries of 
state officials, taxation, the elimination of any interest on the part of the state in corpora- 
tions, the limitation of state indebtedness (this was placed at fifty thousand dollars, save in 
case of war) and the right of franchise. 

The passage of the famous "Omnibus Bill," the compromise of 1850, in the discussion 
of which Henry Clay and Daniel Webster bore so memorable a part, roused the people 
of Detroit to increased opposition against slavery. Though the holding of human beings 
in bondage had been practiced at Detroit since the time immediately subsequent to the 
founding of the settlement by Cadillac, the ordinance of 1787, under which the Northwest 
Territory was created, forbade slavei^y. During the British occupation, of course, no con- 
gressional act was in effect. Following the evacuation by the British in 1796, slaves con- 
tinued to be held under that provision of the Jay treaty which stipulated a strict observ- 
ance of personal-property rights. Under the law of 1827 it became illegal for any slave 
to remain within the bounds of the territory and every colored person was obliged to reg- 
ister himself before a county clerk and to file a five hundred dollar bond. This bond pro- 
vided for the negro's support in case he became dependent. In 1833 two colored residents 
of Detroit, one Blackburn and his wife, were arrested and imprisoned in the jail as fugitive 
slaves. Forty years prior to this time the dominion government had enacted rigorous anti- 
slavery laws and, as the arrest of the Blackburns threw Detroit's colored population into a 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 119 

panic, many negroes at once took refuge in Canada. But a considerable number of blacks 
remained in Detroit and these participated in a hostile demonstration before the jail. To 
so high a pitch were the feelings of both the white and black citizens aroused that the 
sheriff feared to deliver the prisoners for transportation south and both escaped. The 
woman was assisted to freedom by a ruse and the man was finally liberated and helped into 
Canada by a mob of blacks who overpowered and wounded the sheriff. 

This occurrence awakened public interest in what was known as the Anti-Slavery 
Society, which had been established as early as 1837. The association included among 
its members some of the most prominent citizens of Detroit and Michigan, the local society 
working in conjunction with a state organization which sought absolute abolition. Almost 
from its inception the society gained strength with remarkable rapidity, but the passage of 
the "Omnibus Bill" gave it its greatest impetus. Included in this bill was the famous fugi- 
tive-slave law, which served to postpone an open breach between the north and south by 
providing for the capture, retention and return of any runaway slave apprehended in any 
portion of the Union, including its newly made states and territories. Prior to this time 
slave hunting had been largely a matter of indifference to most northerners, but when 
regularly appointed officers of the United States began to hound unfortunate refugees 
from alley to alley in Michigan cities, the compromise law began to assume a vastly different 
aspect. Many states passed "personal-liberty" laws in opposition to the compromise, but 
in Michigan a movement of much greater breadth was inaugurated. This was nothing less 
than the formation of the Republican party, — the party that afterward elected Abraham 
Lincoln to the presidency of the United States, the party that forced the seceding southern 
commonwealths to a recognition and an observance of the principles of true Americanism. 
It was only natural that the abolition motives of the New England states should find ready 
reflection in those sons of Massachusetts who had come to the northwestern frontier. 

In 1850 a repetition of the rioting which followed the arrest of the Blackburns threat- 
ened to break out in Detroit upon the capture of a fugitive slave named Rose; only the 
prompt assembling of the militia prevented bloodshed. This further popularized the cause 
of the Anti-Slavery Society and roused sympathy and support for the promoters of the 
"Underground Railroad." The "stockholders" in this organization were allied closely with 
the anti-slavery associations and formed a successful series of rendezvous reaching toward 
the Ohio river, for the harboring and assistance of escaping negroes en route to Canada. 
Detroit's location on the border naturally made it one of the centers of Underground inter- 
est, and Zachariah Chandler, the city's mayor in 1851, was not the least enthusiastic of the 
system's supporters. 

Chandler not only made his strong personality felt in Detroit; he was a figure of na- 
tional prominence during and after the civil war. He came to Detroit in 1833, leaving 
his birthplace, Bedford, New Hampshire, when twenty years of age. Entering the mercan- 
tile trade, he amassed a considerable fortune, a large portion of which he devoted gener- 
ously to the interests of the Whig and anti-slavery propaganda. His service to the city 
as mayor and his activity in the promotion of the new Republican party, brought hnti promi- 
nently before the people of the state. He was elected to the United States senate in 1857, 
after having represented Detroit as a Lincoln delegate in the national Republican conven- 
tion of 1856, which nominated Fremont. Serving in the senate throughout the war, 
Chandler was appointed secretary of the interior in Grant's cabinet. He died suddenly in 
Chicago, in 1879, probably from the results of overwork during the strenuous campaign of 
that year. A sketch of his life appears in the biographical department of this publication. 



120 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

After 1855 the Underground Railroad agents were particularly active in Detroit. 
During the year prior to this date, a subsidiary freedom organization, called the Refugee 
Home Society, had bought a tract of land near Windsor, and this it utilized as a place of 
settlement for escaped negroes. The Michigan legislature sought to weaken the effect of 
the fugitive-slave law by the passage of an act preventing the imprisonment of slaves in 
county jails. Prosecuting attorneys were also directed to defend fugitives who claimed to 
be free. Detroit's attitude toward slavery attracted many abolitionist lecturers and during 
the '50s many of the best known speakers in the countrj' addressed meetings in the city. 
Among them were Frederick Douglass and John Brown. These two men met in the city 
in 1859 and it was here that they, with several others, completed the details for the John 
Brown raid against Harper's Ferry. Strained as were the relations between the slave 
states and the north, the attempted execution of the plans perfected in a house at 185 
Congress street, set the entire country aflame with excitement. Brown sought to invade 
Virginia, to capture the arsenal at Harper's Ferr\' and to arm the negroes. The failure 
of the plot and the subsequent execution of the leaders are matters of national history. 

The organization of the Republican party at Jackson, Michigan, came about as the 
result of an anticipated split in the Whig vote in favor of the Free-Soil gubernatorial 
candidate. It was evident to the Detroit politicians that the anti-slavery feeling was rap- 
idly becoming a strong political issue. Many northern Democrats were of this opinion, 
as were large numbers of Whigs and Free Boilers. After several conferences between the 
various local leaders, a Free Soil meeting was arranged. This was held in the city hall. 
At its close a general call was issued for a convention to be held at Jackson, July 6, 1854. 
This convention met as planned and adopted a compromise platform which embodied the 
acceptable portions of two draughts which were presented by Jacob M. Howard and Isaac 
P. Christiancy. In the meantime the candidacy of Kinsley S. Bingham, the Free Soil 
gubernatorial aspirant, had been withdrawn with that of the rest of the Free Soil ticket. 
Bingham later became the candidate of the new Republican party and was elected governor. 

Though John C. Fremont, the standard-bearer of the Republicans, was defeated in the 
presidential campaign of 1856 by James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, the new party 
succeeded in re-electing Kinsley S. Bingham governor of Michigan. Little save the 
political issue of the time — the slavery question — occupied the public attention, and yet the 
city developed during these years with remarkable rapidity. Annual state fairs had now 
been in vogue for seven years; art exhibitions were being held; educational interests were 
being furthered ; industrial institutions were springing into life ; municipal needs were being 
satisfied apace with the increase in population. Detroit was becoming one of the impor- 
tant social and industrial centers in the country. The city had been in telegraphic com- 
munication with Buffalo since 1847 ^^^ was the center of competition for three opposing 
lines. In 1856 a meeting of the warring telegraph interests was held in Detroit, repre- 
sentatives of the various companies forming here the Western Union Telegraph Company. 
In the following year a cable was laid across the Detroit river. The year 1857 witnessed 
the extension of the city limits, the granting of a new city charter, the opening of the old 
Russell House and the establishment of a recorder's court. Many down-town buildings 
were in course of erection by private individuals who vied with each other in satisfying 
the then existing craze for city improvement. In 1859 a mass meeting of citizens voted 
to raise three hundred thousand dollars for municipal structures, two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars of which were appropriated for a new city hall; the balance was directed 
toward the completion of a workhouse. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 121 

In i860 came the memorable campaign as a result of which Abraham Lincoln became 
president of the United States. This precipitated the civil war. For some time plots had 
been in process of formation in the south for the secession of the slave and "state's rights 
states." In December, i860, a secession ordinance was ratified by the legislature of South 
Carolina, and within the next few weeks many of the southern commonwealths joined that 
state in withdrawing from the Union. While the Buchanan regime was still in effect, the 
southern sympathizers in the cabinet overlooked no opportunity for furthering the interests 
of the pro-slavery party. The secretary of war, John B. Floyd, was among those cabinet 
officers who later became leaders of the Confederacy. He took precaution to deplete the 
military stores in the northern arsenals and to order United States troops into positions 
most disadvantageous to the Union cause. He directed the sale of arms stored in the gov- 
ernment arsenal at Dearborn and winked at the erection of strong batteries by the rebels 
in Charleston harbor. The south was fully cognizant of the impending struggle. The pos- 
sibility of an open breach of serious consequences was beyond belief in the north. As the 
erection of hostile works continued off Charleston, Major Anderson, in command of a small 
but loyal force stationed at the adjacent Fort Moultrie, evacuated that position and entered 
Fort Sumter, a much stronger fortification. Buchanan determined to send Anderson supplies, 
and to this end dispatched the steamer "Star of the West." Upon her arrival at Sumter, Jan- 
uary 9th, both the steamer and the fort were fired upon by the rebels. This was the open- 
ing event of the war. News of the insult was flashed to Detroit, where the citizens were 
at once aroused to a frenzy of anger and indignation. On April 12th news of the fall of 
Sumter reached the city. On the 13th nearly every resident joined a mass assembly which 
met on the Campus Martins to voice its loyalty to the Union. All of Michigan was aflame 
with patriotism. On the i6th Governor Blair, who had succeeded Bingham, conferred with 
the leading citizens as to the procedure for securing Michigan's quota of the seventy-five 
thousand troops for which the president had asked the country. The governor addressed 
the throng at his hotel, informing the people that it was estimated that one hundred thou- 
sand dollars would be required for the equipment of the state's first regiment. Of this 
amount fifty thousand dollars was pledged by the city. Nearly twenty-five thousand dollars 
more was subscribed by the meeting. On the 23d the governor's proclamation was issued 
calling for ten volunteer companies and within less than twenty-four hours John Robertson, 
the auditor general, had begun the organization of Michigan's first regiment of infantry. 
This regiment was mustered into the United States service on May nth, and two days 
later it left Detroit with seven hundred and eighty "ninety-day" men, under command of 
Colonel O. B. Wilcox, proceeding directly to Washington. The second regiment of 
infantry was already partially recruited. 

The government reservation at Fort Wayne, the Detroit Riding Park and a camp 
ground established between Elmwood and Joseph Campau avenues, on Clinton street, were 
now scenes of military activity. From Detroit, from Wayne county, from adjoining coun- 
ties, came the best of the younger blood of Michigan to join the ranks of the Michigan 
troops, already being schooled in the arts of war at the city's three instruction camps. 
As soon as it became evident that the rebellion was to be more than a ninety-day affair, 
volunteers swarmed about the recruiting stations at Detroit as elsewhere in the state. 
Michigan furnished ninety thousand seven hundred and forty-seven troops during the war. 
Of these the following regiments were mustered in at Detroit during the first two years 
of the conflict : 



122 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

1861. 

First Michigan Infantry O. B. Wilcox, colonel. 

Second Michigan Infantry I. B. Richardson, colonel. 

Fifth Michigan Infantry H. D. Terry, colonel. 

Eighth Michigan Infantry W. M. Fenton, colonel. 

Ninth Michigan Infantry W. W. Duffield. 

Sixteenth Michigan Infantry T. W. B. Stockton, colonel. 

First Michigan Cavalry T. F. Brodhead, colonel. 

First Michigan Battery CO. Loomis. 

One company Berdan's Sharpshooters. 
One company Jackson Guards. 

1862. 

Fifth Michigan Cavalry T. J. Copeland, colonel. 

Ninth Michigan Battery J. J. Daniels, captain. 

Fourth Michigan Cavalry R. H. G. Minty, colonel. 

Twenty-fourth Michigan Infantry H. A. Morrow, colonel. 

Seventeenth Michigan Infantry Wm. H. Withington, colonel. 

One company Stanton Guards, raised by G. S. Wormer, captain. 

One company Dygert's Sharpshooters. 

In Wayne county nine thousand two hundred and thirteen men were recruited for the 
defense of the Union, Detroit furnishing a little less than two-thirds of this number. 
Nearly fourteen thousand Michigan men and three hundred and fifty-eight officers laid 
down their lives during the struggle. 

During these days the city was stirred as never in its history by jollification meetings 
in celebration of the victories of the northern arms. Throngs gathered frequently on the 
Campus Martius to listen to the patriotic oratory of such men as Theodore Romeyn, Gen- 
eral Lewis Cass, William A. Howard, Colonel H. A. Morrow and many others. In these 
addresses eligible men were urged to enlist. Receptions and dinners were given return- 
ing and visiting heroes. The war spirit invaded every home in the city. Triumphal arches 
were erected, under which marched patriotic parades. To encourage enlistment, appropri- 
ations and subscriptions were made to a bounty fund, which reached in Wayne county some 
six hundred and sixty thousand dollars, during the war. In addition to this the county and 
its citizens subscribed considerably more than six hundred and seventy-five thousand doHars 
for the assistance of families who were left without support by the enlistment of the bread- 
winners. Regular allowances of ten and fifteen dollars per month were made to such 
families. 

But not all was enthusiasm for the Union. After the first wave of loyalty had swept 
the city, carrying to the battlefields at the front the most desirable of Detroit's available 
men, there still remained many malcontents. These men had taken care to avoid the 
recruiting stations. They were unwilling to make personal sacrifice and assume the risks 
and hardships of war for the preservation of the government. They feared being caught 
by the dragnet of the draft which everyone felt would follow the repeated calls for more 
men. The agents of the Confederacy were active in the north, and especially so along the 
Canadian border. Whenever opportunity afforded itself they played upon the cowardice 
and disloyalty of those who had refused to volunteer. On July 15, 1862, a mass meeting 
assembled on the campus to hear speeches in favor of raising a new regiment. Through- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 123 

out the crowd were sprinkled many of the malcontents. As the meeting progressed the 
speakers were greeted with hisses and shouts of derision. The wrath of the diso-runtled 
centered on certain individuals on the speakers' platform. The rostrum was finally torn 
down and Lewis Cass and other prominent citizens were forced to take refuge in the 
Russell House. 

On March 6, 1863, occurred the most disgraceful affair in the city's history. For 
some time the feeling of resentment against the negroes, as causes of the war, had been 
rapidly gaining ground among the semi-lawless. This class greatly feared the draft which 
was necessitated during this year to supply Michigan's quota of soldiers. The trial of a 
negro, William Faulkner, charged with attacking a white girl, afforded a vent for the pent 
up anti-negro sentiment. While the prisoner was being escorted from the court at Congress 
and Griswold streets, a mob attempted to take the man from the officers. Trouble had 
been anticipated and a formidable guard had been provided by the provost to prevent a 
lynching. In spite of the array of soldiers, the mob made an attack upon the guard, who 
replied with a scattering volley. One man was killed and several fell wounded as the result 
of the fire. Immediately the crowd dispersed but reassembled in the colored settlement east 
of Woodward avenue and proceeded to drive the blacks into their homes with clubs and 
stones. Helpless men and women were struck down and beaten to insensibility at their 
doors; or driven terror-stricken before a crowd of frenzied whites. Then the torch was 
applied. Over thirty houses were thus consumed and thirty-five human beings were either 
killed outright or burned in their homes. For a time it was feared that the entire city 
would be burned and would fall victim to looters. Finally several companies of military 
reached the scene of the rioting, but not before the guilty had made good their escape. 

In the same year occurred an attempt to liberate the Confederate officers held as 
prisoners of war at Johnson's island, off Sandusky. The latter city and Detroit were 
chosen as headquarters for a party of southerners who were involved in the plot. At 
this time there were nearly twenty-five thousand rebel prisoners in confinement in the 
federal prisons at Chicago, Columbus, Johnson's island and Indianapolis. To liberate these 
men the party of southerners came north under various pretexts, simulating disgust with 
the southern cause. These men planned simultaneous attacks upon each of the northern 
prisons for the liberation of the Confederate soldiers. Bennett G. Burley, Major C. H. Cole 
and John Y. Beal were the conspirators who undertook the capture of the Johnson's island 
prison, near Sandusky. Planning their attempt with elaborate deliberation, which enabled 
them to make many friends in the north and thus allay suspicion, it was not until Sep- 
tember 19, 1864, that the leaders left Detroit for the island. Major Cole, who posed as 
a man of wealth and a general good fellow, had wormed himself into the good graces of 
some of the officers of the gunboat "Michigan," then stationed off Johnson's island as a 
guard for the prison. He had been a guest aboard the ship and had entertained the officers 
at little functions on shore. In payment of their social obligations, the officers in turn 
invited the major to again dine aboard the ship, on the 19th. Cole had spent much of 
his time at Sandusky, but on the above date he left Detroit with his accomplices, on board 
the steamer "Philo Parsons," which ran regularly between Detroit and Sandusky. Several 
passengers were waiting for the boat at Amherstburg and when she made the landing at 
that port they came aboard with considerable baggage, passing themselves off as carpen- 
ters, and their baggage as chests of tools. Before the boat reached Sandusky the carpen- 
ters opened the chests, which were then found to contain a generous supply of muskets and 
pistols. The boat was immediately taken in hand by the conspirators, one of whom, Beal, 



124 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

presented a pistol at the clerk's window, demanding that Walter Ashley, one of the owners 
of the steamer, turn over the money in the ship's safe. Somewhat more than one hundred 
dollars were passed through the window without delay. It was largely through Ashley's 
testimony that Beal was later convicted and hanged in New York. At Middle Bass island 
the "Parsons" joined the "Island Queen," another steamer which had been taken by a simi- 
lar band of conspirators. The passengers of the latter steamer, including a score or more 
of United States soldiers, were ordered aboard the "Parsons," which proceeded to a point 
near Johnson's island. Cole went aboard the "Michigan." where he had arranged to be 
met by a fellow plotter who was expected to have temporarily disabled the gunboat's engines. 
After drinking the officers into a state of helplessness, Cole planned to signal the "Parsons," 
take the "Michigan," overpower the prison's shore guard and assist the prisoners, all of 
whom were Confedrate officers, to Canada. 

During his entire stay in the north, no one had apparently suspected Cole. He was 
cordially received aboard the gunboat, and confidently expected a successful culmination of 
the plot. At this point, however, he was destined to surprise. One of the plotters, a 
Colonel Johnson, exposed tlie scheme, being actuated by personal pique. As the dinner was 
proceeding pleasantly an officer from shore came aboard the "Michigan" and arrested Cole 
as a rebel spy. The major had no other course than to confess, though he loyally attempted 
to shield his associates. The "Parsons" in the meantime had been steaming back and forth, 
standing well off the "Michigan's" moorings awaiting the expected signal to board. As no 
signal was given, the steamer returned to Fighting island, where the captured soldiers were 
marooned. Landing near Sandwich, the conspirators scuttled the steamer and escaped into 
Canada. Of the three leaders, Beal, Cole and Burley, the first mentioned was the only one 
to suffer punishment, both Cole and Burley escaping after being tried and convicted. 
Though the government had been warned of the plot by the English minister, so carefully 
had the entire affair been planned and executed that it is probable that the Johnson's island 
portion of the enterprise would have terminated successfully had it not been for the betrayal 
of the leaders by one of their number. 

During 1864 warnings were received of rebel plots to burn Detroit. As a precaution 
against such an attempt, impromptu guards were drilled in various wards of the city; the 
Thirtieth Michigan Regiment, which had not left for the front, was detailed for duty along 
the border, and a special steamer patroled the river. Both the Third and Fourth Regi- 
ments of Michigan Infantry had been relieved of duty and mustered out at home, and now 
returned soldiers began to arrive almost daily in Detroit. News of the taking of Richmond 
reached the city on April 3, 1864, and seven days later came dispatches announcing Lee's 
surrender. Both these events were occasions for general rejoicing, which found expression 
in long processions of jubilant enthusiasts, the firing of cannon, the blazing of bonfires and 
in displays of fireworks. But within a week the Campus Martins was crowded with a grief- 
stricken throng who at first refused to believe the stunning news of the assassination of 
President Lincoln. The whole north was struck numb with sorrow. The local patriotic 
organizations passed resolutions of grief and on April 19th memorial services were held in 
the city's churches. On the 25th an immense funeral procession passed along streets hung 
with deepest mourning and emblems of love and respect for the dead idol of the loyal states. 

Almost at the inception of the war local societies were formed whose members devoted 
themselves to providing means for the relief of the sufferings of Michigan's wounded sol- 
diers. Among these were the Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society, the first of its kind to organize 
in the country; and the Michigan Soldiers' Relief Society, which was formed somewhat 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 125 

later. In 1864 these associations were merged under the name of the latter. In 1863 the 
efforts of these organizations were supplemented by the city council, which voted two thou- 
sand five hundred dollars for the relief of the Michigan regiments that had suffered terrible 
losses at the battle of Gettysburg. Four citizens were named as a committee to visit the 
front and investigate the condition of the state's wounded, that the money might be judi- 
ciously expended. So well had the government provided for the injured, however, that 
less than eight hundred dollars of the amount was used. 

Though initial efforts to raise a monument to Michigan's dead had been made during 
the first year of the war, it was not until six years later that the Michigan Soldiers' and 
Sailors' Monument Association was formally incorporated. On July 7, 1867, the corner 
stone for the soldiers' and sailors' monument, to be built in accordance with the design of 
Randolph Rogers, a Michigan sculptor, was laid with impressive ceremonies in East Grand 
Circus Park. This site was later discarded in favor of the location on the Campus Martins, 
where the monument was formally dedicated April 9, 1872. Through the efforts of the 
association the sum of seventy thousand dollars was raised for this purpose, much of the 
money being subscribed by various patriotic organizations, schools and secret societies. 



CHAPTER XIX 

Readjustment in Detroit After the Civil War — Substantial Progress of the Michigan Me- 
tropolis — City's Protracted Struggle with the Street Railway Problem — First Fran- 
chise Granted — Detroit City Railway Company — Gradual Expansion of Facilities — 
Street Railway Climax During Regime of Mayor Pingree — Notable Administration 
of Pingree — Citizens' Railway Company — Pingree Re-elected and Continues Efforts 
for Municipal Ownership — Franchise Litigations — Pingree Continues his Fight 
for Detroit after Being Elected Governor of the State — Detroit United Railway — 
Mayor Pingree's Remarkable Activities in Behalf of the People — Gas Companies 
Attacked — Mayor's Famous Crusade — Brush Electric Light Company — City Ac- 
quires Electric Lighting Plant. 

Upon the termination of the civil war and the return of the troops from the field, 
Detroit began a rapid process of social and industrial readjustment. Though the north 
was in much better condition than the south, the withdrawal of thousands of men and the 
expenditure of large sums of money for the satisfaction of innumerable public and private 
needs left Wayne county and Detroit in a seriously crippled condition. But the same cour- 
ageous enterprise that had made the city tlie metropolis of the state now evinced itself 
rapidly to pick up shattered industries. From that time to the present day the city's history 
is one of normal business progression. Gradually the functions of the social fabric have 
been developed to meet successfully the political and economic problems that confront every 
growing municipality. Transportation facilities — 'railroad, marine, postal, telegraph and 
telephone— have more than kept pace with the expansion of similar interests in other parts 
of the country. The lessons of industry (see section devoted to industrial enterprises else- 
where in this volume) have been learned here as readily and at no greater cost than in other 
American cities. 

While the rebellion was still in its first year there began in Detroit a local struggle 
that has not to this day been terminated. This found its inception in the beginnings of one 
of the city's most important public-utility concerns — the street railway. In 1862 the city 
council granted the petition of Eben N. Wilson and his associates, who prayed the council 
"To permit certain persons to establish and operate street railways in Detroit." Prior to 
this time citizens had been compelled to walk, to depend on private conveyances of their 
own, or to trust themselves to a line of omnibuses that intermittently accommodated those 
living in localities remote from the center of the city. The building of a street-railway 
line was regarded as a most venturesome risk and a stupendous undertaking; but the coun- 
cil opined that so great an enterprise must of necessity engender a degree of good faith of 
like proportions. This, it suggested, could best be expressed in r^. material way by the deposit 
of five thousand dollars by the promoters. On August 26th the promoters declined to accept 
such a view of the situation and the city controller was directed to seek other investors 
who might look with more favor on the city's stipulation. In the fall of the same year 
Mr. Wilson, the original promoter, succeeded in associating with himself a second company 
of capitalists, who finally compromised with the city, accepting an ordinance which gave 
exclusive rights of way along specified streets as well as options to build on any other thor- 

126 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 127 

oughfare. This accomplished, what was known as the Detroit City Railway Company was 
incorporated in the early part of 1863. The company was capitalized at one hundred thou- 
sand dollars, that amount being issued in stock with an equal amount in bonds. Most of 
the investors were residents of Syracuse, New York. Under the franchise the company 
was empowered to lay tracks along, over and across Woodward, Jefferson, Gratiot, Third, 
Grand River and Michigan avenues, and Fort, Witherell and Woodbridge streets; but was 
taxed fifteen dollars per year for each car operated and was prohibited from exceeding a 
schedule of six miles per hour. The possibility of amassing undue returns from the collec- 
tion of a straight five-cent fare was limited by a regulation which provided that no two cars 
should pass a given point within twenty minutes of each other. For a time the first line of 
street railway, extending along Jefferson avenue between the Michigan Central and the 
Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee depots, struggled to pay expenses, and failed. It 
became evident that the company was not supplying a demand for transportation sufficient 
to permit the operation of its cars. The only alternatives were complete failure or extension. 
Accordingly, in 1864, new blood was taken in, and a track was laid along Woodward 
avenue, from the river to Grand Circus Park. Still the company was forced to struggle 
against an increasing deficit. Up to this time, in addition to the Syracuse investors, John 
A. Griswold, M. D. Sperry, D. B. Dufifield, G. V. N. Lothrop and Mr. Wilson had become 
interested in the company ; George Hendrie, owner of a line of transfer wagons and trucks, 
was given the management of the Jefferson line in 1864. Three years later E. W. Med- 
daugh, F. E. Driggs, James McMillan, Sidney D. Miller and others linked their fortunes 
with that of the street-railway company, whose capitalization was now increased to five 
hundred thousand dollars. Both the Woodward and Jefferson lines were extended, but the 
company was forced to relinquish its franchises on Grand River avenue and Fort street, 
through failure to meet extension stipulations. 

In this way two new companies came into existence, one to build the Fort street line 
(1865) and the other to operate cars on Grand River avenue. The latter company was 
known as the Grand River Street Railway Company and was formed three years subsequent 
to the incorporation of the Fort Street & Elmwood Company. In 1882 the Detroit City 
Railway Company purchased the holdings of the Detroit & Grand Trunk Junction Railway 
Company, which had been formed in 1873 ^o construct an east and west line, from Mount El- 
liott avenue westward across Woodward avenue and along Congress and Baker streets to the 
city limits. In the meantime the Third and Cass avenue lines had been built, and the latter 
had bought the former at sheriff's sale. An attempt had been made by the Detroit City 
Railway Company to prevent the construction of the Third avenue line, under the option 
proviso of the original franchise, and the matter was taken into court. Before an adjudi- 
cation had been reached, however, the Detroit City Company bought out the Cass and Third 
companies, in 1879. This deal gave the Detroit City Company control of all lines save 
those of the Fort street and Grand River companies, and largely as the result of the compli- 
cations which had existed, the former company's franchises, covering its lines then in opera- 
tion, were at this time extended until 1909. 

Though the company was now required to pave between its tracks and to pay into the 
city treasury a tax of one per cent, on its gross receipts, the building of new lines and the 
extension of old ones progressed rapidly. The Trumbull and Warren avenue and Brush and 
Myrtle lines were built in 1885. Two years later an ordinance was passed requiring the 
filing of reports of the company's receipts at six-month intervals and the payment of a one 
and one-half per cent, tax for the next ten years, after which time a two per cent, rate 
should obtain. 



128 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

Thus far tlie history of the Detroit City Railway Company had been one of constant 
struggle, — first against financial ruin and later against increasing competition. But this 
only paved the way for the coming of the real street-railway war, which began immediately 
after the election of Hazen S. Pingree as mayor of Detroit. Champions of the people 
have arisen with the recurring crises in the experiences of almost every American city with 
its public-service corporations, but none has stood forth more prominently than Mr. Pingree. 
The war which he began in 1890 against the Detroit City Railway Company not only 
made him a national character, but also has taxed to the utmost the capacities of succeed- 
ing administrations and is yet to be brought to an equitable termination. 

Within a month after becoming mayor Mr. Pingree began the exploitation of his 
municipal-ownership propaganda. In 1891 the railway company offered a rate of six tickets 
for twenty-five cents, on condition the council grant a new thirty-year franchise. A thirty- 
one year extension had been granted to the Grand River company in 1885 and now the 
council agreed to the Detroit City company's later proposition, but the mayor promptly 
vetoed the ordinance. Early in July the council, having discovered that the entire city 
would support the mayor, fell into line. Shortly after this, July 23, 1891, a new organiza- 
tion, the Citizens' Railway Company, bought the property of the Detroit City Railway Com- 
pany, the latter ceasing at this time to exist. The new corporation then began the installa- 
tion of an electric equipment. At the close of Mr. Pingree's first term as mayor, in 1891, 
the status of Detroit's street railways was this : The Citizens' company had acquired, with 
the physical property of the Detroit City Railway Company, the latter's thirty-year ■ fran- 
chise extension, which ran from 1879. Originally the franchise granted the old company 
in 1863 expired in 1893. Were it not for the 1879 extension, Mr. Pingree felt that a most 
favorable opportunity would be presented for the further urging of the municipal ownership 
plan in 1893. Accordingly he set about, immediately after his re-election in the fall of 
1891. to attack the ordinance of 1879, granting the extension. The mayor argued that the 
passing of a new ordinance of extension prior to the termination of the old franchise of 
1863 was irregular and contrary to good policy for the city. The United States circuit 
court agreed with the mayor, who took the matter before that tribunal, but the United States 
court of appeals, from whom the railway company sought relief, found, in 1895. for the 
company. During these years the city and the entire state were kept on the qui vive by 
frequent altercations between the mayor and officers and employes of the railway company, 
and by announcements from Mr. Pingree of attempted bribery on the part of the latter! 
Fmally the Citizens' Railway Company disposed of its interests to the New York firm 
of R. T. Wilson & Company. The transfer occurred in September, 1894, and three months 
later Mr. Pingree succeeded in having passed an ordinance granting a franchise to the 
Detroit Railway Company, the formation of which he had actively promoted in the east 
While not meeting with Mr. Pingree's desires in their entirety, the new company's fran- 
chise marked considerable progress in the mayor's fight. It provided that the city pay for 
paving between rails on unimproved streets and called for a rate of eight tickets for a 
quarter of a dollar between 5 145 a. m. and 8 p. m. ; a rate of six tickets for a quarter for 
the remainder of the twenty-four hours; and universal transfers. Following the adverse 
decision of the United States court of appeals in 1895, the mayor attempted to 
place the city's franchise-surrender case before the United States supreme court but without 
avail. The supreme court held that the lower court's findings were final. The Citizens' 
Company now expressed its triumphant satisfaction by withdrawing the rate of six tickets 
for a quarter and began charging straight five-cent fares, without transfers The supreme 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 129 

court's decision was handed down in November, 1895, and shortly after the withdrawal of 
the six-for-a-quarter rate by the Citizens' Company, Mr. Pingree was forcibly expelled from 
one of that company's cars for refusing to pay a straight five-cent fare. Thereupon the 
city sought to enforce the six-for-a-quarter rate by legal proceedings, but this end was 
accomplished before the issue came to trial. Early in 1896 the mayor vetoed an ordi- 
nance, passed by the council at the suggestion of the Citizens' Company, providing for a 
rate on that company's lines of eight tickets for a quarter, without transfers; the transfers 
to issue only on payment of a five-cent cash fare. Again he succeeded in winning over a 
large majority of the council. 

Though elected governor of Michigan in 1897, Mr. Pingree continued to fight for 
Detroit's better street-railway service. As a partial result the city now has unexcelled facili- 
ties in the matter of urban rapid transit as well as in that of convenient trolley connection 
with surrounding cities. On December 31, 1900, the several street-railway companies oper- 
ating in Detroit passed into the hands of a new corporation — the Detroit United Railway. 
This company became the purchaser of all the properties, rights and franchises of the De- 
troit Railway, Citizens' Railway, Fort Wayne & Belle Isle Railway, and the Detroit Sub- 
urban Railways companies. The Detroit United was capitalized at twelve and one-half 
million dollars and now operates about seven hundred and fifty miles of city and interurban 
lines. In February. 1898, the common council passed a resolution to the effect that no fran- 
chise be granted to any individual or corporation for the occupancy of the streets of the 
city without first securing a favorable popular vote on the question. It can not be said that 
this resolution has brought forth as yet any definite action or reform. 

Closely related to the street-railway problem were other public utility matters, covering 
gas, telephone and electric light, and none of the concerns interested in these projects 
escaped the vigilant eye of Mr. Pingree. Many of his friends were stockholders in one or 
other of such companies as were furnishing service to the citizens of Detroit at rates highly 
satisfactory and profitable to all save the consumers. But the interests of these friends 
were ignored by the mayor, who sought to promote the interests of the people. In 1892 
he threw down the gage to the two gas companies, which were then exceeding their legal 
rates by about seventy cents per thousand feet of gas. The franchises under which the com- 
panies were charging one dollar and a half per thousand feet were based on the legal charge 
for gas on the average of the rates obtaining in Cleveland. Chicago and other cities. An 
investigation showed this average to be eighty cents per thousand feet. 

In 1849 the city's original gas company, the Detroit City Gas Light Company, had 
been organized by the Messrs. Brown Brothers, a firm of Philadelphia capitalists, who asso- 
ciated with themselves in the deal G. V. N. Lothrop and other local men of wealth. The 
company first gave service in 185 1, but so expensive was their product that few citizens 
enjoyed the luxury of the new illuminant. A rival concern, the Mutual Gas Company, was 
organized in 1872. After this date there ensued a rate war between the two companies 
which bade fair to ruin the contestants until an agreement was reached whereby the local 
territory was divided, the center of Woodward avenue serving as a boundary. During the 
era of cheap gas, occasioned by the competitive fight, many citizens had availed themselves 
of the service of one or the other company, but upon the effecting of the armistice all con- 
sumers found themselves again the victims of excessive rates. In 1886 a coterie of local 
capitalists organized the Detroit Natural Gas Company, for the purpose of piping into the 
city a fuel supply from the Ohio gas fields. 

These three companies were in operation when Mr. Pingree began his three-year fight 
against the two coal-gas companies. The result of the mayor's crusade was the formation 



130 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

of a new company, which took over the properties of the three former organizations. At 
this time a net rate of one dollar per thousand feet for coal gas and eighty cents per thou- 
sand for natural gas was established. Upon the exhaustion of the Ohio gas fields a new 
supply was secured from freshly developed wells in Ontario, Canada, and this was piped 
across the river in two lines, which were connected with the city mains. This source has 
also become depleted, however, and only coal gas is now sold in Detroit. 

Until 1883 gas lamps were the only means of street lighting employed by the city, but 
during this year a few electric lamps were put into service in the down-town portions of 
Jefferson and Woodward avenues. During the following year a corporation known as the 
Brush Electric Light Company was awarded a contract for lighting the whole city. For 
ninety-five thousand dollars the lighting contractors agreed to furnish and operate some 
three hundred arc lamps. This arrangement was continued until the Detroit Electric Light 
& Power Company secured the city contract in 1890. The latter corporation engaged to 
operate one thousand and thirty lights for a consideration of one hundred and thirty-three 
thousand seven hundred and sixteen dollars per year. Naturally the payment of so large 
an amount for lighting suggested to Mr. Pingree an opportunity for the application of his 
municipal ownership theories. Though he strongly urged the establishment of a municipal 
lighting plant during his first term, it was not until 1893 that a vote of the people passed 
favorably upon his suggestions. City bonds were issued in the sum of six hundred thou- 
sand dollars and the present lighting plant was erected on the river front. Originally the 
plant cost the city about seven hundred and forty thousand dollars. Its maintenance and 
operation have shown a large saving to the city over the lowest contract prices under which 
lights were formerly furnished. 



CHAPTER XX 

Michigan in the Spanish-American War — Wayne County's Representation in the Volunteer 
Service — Michigan Regiments — Michigan Naval Reserves — Detroit Board of Com- 
merce — Industrial Progress of Detroit — Railway Tunnel Under Detroit River — 
Shipbuilding Industry and Marine Interests — Magnificent Industrial and Commer- 
cial Advancement — Figures and Estimates for 1908 — Municipal Government of De- 
troit — Parks and Boulevards — Gain in Population — Pertinent Statistics. 

Michigan has well maintained its honors in the various polemic conflicts in which the 
nation has been involved. This was significantly true in the Spanish-American war, to whose 
service Wayne county contributed a sterling and valiant force of volunteers, made up prin- 
cipally from existing military organizations. The data here given concerning this matter are 
largely gained from the official reports of the adjutant and quartermaster generals of the 
state. 

On the 23d of April, 1898, President McKinley issued a call for one hundred and 
twenty-five thousand volunteers. Michigan's quota was four thousand one hundred and 
four, to consist of four regiments of infantry, each comprising ten hundred and twenty-six 
officers and men. On the following day an order was issued from the office of the adjutant 
general of the state for the mobilization of the entire Michigan National Guard, at Island 
Lake, on the 26th of April. The adjutant general assumed command and the work of 
reforming the Michigan troops to meet the exigency of the call was undertaken. This was 
accomplished by assigning the second independent battalion to the First Infantry and the 
first independent battalion to the Second Infantry, together with the accepting of eight 
companies from different localities in the state to complete the Third and Fifth Regiments, 
respectively. The regiments thus organized were designated as the Thirty-first, Thirty-sec- 
ond, Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Michigan Volunteer Infantry. Of the Thirty-first 
Regiment three companies (I, K, and L) were mainly made up of Detroit men, including 
Colonel Cornelius Gardener, commanding; Charles W. Harrah, major; Andrew P. Biddle, 
surgeon; Frederick L. Abel, first lieutenant and adjutant; and Allen D. McLean, hospital 
steward. The other field and staff officers were from other points in the state. The regi- 
mental band had three Detroit representatives. Companies I and K were all Detroit men, 
as was also Company L, with the exception of one musician. The death roll of this regi- 
ment incidental to the service was fourteen men. Company I of the Thirty-second Regi- 
ment was made up almost entirely of men from Wayne county, including its officers, and 
the county also gave a large percentage of officers and men to Companies K, L and M. 
The death list of this regiment was twenty men. The Thirty-fourth Regiment had on its 
roster only eight Detroit men, including one officer. Major William G. Latimer. The Thir- 
ty-fifth Regiment had two Detroit representatives on its list of staff officers, and in the com- 
pany organziations were found a few men from Wayne county. 

On the loth of May, 1898, the enlistment and muster of the Thirty-first Regiment was 
completed, and May 15th, under command of Colonel Cornelius Gardener, it left for Chick- 
amauga Park, Georgia, in the service of the United States. The Thirty-second Regiment 
was muslered in May 4, 1898, and on the 19th of the same month, under command of 

131 



132 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

Colonel William T. McGurrin, departed for Tampa, Florida. The Thirty-third and Thirty- 
fourth Regiments were mustered in May 20th and 25th, respectively, and under the re- 
spective commands of Colonels Charles L. Boynton and John P, Petermann. The Thirty- 
third left for Camp Alger, Virginia, May 28th, and the Thirty-fourth departed for the same 
rendezvous on the 6th of June. On the nth of July Adjutant General E. M. Irish was 
commissioned colonel of the Thirty-fifth Michigan Volunteer Infantry and the regiment 
was mustered into the service of the United States on the 25th of the same month. On the 
14th of September, under orders, it moved from Island Lake to Camp Meade, Pennsylvania. 

The Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Michigan participated in the expedition, under Gen- 
eral Shafter, against Santiago, and bore their full share of the hardships and dangers of 
that expedition. The Thirty-first Michigan remained in various southern camps until Jan- 
uary 25, 1899, when it was transported to Cuba, where it remained in service until April 
25, 1899. The Thirty-second Michigan had no Wayne county contingent and consequently 
its service need not be noted in this article. The Thirty-fifth Michigan did not become ac- 
tively engaged, the exigencies of the war not demanding its interposition, but it was recog- 
nized as a splendid command in both personnel and equipment. 

The Michigan Naval Reserves, consisting of eleven officers and two hundred and sev- 
enty men, were detailed on the auxiliary cruiser "Yosemite" and saw service at Havana, 
Santiago and other points. In all situations they won the approval of the regular naval au- 
thorities and honored the state which they represented. In January, 1902, congress al- 
lowed a bounty of fifty thousand dollars to the crew of the "Yosemite" for the sinking of 
the Spanish vessel "Antonio Lopez" off San Juan, Porto Rico, during the war. 

Through divers channels the Detroit board of commerce has done most effective serv- 
ice in forwarding the civic and industrial progress and wellbeing of the city, begetting, 
as it has, a "high order of civic consciousness and of civic conscience." The organization 
of the board, on June 30, 1903, is an event of no minor importance in the history of the 
city. At the time of its formation the board's roster contained the names of nearly all 
members of the Merchants' & Manufacturers' Exchange, the Chamber of Commerce and 
the Convention League. A total of two iuindred and fifty-two charter members was se- 
cured, and the growth of the order is best indicated by the statement that the membership 
on the ist of April, 1908, as reported at the annual meeting of the board, was eleven hun- 
dred and fifty-four. The work of the Board of Commerce "touches every phase of the city's 
welfare, as well as of the elements and factors of our general commercial and industrial 
interests." 

The Board of Commerce has recognition of every activity and condition that touches 
the welfare of Detroit, and it finds within its sphere of influence and work all public af- 
fairs. It is potent in the fostering and advancement of the existing business industries and 
commercial enterprises of the city, and has accomplished a most effective work in securing 
to the city new industries. It cannot be doubted that no one factor in the city's civic make- 
up has done as much as this organization to promote the splendid advancement which has 
marked the history of the Michigan metropolis within the past few years — work which has 
significantly contributed to the upbuilding of the larger and greater Detroit. The board 
discusses public interests and public improvements and is a co-ordinate force in aiding the 
departments of public service by its suggestions and independent investigations. As a cen- 
trifugal force it "enables the material interests which make up the prosperity of the city to 
act as a unit and act without delay." Its co-operation is of great value in insuring good mu- 
nicipal government and in fostering commendable municipal activities. It has been well said 



I 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 133 

that "tlie talents and abilities that are freely given, through this organization, to measures 
for general welfare are those of men who, in various avenues of business effort, have dem- 
onstrated their capacity and made themselves well known as men of success." 

In any account of Detroit's industrial progress it is but consistent that recourse be 
had to the most valuable sources of information. In the following paragraphs are to be 
found data for which credit is to be given alike to the Detroit Board of Commerce and to 
the publishers of the Detroit city directory. 

The location of Detroit created for it a manifest destiny as a city of commercial and 
manufacturing importance. Its position on the strait connecting the upper and lower lakes, 
the depth of the water, the close approacli of the channel bank to the river's edge, the 
safety of its harbor, and the length of its dock line give it advantages for water transporta- 
tion unsurpassed by those of any other port on inland waters. Its railroad facilities also are 
of the best. It is the natural gateway between the west and the east, being on four of the 
trunk lines connecting these sections. Two great systems penetrate every part of Michigan, 
and there is excellent connection with the southwest. Recently there has been a reaching 
out to the south and southeast. The city has the advantage of good labor conditions, of 
cheap sites for manufactories, of an abundant supply of pure water at low rates, of good 
municipal administration, of a light debt and low taxation, and of unusual outward at- 
tractions. These advantages, intelligently directed, had raised it to the twelfth city in popu- 
lation in the country and to the sixteenth in the value of its manufactured products when 
tlie census of 1900 was taken. Since that year the city has entered upon a new period of 
growth, the rapidity of which is surpassing the expectations of the most hopeful of its busi- 
ness men. 

The facilities for water transportation did not need to be increased, but government 
improvements, added to unusual natural advantages, have made them the best on the Great 
Lakes. Nine miles of frontage on the Detroit river and four on the river Rouge will fur- 
nish ample dock rooi-n for many years to come. 

There has been a vast gain for Detroit in railway transportation. It is a terminal point 
also for the two principal Canadian systems of railway, which reach every place of im- 
portance in the Dominion and the maritime provinces. A belt line encircles the city, cross- 
ing all the railroads and facilitating the transfers of freight. A second belt line, to extend 
around the city at a uniform distance of six miles from the city hall, has been commenced. 

Since the great trunk lines began to bring the east to the west, Michigan Central rail- 
road operatives have dreamed of a mammoth, swinging steel bridge, capable of sustaining 
on its trestles the tonnage of the road and fitted to eliminate those obstacles which have 
placed the certain direction of trains practically beyond mortal control. With the develop- 
ment of such traffic conditions, however, as would justify such an undertaking, the com- 
merce of the great lakes has kept equal pace, until now the almost continuous passage, 
during the eight months of the navigation season, of the great freighters of the lake flo- 
tilla, precludes any such possibility. From the earliest day vessel interests successfully 
opposed the construction of a bridge. Though the project of a tunnel meant, at first hand, 
the expenditure of even a modern fortune, involving attendant engineering risks whose cost 
and extent could not be approximated, the spirit of the present-day progress was insistent 
and the construction of such an alternative was begun in 1904. 

In perfecting the tunnel plans and specifications it was naturally necessary to consider 
with great care just what functions the traffic demands would require the tunnel to fulfill, 
and the question of car movement and anticipated volume of business, together with end- 



134 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

less other problems, has entered very largely, in connection with physical conditions, into 
the matter of establishing grades at the approaches and the general alignment. In many 
ways the tunnel will be in the nature of an experiment in the handling of traffic. The 
expectations are that it will have an annual capacity of considerably more than one million 
cars, and when completed, will be the source of a great saving, increasing facilities from 
four hundred to five hundred per cent. The heaviest passenger and freight business han- 
dled by the Michigan Central is east bound, west bound freight cars being largely empties, so 
that the tunnel grade from the center of the river to the portal on the Canadian side is 
one and one-half per cent. That on the Michigan side is one-half of one per cent greater, 
the easier grade thus being provided for the heavier business. 

The details of this great engineering work required a little more than two years for 
their final adjustment. The engineers' diagrams roughly divide the tunnel work under the 
following heads: Westerly open cut, 1,540.07 feet; westerly approach, 2,128.97 feet; sub- 
aqueous, 2,625 f^^t; easterly approach, 3,193.14 feet, and easterly open cut, 3,300 feet, mak- 
ing the total distance of excavation a little more than 2.42 miles from surface to surface. 
The approach tunnels are twin concrete structures, between which a bench or retaining 
wall of the same material is four feet in lateral thickness. In chambers along this wall will 
be placed conduits, through which power, telephone and telegraph cables will be stmng. 
The side walls vary as earth fonnation and pressure necessitate, from two feet and nine 
inches, to five feet in thickness. 

When the tunnel is completed all cars will be operated at the terminals by means of 
high-power electric locomotives, a third-rail system being used. 

In completing the final plans it was decided that the object of the work could best be 
attained by building steel tubes on shore, excavating in the river bed a trench, in which a 
steel cradle for the reception of the tubes should be imbedded in a footing of concrete, the 
sinking of the tube shells within the arms of the cradle and the final depositing around themi 
of a complete covering of concrete. The cradle feature and the elimination of the use of a 
cofferdam, comprise a method never before attempted in sub-aqueous tunnel construction. 

Each of the tubes is twenty-three feet and four inches in inside diameter, their cen- 
ters being about twenty-six feet apart. This diameter, it is estimated, will allow eighteen 
feet of clearance between the tops of the rails and the roof of each tube, which will contain 
a single track. When the submerged structure has received its outer covering of concrete 
it will be fifty-five feet in width and thirty-one feet in depth, over all. A lining of specially 
prepared concrete, twenty inches thick, will be placed inside the tube shells, which are made 
of three-eighths-inch steel plates, and this lining will be reinforced by one-inch longitudinal 
rods, placed horizontally at intervals of approximately eighteen inches on centers located 
about six inches within the interior surface of the thus reinforced lining. 

To provide further rigidity for the structure, the tubes penetrate at regular intervals, 
a series of upright cross sections or steel diaphragms, extending below the bottom sur- 
faces of the shells. Between the cradle arms, above mentioned, heavy steel alignment 
beams, running parallel with the trench, will be placed, thus stiffening the arms on which 
will rest the lower edges of the diaphragms. Like the tube shells, the diaphragms are also 
made of three-eighths-inch steel plates, the outer edges being reinforced by heavy flange an- 
gles. Between these cross sections are frequent flanges to which as an additional rein- 
forcement, one-inch steel rods are connected to serve much in the manner of the spokes of 
a wheel in relieving tension. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 135 

The tube sections shoulder in heavy rabber gaskets at the joints, in each face of which 
are partially cylindrical chambers, extending along the entire circumference. Into these 
chambers is forced the best grade of cement grout by means of high-pressure tubes connected 
with air pumps on the river's surface. The joints are finally locked with heavy pms i^ttmg 
into corresponding sockets in the adjoining section, and securely bolted by divers. To fa- 
cilitate this conjunction, the forward end of each of the tunnel tubes carries a seventeen- 
inch sleeve, and can thus be more readily fitted over the end of the section previously sunk. 
Before launching the first of the tube sections, which were built at the plant of a ship- 
building company on the St. Clair river, some forty miles from the tunnel location, the open 
ends of the section were enclosed with immense bulkheads, that the structure might be 
floated down to position, as the hull of a ship is towed to her moorings. At the bottom 
of the bulkheads are a series of inlet valves for the admission of water ballast to serve m 
helping submerge the shells. A similar series of valves is placed along the upper area as 
vents for escaping air, all the valves being so arranged as to permit their manipulation from 
the river's surface. 

Several steel cylinders, sixty feet long and over ten feet in diameter, capable of sus- 
taining the six hundred tons weight of each tube section, were made fast temporarily to the 
various diaphragms, by heavy chains, and thus served as buoyant air chambers. The lower 
series of valves in the bulkheads are opened, admitting water into the tubes. The upper 
valves are then adjusted to permit the discharge of air displaced by the entering water, and 
the buoyant cylinders are placed in the proper positions to maintain the tubes on a hori- 
zontal plane, as they are gradually submerged. These cylinders are provided with a com- 
pressed air mechanism and with such valves that they also may be partially submerged by 
the admission of water ballast, or elevated by the forcing in of air, as the circumstances of 
the moment may demand. 

In this way the engineers have complete control of the entire structure at all times 
as the tubes can not sink except as the buoyancy of the air chambers is overcome by the 
weight of the water admitted through the bulkhead valves and that allowed to enter through 
the intakes of the air cylinders themselves. 

To surmount difficulties anticipated in effecting a safe and exact conjunction of the 
submerged sections, pilot pins between five and six feet in length and six inches in dia- 
meter, extending parallel to the axis of the tubes have been provided on the alternate sec- 
tions.' These pins are so arranged as to fit into corresponding sockets of cast steel bolted 
to the outer surface of the adjoining section. 

The marine facilities of Detroit have not only given a distinctive stimulus to trade and 
ofifered profitable investments in navigation interests, but the city has now gained prece- 
dence as the leading ship-building port on the Great Lakes. From a most interesting ar- 
ticle written by William Stocking for the Book of Detroiters, published about the beginning 
of 1908, are taken the following statements relative to the ship-building industry: "Ca- 
noes, bateaux and other small craft have been built here from almost the earliest times. 
The first large vessel was built in 1852; the first double-decked vessel for carrying iron 
ore was built here. The first yard in the west for constructing iron hulls was located in 
the neighboring village of Wyandotte and was owned by Detroit capital. All types of ves- 
sels, from the scow and tow barge up to the largest freighters and the finest passenger 
steamers have been built at yards in the Detroit district. Always prominent, this port has 
in the past three years held a position of undisputed supremacy. The addition of a new 
company and improved facilities of the old brought it to the front in 1905. Of large freight 



136 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

vessels its two companies that year launched fourteen, with a total tonnage of 134,400. The 
output of the next largest port on the lakes was ten, with a tonnage of 85,500. For some 
of the vessels built in Detroit the contracts were made, the keels laid, the vessels launched, 
equipped and put in commission before the close of the season in which they were com- 
menced, showing a degree of expedition in construction that was a marvel to old vessel- 
men. The freighters, with a floating dry dock, a large tug, with some smaller work and 
repairs, made an aggregate of about five million dollars in value. To this nearly half a 
million dollars was added in yachts, launches, rowboats and canoes. The industry gives 
employment to over five thousand men. In 1906 the Detroit yards launched thirteen 
freighters, with 108,000 tonnage, besides a large passenger steamer and a large car ferry. 
On the I St of January, 1907, the freight vessels under contract in the Detroit district for 
delivery during the year numbered seventeen, with aggregate tonnage of 135,500. The 
Detroit contracts for the year also included the largest 'and most costly passenger steamer 
ever built on the lakes, to cost $1,250,000. This vessel is the magnificent 'City of Cleve- 
land,' of the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company, which was put into service at the 
beginning of the season of 1908." 

Records of the year 1880 show that at that time Detroit had only nine hundred manu- 
facturing establishments, employing about sixteen thousand persons and representing a 
capitalization of about fifteen and one-half millions of dollars. During the ensuing decade 
there was an increase of only one hundred in the number of manufactories, but the capi- 
talization showed the noteworthy aggregate of forty-five million dollars, while employment 
was afforded to thirty-five thousand persons. In 1900 there were twelve hundred factor- 
ies, capitalized at sixty-eight million dollars and employing thirty-eight thousand five hun^ 
dred hands. The state census of 1904 showed thirteen hundred factories, with a combined 
capital of ninety-one million dollars. These afforded employment to more than forty-eight 
thousand hands, and the valuation of the output for the year aggregated one jiundred and 
forty million dollars. 

The year 1905 ushered in for Detroit its era of magnificent and unprecedented indus- 
trial and commercial progress. Within a single year the city gained as many new manu- 
factories as it had done during the entire period from 1900 to 1904. The Board of Com- 
merce made an independent canvas at the close of the calendar year 1905 and by the same 
established the fact that the city had more than fourteen hundred factories, with an aggre- 
gate capital of one hundred million dollars and employing over fifty-five thousand workers. 
The product for the year represented a valuation of about one hundred and seventy million 
dollars, and that for 1906 was one hundred and eighty million dollars. The output for 1907 
was slightly larger than that of 1906. The output for some of the leading industrial con- 
cerns for 1906 is here noted : 

Car building, freight, passenger and electric $25,000,000 

Automobiles ,. ., 12,000,000 

Druggists' preparations 10,900,000 

Clothing, knit goods, boots and shoes, etc 10,500,000 

Paints and varnish 10,000,000 

Coarse chemicals 10,000,000 

Stoves and steam-heating apparatus 9,300,000 

Food products, aside from meats 9.500,000 

Foundry and machine-shop products o^ Soo.ooo 

Slaughtering and meat packing 5,500,000 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 137 

Newspaper publishing 5,200,000 

Other printing and pubHshing 5,000,000 

Furniture 5,500,000 

Tobacco and cigars 4,500,000 

Malt liquors 3,600,000 

Twenty other industries showed a product of one millions dollars each. 
From the previously mentioned article by Mr. Stocking are taken the following perti- 
nent extracts, and his position as a statistician for the Board of Commerce gives special 
weight and authority to his statements : 

One of the striking features of this industrial expansion is the development in new 
channels. The automobile industry is entirely the growth of the present decade. For the 
assembling of automobiles twenty companies are in actual operation in the city. About 
thirty others devote the whole or part of their energies to the manufacture of automobile 
parts and accessories. They employ together nine thousand hands and are second only to 
car-building in the value of their output. The manufacture of computing machines is the 
growth of the past five years. The manufacture of rubber goods is another new enter- 
prise that adds a very important branch to Detroit's specialized industries. The making of 
coke and the establishment of the first coke iron furnace in Detroit belongs to the same 
period. The alkali and pharmaceutical industries have increased immensely in their product 
in the same time. A large copper and brass rolling mill and a number of smaller brass 
industries belong to the same period. Three things are especially notable about Detroit's 
manufacturing interests — the supremacy in certain special lines, the great variety of prod- 
ucts not thus specialized, and the number of separate manufacturing districts. Detroit not 
only has the largest single pharmaceutical establishment in the country, but it also has a 
large lead over any other city in the total value of all products of this class ; it leads every 
other city in the world in the manufacture of stoves and heating apparatus; it makes 
more than half in number of all the automobiles in the country and surpasses every other city 
in the value of the product; it makes over eighty per cent, of all the computing machines 
manufactured in the country ; it manufactures more soda ash and kindred alkaline products 
than any other section ; it is the leading city in the country in the manufacture of paints and 
varnish. 

Aside from these specialties, in which it is beyond competition, the city is remarkable 
for the variety of its products. It is not especially known as an iron city, yet its iron in- 
dustries are large and varied, and it is one of the largest consumers of pig iron in the coun- 
try. The brass and copper industries are almost as varied as those of iron, including nearly 
every variety of mechanical appliance in which precision is desired, and every article of 
household furniture and use. Michigan was for many years the leading white-pine state, 
and is still one of the largest producers of ornamental and useful hard woods. Among De- 
troit's industries are included a great variety of those in which wood is the chief material. 
The city is a small producer of textile fabrics, but a large manufacturer of clothing, particu- 
larly for the miner, the lumber camp and the factory. It makes many varieties of elec- 
trical appliances and a host of other things. This diversity of manufacture is one of the 
best elements of its prosperity. Whatever temporary depression may fall upon one indus- 
try, others are prosperous. Skilled mechanics are trained in every branch, and work is to 
be had in almost every line. More important yet is the home market that is created for a 
variety of products. In many manufactured articles Detroit is its own best customer. 

Detroit's manufacturing industries are hot, as in some cities, collected in a single con- 
gested and unwholesome district. They throng the river front and adjacent streets from 



138 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

Woodward avenue to Belle Isle bridge. They follow the belt-line railroad around the city. 
They make a sizable manufacturing city by itself of the Milwaukee Junction district, and ' 
one almost equally large about West Detroit Junction. They occupy a number of separate ^ 
blocks in the down-town districts. They scatter along the banks of the River Rouge, and 
their tall chimneys and derricks dot the landscape along the salt and soda district for 
eight miles west of the city limits. This separation of industries over large areas gives 
great advantage of profit, convenience and accessibility. It prevents the crowding of freight 
into one section. It prevents the raising of factory sites to a prohibitive or speculative price. 
It gives opportunity to intersperse the factory districts \vith cottage districts, so that wage- 
earners may live reasonbly near their work. If 

During the past four years a new element has entered into the growth of Detroit, in 
the removal here of industries established in other cities. About thirty companies have 
either moved bodily from other localities or else have established branches here. They 
have come not by reason of artificial inducements, bonuses, free lands or exemption from 
taxation, but for residence and business considerations alone. Nearly all of them have en- 
larged their operations since they came here and several are among our largest and most 
prosperous industries. Twelve companies that in the aggregate employed nineteen hundred 
wage-earners when they commenced operations had seven thousand one hundred on their 
pay rolls in the summer of 1907. 

The articles of incorporation of companies organized for manufacturing purposes are 
significant. In the three and one-half years ending June 30, 1907, they numbered five i 
hundred and fifty-six, with 34,662,500 of authorized capital, of which $21,498,807 was 
paid in, either in cash or other property. In the same period one hundred and forty-nine 
old companies added $12,069,000 to their capital, and four hundred and thirty-six permits 
were issued for new buildings in connection with manufacturing plants, the estimated cost of 
which was $4,346,750. 

The annual report of the committee on manufactures of the Board of Commerce pre- 
sented at the annual meeting held April 21, 1908, gives the following pertinent statements 
concerning the city's industrial progress: "During the board's fiscal year to March 31, 
1908, there were one hundred and forty-nine new industries incorporated, with $4,306,810 
subscribed capital, of which over $3,500,000 was paid in. Forty-four established companies 
increased their capital $11,310,000. The aggregate sum put into industrial production for 
the twelvemonth exceeds $15,500,000. This is a notable record when it is remembered 
that fully half of the period was marked by extreme financial depression. The following 
table of statistics is most interesting and instructive as indicating the growth of the 'Greater 
Detroit,' where, as is emblazoned on the escutcheon of the Board of Commerce, 'life is 
worth living' : 

1900 1904 1907 

Area, square miles 29 29 41-44 

Population 285,704 3I7-59I 410,000 

Number of families 60,524 70,087 87,968 

Public school enrollment 34.865 36,421 44.318 

Postofifice receipts 793.978 1,208,677 1,675,002 

Exports 17.669,535 23.400,851 40,488,295 

Building construction — cost 4,142,400 6,737,105 14,226,300 

Banking — capital and surplus 9,815,100 13,211,500 17,393,000 

Deposits in banks 75,691,898 92,190,715 117,674.983 

Total resources of banks 87,283,385 108.413,823 138,345,786 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 139 

Bank clearings .' 427,800,392 525-513705 711,610,404 

Capital employed in manufacture 67,544,972 91,228,214 125,000,000 

Employes in factories 38,481 48,879 71,000 

Wages paid 15,392,527 22,786,576 35,000,000 

Value of manufactured product 88,649,635 128.761,658 180,000,000 

Manufacturing capital — new and old 2,770,500 5,904,296 17,482,880 

Electric H. P., central plants 1,948 5-334 20,378 

Shipbuilding — tonnage . I4)300 9,800 139,500 

City assessment 244,371,550 277,983,370 335-759>98o 

City tax levy 3,662,877 4,083,401 4,207,556 

Net public debt 3,464,190 3-359-294 5-637,365 

The population of the city as estimated by the Board of Commerce, through the cus- 
tomary and reliable mediums, is placed at 425.000 the water-board records show the num- 
ber of families served in the corporate limits of the city in June, 1908, to be 92,697, and 
this is the basis of the conservative estimate made of the total population. The permits for 
building construction during the first nine months of 1908 indicate an aggregate of some- 
what more than three-fourths that of 1907. Statistics of building done in forty leading 
cities compiled by the American Contractor and covering the first nine months show that 
Detroit leads the countrj' with forty-nine per cent, gain in building over the same period 
last year. The official statements of the Detroit banks for July 15, 1908, show a total capi- 
tal and surplus of $18,585,000; deposits, $1 12,485,128. and total resources, $134,647,985. 
The bank clearings for the first nine months of the year were about nine per cent, less than 
for the same relative period in 1907. In the first nine months the number of manufacturing 
companies incorporated was eighty-nine, with subscribed capital of $2,025,150. In the 
same period existing companies increased their capital by $3,303,000. The exports for the 
nine months show a decrease of sixteen per cent, as compared with 1907, while the imports, 
the internal revenue receipts and the postoffice receipts show a slight increase. The assess- 
ment roll for 1908 is $349,163,590, and the tax levy $5,204,001. The net city debt July i, 
1908, was $5,863,544. 

Detroit controls a larger export trade than any other of the twenty-three customs dis- 
tricts on the Great Lakes and northern frontier from Maine to Montana, and the percent- 
age of increase has been large within the present decade, having been about thirty-two per 
cent, from 1900 to 1904. Statistical matter compiled under the auspices of the Board of 
Commerce offers the following information : As touching export trade Detroit is distinct- 
ively a strategic point in this field of commercial operations. It is the natural gateway be- 
tween the east and west and is a terminal point of the two principal railway systems of the 
Dominion of Canada, besides being the crossing point of several American railroads, so 
that it early gained precedence as a border shipping point for goods to be sent to the foreign 
markets. Its shipments are far in excess of those of any other port on the Great Lakes 
system. For a number of years they were about one-sixth of the whole. There have 
been periods of fluctuation, especially during times of uncertainty as to tariff policies. 
Since 1892 the tide of domestic merchandise that flows across the Detroit river to foreign 
ports has steadily risen. The total in 1892 was about $6,000,000; in 1897 it was $11,500.- 
000; in 1902 it reached $18,694,000; in 1907 it exceeded $40,000,000. In a foregoing 
paragraph it has already been stated that there has been a considerable decrease during the 
first nine months of 1908, but this is to be predicated as the result of abnormal conditions 
and not as an index of permanent conditions. These exports are as varied in character as 



140 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

they are large in volume. Of the three hundred and fifty classes and sub-classes into 
which the schedule is divided, two hundred and ninety are represented in the tables of De- 
troit exports. 

It should be remembered that the government statistical tables in regard to export 
trade indicate the point of departure of merchandise sent abroad, and not the point at 
which it originates. The location of Detroit with reference to both the United States and 
Canada, as well as the character of its manufactures, brings about a clear demarkation be- 
tween these two classes. Many of the heaviest exports sent forth from the gates of the 
Michigan metropolis come from the west and south, while the major portion of its own 
manufactures reach foreign markets through Atlantic and Pacific ports. Exports of the 
latter class are numerous and varied, including some very bulky products as well as those 
of finer order. It may be noted that three or four of the largest dry kilns in Russia are 
of Detroit manufacture; Detroit cars are in use on the railways of Canada, Mexico, Spain 
and Russia: the largest brewery in South Africa is equipped with tanks made in Detroit, 
and one of the most extensive mines in that far country is fitted with pumps and water- 
valves manufactured in this city; Detroit automobiles are to be found in use in nearly 
every country that has passable roads, including the mystic Orient; Detroit-made agricul- 
tural implements find sale in a number of European countries, where is also being gained 
an increasing demand for the furniture here manufactured ; Detroit pianos and piano self- 
players are found in the homes of a number of countries in Europe; Detroit stoves and 
radiators are sold in England and on the continent ; adding machines manufactured in this 
city are sold in almost every country that has any system of commercial accounts. In De- 
troit factories were originated ready-mixed paints, and these products are now widely dis- 
tributed over the world ; pharmaceutical preparations manufactured in Detroit are to be 
had in every country where human ills demand medical treatment ; heavy clothing finds its 
wav from Detroit factories to the mines and lumber woods of Canada ; boots and shoes sfo 
to the various Canadian provinces and the West Indies; toys to France and Germany; plum- 
bers' supplies to Great Britain, the continent of Europe and South America ; picture-frame 
mouldings to Germany ; carriages to the mountain districts of South America ; motor boats 
to England, Russia and Africa ; smelting furnaces to the foundries of Germany — and these 
constitute only a part of the contributions made by Detroit to foreign markets. The im- 
ports of Detroit are less varied and less extensive, but they are steadily increasing. 

It is uniformly recognized that Detroit's system of municipal government is both lib- 
eral and effective and that it defies adverse criticism to an extent that can be claimed by few 
of --the principal cities of the Union. A most important element in the scheme of govern- 
ment is the unique and conservative administration of the municipal finances. By its char- 
ter Detroit must needs limit its bonded indebtedness to two per cent, of its assessed valua- 
tion, and even this modest rate is seldom approached. All measures for the raising of 
money, either by tax levy or by the issuing of bonds, must be approved by a board of esti- 
mates, and this has forfended excessive demands by the various departments of the city 
government. The board of estimates consists of two members from each ward and five 
members at large, and all are elected on a general ticket. They hold office two years. 
The heads of the various municipal departments are members ex officio, with the privileo-e of 
speaking but not of voting. The board has no patronage and its members must not be in- 
terested in any city contracts. The charter of the city provides that itemized estimates of 
the dififerent departments must be sent annually to the controller, who must forward them, 
with his recommendations, to the common council on or before the last day of February. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 141 

The council is given a month for their consideration and then sends them to the board of 
estimates, which may decrease or disapprove any item but not increase any. The budget 
is divided among a number of committees, and the reports of the latter are considered, 
item by item, in committee of the whole, after which they are again gone over in general 
session before their final adoption. By reason of the provisions thus made frauds have 
been practically unknown in connection with the financial affairs of the city, and the tax 
levy has been exceptionally free from extravagant appropriations. The charter also pro- 
vides that no money shall be expended in excess of the appropriations, and that no moneys 
shall be transferred' from one fund to another. Within the past three years the annexation 
of new territory has added a larger percentage to the cost of city government than it has to 
the assessment roll, but even with this the appropriations are believed to be less in propor- 
tion to population than those of any other large city in the country. 

The natural topographical attractions of Detroit, the beautiful "City of the Straits," 
have been supplemented and enhanced most effectively by the care and discrimination shown 
in the platting of the city from its inception through the various stages of growth and prog- 
ress. Long has the city been noted for its broad and well-shaded streets and avenues, and 
the park and boulevard system has worthily supplemented the original platting, suggested 
in an early day by Judge Augustus B. Woodward. 

In the Detroit river, opposite the east end of the city, lies Belle Isle, which has an area 
of seven hundred acres and which came into possession of the city about thirty years ago. 
Even as "Good wine needs no brush," so does Detroit's beautiful island park need no words 
of extollation,' for its fame is coincident with that of the city itself; its attractions are not 
excelled by those of any public park in the world. A portion of the original forest on the 
island has been left essentially intact, and other parts of the fair isle have gained new 
beauties under the designs and labors of skilled landscape artists. The swamps have given 
place to lakes or lagoons, and these are connected by a series of canals, giving a long stretch 
of idyllic waterway for rowboats and canoes. Near the center of the island is a consid- 
erable space reserved for the zoological enclosui-e. and the conservatories and the aqua- 
rium are a constant attraction to the multitudes who visit the island each day during the 
summer season. The aquarium is conceded to be one of the best in the world, and the park 
as a whole is one of the most unique and interesting on the continent. 

Belle Isle is accessible by large and well ordered ferry boats, which ply at frequent in- 
tervals, and is also connected with the mainland by a bridge about half a mile in length. 
From this bridge starts the Grand boulevard, which is one hundred and fifty feet, and in 
some portions two hundred feet, wide and twelve miles long, and which encircles the city, 
terminating in a small park and dock at the western end. The roadway is macadamized 
and the sides and center have parklike treatment throughout the entire length. Palmer 
Park, of one hundred and forty acres, in the northern part of the city; Clark Park, of 
thirty acres, in the western part, and smaller parks on the river front and dotting other 
sections of the city, add to the attractions which have given Detroit the merited reputation 
of being one of the most beautiful cities in the country. 

Within the past decade Detroit has shown a wonderful advancement in its industrial ac- 
tivities, as has already been stated, and this has, of course, implied a distinctive gain in pop- 
ulation. The government census of 1870 accredited to Detroit a population of 79,577; 
that of 1880, 116.340; that of 1890, 205,876, and that of 1900, 285,704. The state census 
of 1904, taken with federal co-operation, shows the population to have been 31 7.591- In 
1906 the estimated population was 385,000, and in 1907, 410,000— both of these esti- 



l-t2 DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 

mates being made upon authentic data secured by the city water board and the pubhshers 
of the city directory. The estimated population in 1908 is 425,000. This is the conserva- 
tive estimate based upon the water-board enumeration in June, which gave a total of 92 697 
famines. It will be understood that the water service takes no account of the contributory 
districts or suburbs of the city not included in the corporate limits but still essentially a part 
of the city. Thus the virtual population is considerably greater than that indicated by the 
water-board figures. 

The following pertinent facts concerning Detroit offer a comparative view of condi- 
tions in the years 1906 and 1907 and indicate clearly that the brave march of progress is 
continuing, even as it has during the year 1908. notwithstanding the period of finandal de- 
pression which this year has recorded: 

1906 1907 

f°P"'^t'0" ■ .385.000 410.000 

Number of families in June, water board 

enumeration 81,535 87,968 

Euildmg construction. 

J!""^'^^'- 4.705 4,942 

^ ."^^^^ $13,282,350 $14,226,300 

Bank statements. 

Capital and surplus $ 15,186,000 $ 17,393,000 

^^P°^''^ 107,217,020 1 17,674,983 

Total resources 139,417,909 138,345,786 

Clearmgs 670,130.679 711.610,404 

Manufactunng. 

New companies incorporated 143 j-g 

Capital subscribed $ 5,563.980 $ 5,704,880 

Old companies increased capital 4.364,000 1 1 778 000 

Federal. ' ' 

f^P^*"^^ $ 36,663,196 $ 40,488,295 

i:"7if : 5,769,879 7.679,837 

Postoffice receipts 1,515,407 1,675,002 

Internal revenue receipts 4,365,649 4,531,997 

Municipal finances. 

Assessed valuation $305,756,930 $335.759,98o 

^f *ft'^^^ 4,317.506 4,307,556 

^'^^'^'^ 5,171.451 5,637.365 



REPRESENTATIVE 

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



145 



THE FIEST NATIONAL BANK OF 
DETROIT. 

Among the great monetary institutions 
which have emphasized and held powerful in- 
fluence in the financial stability and conserva- 
tism of the city of Detroit and the state of 
Michigan, none occupies a more conspicuous 
position than does the First National Bank, 
which has had a consecutive history covering a 
period of nearly half a century and which has 
at all times enlisted the capitalistic and execu- 
tive support of citizens of the highest standing 
in the community. The bank as now consti- 
tuted represents the merger of the First 
National Bank and the Commercial National 
Bank, whose interests were thus consolidated 
on the 30th of May, 1908. 

The First National Bank of Detroit received 
its original charter (No. 97)) in the year 

1863, its preliminary organization certificate 
having been executed August 5th and its 
articles of association having been signed on 
the 26th of the preceding month. The signers 
of this original certificate were as here noted : 
Philo Parsons, E. G. Merrick, John Hosmer, 
Waldo M. Johnson, C. M. Davison, Michael 
B. Kean, John Evans, T. K. Adams, C. L. 
Safford, John Hutchings and George Peck. 
The bank opened its doors for business Sep- 
tember I, 1863, and its first board of directors 
comprised John Hosmer, E. G. Merrick, J. N. 
Ford. M. I. Mills, M. B. Kean, W. M. John- 
son, John James, John Hutchings, and Philo 
Parsons. The bank was incorporated with a 
capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, 
and Philo Parsons was elected the first presi- 
dent of the institution, while Henry C. Kibber 
was chosen as the first cashier. The first bank- 
ing office was located in the building occupied 
by P. Parsons & Company, in the old Rotunda 
building, on Griswold street, where the present 
Newberry building stands. In December, 

1864, control of the bank was secured by in- 
terests at the time in control also of the State 
Bank, and in the following year the latter in- 
stitution was merged in the First National. 

It is well in this connection to enter brief 
data regarding the State Bank, which was 



organized in 1858, largely through New York 
capital, and which was headed by ex-Governor 
Myron H. Clark of that state. The bank was 
capitalized for fifty thousand dollars and its 
first officers were as follows : Lorenzo E. Clark, 
president, and Theodore P. Hall, cashier. In 
1 86 1 the control of this bank became vested in 
Detroit parties, and at this time S. P. Brady 
became its president and Emory Wendell its 
cashier. These gentlemen served until its con- 
solidation with the First National Bank, when 
they assumed similar executive offices in the 
latter. In January, 1868, Jacob S. Farrand 
succeeded to the presidency, and in February 
of the following year the capital was increased 
to two hundred thousand dollars, while the 
sum of twenty thousand dollars was passed to 
the surplus account, from undivided profits 
accumulated in the preceding four years. In 
1869 the National Insurance Bank went into 
voluntary liquidation, and its corporate 
property was purchased by the First Na- 
tional, to which nearly all of its accounts 
were transferred. The capital was at 
this time increased to five hundred thousand 
dollars, of which amount one hundred thou- 
sand dollars of stock were allotted to John 
Owen and his associates who had been the 
principal stockholders of the National Insur- 
ance Bank. The combined deposits of the two 
institutions aggregated about two million dol- 
lars. In 1875 James McMillan and William 
B. Wesson became large stockholders, and both 
were elected to the directorate; in 1880 Mr. 
McMillan purchased the interests of John 
Owen, who at that time retired from active 
business. 

June 17. 1882, upon the expiration of its 
original charter, the First National Bank 
entered into voluntary liquidation and was suc- 
ceeded by a new organization, under the same 
name and with charter No. 2707, the reorgani- 
zation having been effected on the ist of the 
preceding February. The personnel of the 
executive corps under the new charter was as 
follows : Emory Wendell, president ; D. M. 
Ferry, vice-president ; and L. E. Clark, cashier. 
Besides these officers the board of directors in- 
cluded J. S. Farrand. G. V. N. Lothrop, M. I. 



146 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Mills, William B. Wesson, Alanson Sheley, 
and James McMillan. 

The second charter expired February i, 
1902, and under the same title and number an 
extension was secured for a period of twenty 
years. January 10, 1893, John T. Shaw suc- 
ceeded L. E. Clark as cashier, and in 1899 he 
was elected vice-president, of which dual offices 
he has since remained incumbent. October 
10, 1892, Emory Wendell resigned the presi- 
dency, on account of impaired health, and D. 
M. Ferry became acting president, an office to 
which he was duly elected somewhat later in 
the same year. He continued to serve as presi- 
dent of the bank until his death, which occurred 
on the loth of November, 1907. The other 
officers at the time of consolidation with the 
Commercial National Bank were as follows : 
John T. Shaw, vice-president; Emory W. 
Clark, second vice-president; Frank G. Smith 
and Joseph Grindley, assistant cashiers. The 
officers and directors of the bank at the present 
time are as here designated: Morris L. Will- 
iams, president; John T. Shaw, vice-president 
and cashier; Emory W. Clark, second vice- 
president ; F. A. Smith, assistant to the presi- 
dent; Frank G. Smith, W. A. McWhinney, 
F. F. Christie, Joseph Grindley, and J. H. 
Hart, assistant cashiers; directors. Dr. J. B. 
Book, William J. Chittenden, Emory W. 
Clark, Don M. Dickinson, Clinton G. Edgar, 
Dexter M. Ferry, Jr., J. S. Farrand, Jr., 
Edward Ford, Charles F. Hammond, George 
Hendrie, Robert Henkel, Gilbert W. Lee, 
Cyrus E. Lothrop, Philip H. McMillan, M. J 
Murphy, Thomas Neal, Charles L. Palms, 
Cornelius J. Reilly, John T. Shaw, Stephen Y.' 
Seyburn, James D. Standish, Frederic B. 
Stevens, Willis C. Ward, A. E. F. White, H. 
K. White, Morris L. Williams, William C. 
Williams. 

_ Within the history of this old and substan- 
tial institution there have been identified with 
the same as directors many of the most prom- 
inent business men and most honored citizens 
of Detroit, and in addition to those already 
mentioned in a direct or incidental way there 
have been others of equal prominence and in- 



fluence. The First National Bank of Detroit 
now has a capital of two million dollars, and 
its surplus and undivided profits reach an ag- 
gregate of about one million dollars. 

June 1st, 1908, the offices of the First 
National Bank were removed from the Union 
Trust building to the present fine quarters in 
the magnificent Ford building, and its facilities 
and prestige are excelled by those of no other 
financial institution in the state. Detroit's long 
continued commercial and general business in- 
tegrity has been in a large measure due to the 
wise and discriminating banking methods here 
employed, the city having weathered many 
financial storms and panics which have pros- 
trated other sections of the Union, and among 
the most influential potencies in insuring this 
solidity has stood the First National Bank, 
whose history has been one of consecutive 
success. 

The Commercial National Bank. — It is 
but consonant that in this article should be 
given also a brief outline of the history of the 
Commercial National Bank, which long held 
much relative priority among the great banking 
institutions of the Michigan metropolis and of 
whose consolidation with the First National 
Bank due mention has already been made. 

This well known and popular bank was or- 
ganized in 1 88 1 and was incorporated with a 
capital stock of two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars. Its charter was received Decem- 
ber 27th of that year. The first executive 
corps was as follows: Hugh McMillan, presi- 
dent; George H. Hammond, vice-president; 
and Morris L. Williams, cashier. The original 
directorate comprised, besides the officers men- 
tioned, Ashley Pond, William G. Thompson, 
Isaac L. Lyon, James K. Burnham, W. C. 
Williams, Joseph H. Berry, and George 
Hendrie. The capital stock was increased to 
five hundred thousand dollars, and finally a 
further increase was made to the notable ag- 
gregate of one million dollars. At the time of 
its consolidation with the First National its 
deposits aggregated nearly eight million dol- 
lars. It was a United States depository and 
its charter number was 2591. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



147 



Upon the death of George H. Hammond, in 
1886, Henry B. Ledyard succeeded to the office 
of vice-president, and upon the retirement of 
the latter F. H. Wallcer was chosen successor. 
Mr. Walker was later succeeded by Morris 
L. Williams, who was elected president upon 
the retirement of Hugh McMillan, and who 
thereafter remained the executive head of the 
institution until its consolidation with the First 
National Bank. Mr. Williams was practically 
the chief administrative officer of the Com- 
mercial National during the entire period of 
its history, and he is known as one of the 
most discriminating and influential bankers of 
the state. The other officers of the Commercial 
National at the time of its merging with the 
First National were as follows : George Hen- 
drie, vice-president ; Charles L. Palms, second 
vice-president; F. A. Smith, cashier; and W. 
A. McWhinney, F. F. Christie, and J. H. Hart, 
assistant cashiers. In addition to the president 
and vice-presidents the directorate included 
Joseph H. Berry (since deceased). Dr. J. B. 
Book, J. S. Farrand, Jr., Charles F. Hammond, 
Robert Henkel, Gilbert W. Lee, M. J. Mur- 
phy, James D. Standish, F. B. Stevens, A. E. 
F. White, H. K. White, and William C. 
Williams. 



THE PEOPLE'S STATE BANK. 

This institution represents the consolidation 
in January, 1907, of the People's Savings 
Bank and the State Savings Bank, both of 
which had gained a secure place in connec- 
tion with financial affairs in Detroit and the 
state. The People's State Bank thus initiated 
its business under the most auspicious circum- 
stances and it exercises important functions 
in its wide field. It occupies the splendid 
bank building erected by the State Savings 
Bank and used by the latter until the consoli- 
dation of the two was effected. The bank has 
a capital stock of one million five hundred 
thousand dollars and a surplus fund of the 
same amount, while its net undivided profits 
are in excess of two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars. According to its statement at 
the close of business September 23, 1908, its 



commercial deposits aggregate $6,923,727.30; 
and the savings deposits $13,602,584.22, and 
bank deposits $3,690,320.23. The executive 
officers of the institution are as here noted : 
George H. Russel, president; Michael W. 
O'Brien, vice-president and chairman of the 
board of directors; H. C. Potter, Jr., George 
E. Lawson, R. S. Mason, and F. A. Schulte, 
vice-presidents; Austin E. Wing, cashier; H. 
P. Borgman, cashier of savings department; 
R. W. Smylie, manager of credit department; 
George T. Courtney, auditor ; and J. R. Bodde, 
assistant cashier. The personnel of the board 
of directors is as follows: R. A. Alger, 
George H. Barbour, W. T. Barbour, H. M. 
Campbell, B. S. Colburn, C. A. Ducharme, 
Jeremiah Dwyer, Haley Fiske, F. J. Hecker, 
George E. Lawson, H. B. Ledyard, P. H. Mc- 
Millan, R. S. Mason, Fred T. Moran, M. J. 
Murphy, M. W. O'Brien, H. C. Potter, Jr., 
Louis Rothschild, George H. Russel, Hugo 
Scherer, F. A. Schulte, and Henry Russel. 
The bank maintains several branch offices in 
Detroit. 

The People's Savings Bank for many 
years figured as one of the most substantial 
and popular financial institutions of Detroit, 
and this precedence continued unchallenged up 
to the time of its consolidation with the State 
Savings Bank, under the title of the People's 
State Bank. The People's Savings Bank was 
organized and incorporated under the laws 
of the state in 1871, on the 2d of January of 
which year it commenced business in quar- 
ters on Woodward avenue near the corner of 
Jefferson avenue. Francis Palms was the orig- 
inal president of the institution and Michael 
W. O'Brien, cashier, the latter having later 
served for many years as president of the 
bank and being at the present time vice-presi- 
dent and chairman of the board of directors 
of its successor, the People's State Bank, as 
noted in the preceding paragraph. On the 
2d of January, 1872, the bank was reorgan- 
ized under the general banking law as amend- 
ed by the session of the legislature of 1871-2, 
and under the new regime the following offi- 
cers were chosen: President, Francis Palms; 



148 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



vice-president. John Heffron; cashier, Michael 
W. O'Brien; directors, Francis Palms. Charles 
Ducharme, Anton Pulte, Ferdinand Morrell, 
Edward Reidy, William Foxen, John Heff- 
ron, and John Mark. At the reorganization 
the capital stock of the bank was placed at 
sixty thousand dollars, and in the same year 
the institution was removed to more eligible 
quarters, in the Telegraph block, at the corner 
of Congress and Griswold streets. On the 
1st of January, 1874, the capital of the bank 
was increased to one hundred and twenty 
thousand dollars, and later in the same month 
William L. Carpenter was elected a director 
to succeed Charles Ducharme, deceased. Jan- 
uary 12, 1875, Anton Pulte succeeded John 
Heffron as vice-president, the latter retiring 
from the board of directors at this time, and 
in 1881 Francis F. Palms and Jeremiah 
Dwyer became members of the directorate, 
succeeding William Foxen and Ferdinand 
Morrell. In January of the same year the 
capital of the institution was raised to two 
hundred thousand dollars. On the organiza- 
tion of the Detroit Clearing House Associa- 
tion, in March, 1883, the People's Savings 
Bank became a member of the same. On the 
1st of January, 1874. the capital of the bank 
creased to five hundred thousand dollars, and 
M. W. O'Brien retired from the directorate 
in order to create a vacancy, which was filled 
by the late James L. Edson. In the following 
year Mr. O'Brien again became a director, 
succeeding Mr. Carpenter, who died on the 
13th of November of that year. On the 26th 
of November, 1886, occurred the death of 
Francis Palms, and in the following January 
George H. Barbour was chosen as his succes- 
sor in the directory. On the 2d of May, 1887. 
Michael W. O'Brien was elected to the presi- 
dency, Frank A. Schulte became vice-president, 
and Silas B. Coleman, cashier. At the opening 
of the year 1890 the bank removed to the 
Moffat building, and in December of that 
year Charles A. Ducharme was elected a di- 
rector, to succeed William Boeing, deceased, 
while George E. Lawson succeeded Mr. Cole- 
man as cashier. December 8, 189 1, Charles 
L, Palms was elected a director and Patrick 



Fitzsimons and William C. Yawkey retired 
from the board. December 8, 1896, the late 
Sigmund Rothschild was elected a director, 
and in January, 1901, Michael J. Murphy be- 
came a member of the board. The late 
David Whitney, Jr., was a director for some 
time. 

The State Savings Bank likewise played 
a large and important part in the financial af- 
fairs of Detroit from the time of its organi- 
zation until it was merged with the People's 
Savings Bank, as already noted. This bank 
was organized and incorporated in 1883, un- 
der the banking laws of the state, and it initi- 
ated business on the 23d of October of that 
year. The founders of the institution were 
David Hamilton and T. S. Anderson, capital- 
ists who came to Detroit from Owensboro, 
Kentucky, and who were fortunate in enlist- 
ing the co-operation and executive services of 
Robert S. Mason, at that time the first teller 
of the First National Bank and long identified 
with the banking business in this city. Mr. 
Hamilton became president of the State Sav- 
ings Bank; Mr. Anderson, vice-president, and 
Mr. Mason, cashier. Temporary banking of- 
fices were secured at 88 Griswold street, and 
these were occupied about six months, at the 
expiration of which the bank was removed to 
the Buhl block. The original capital stock 
was one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 
practically controlled by the two founders of 
the institution. In 1887 a reorganization took 
place and the capital was increased to two 
hundred thousand dollars. At this time also 
T. S. Anderson became president, an office 
of which he continued incumbent until 1889, 
when George H. Russel succeeded him, hav- 
ing previously been a member of the board of 
directors. Mr. Russel's financial and busi- 
ness interests were then, as now, of great 
scope and variety, and he consented to assume 
the presidency of this bank only on the under- 
standing that the arrangement was to be a 
temporary one. So high a valuation, how- 
ever, did the stockholders and directors place 
upon his services and so insistent were they 
in demanding his retention of the office that 
he continued in the same until the bank was 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



149 



consolidated with the People's Savings Bank. 
From the Buhl block the bank finally removed 
to more spacious quarters in the Hammond 
building, where it remained until the comple- 
tion of its fine new building, one of the best 
devoted specifically to banking uses to be 
found in the Union. This building, now oc- 
cupied by the People's State Bank, is located 
at the southeast corner of Fort and Shelby 
streets, and possession of the same was taken 
on the 30th of May, 1900. The building and 
grounds represent an investment of more than 
four hundred thousand dollars. The bank 
eventually increased its capital to five hundred 
thousand dollars and maintained a large sur- 
plus fund. Careful attention was given to sav- 
ings accounts and a large and representative 
commercial business was controlled. 



UNION TRUST COMPANY. 

Following the enacting of the present trust 
company law by the legislature of the state 
of Michigan, at the session of 1891, the Union 
Trust Company, of Detroit, was organized 
thereunder and in October of that year opened 
its doors for business, its capital stock being 
five hundred thousand dollars, fully paid in. 

Though trust companies had been estab- 
lished for some years in eastern states, the 
purpose and scope of such organizations were 
not generally understood in this vicinity and 
a considerable part of the earlier duties of 
the Union Trust Company was in the direc- 
tion of disseminating information as to what 
the company was organized for and what 
functions, under the law, it could perform. 

Trust companies, under the Michigan law, 
are authorized to act as executor and trustee 
under wills, as administrator of estates, as 
guardian of minors and incompetents, as agent 
or attorney for the transaction of business, the 
management of estates, the collection of rents, 
interest mortgages, and other securities ; under 
appointment of court, as receiver, assignee and 
trustee in bankruptcy ; as trustee under mort- 
gages to secure issues of bonds, and in pur- 
suance of any trust created under the laws 
of this state, or the United States ; as agent 
for the registering and transferring of the 



certificates of stock, bonds or other obliga- 
tions of any corporation, association or mu- 
nicipality; and, generally, in any representative 
fiduciary capacity. 

That the local field was ready for institu- 
tions of this kind is well borne out by the suc- 
cess of the Union Trust Company and by the 
further fact that other companies have been 
organized in Detroit for the conduct of trust 
business. It is now some seventeen years since 
the Union Trust Company commenced busi- 
ness, and its wide experience during that time 
in all of the various directions indicated above 
has qualified it to such degree as to render 
its services of the highest worth and value to 
those who put their affairs in its charge. 

The company is particularly well equipped 
with respect to the taking over and managing" 
of real and personal property, as agent or at- 
torney, in which capacities it gives the same 
thoughtful and judicious attention as is given 
by a careful and prudent owner. 

In addition to the general scope of busi- 
ness, as above set forth, the Union Trust Com- 
pany has an abstract department, in which it 
issues new abstracts of title and tax state- 
ments and extends old abstracts, whether is- 
sued by itself of by other abstract companies, 
on all lands in the city of Detroit and the 
county of Wayne, and in which are issued 
policies of insurance under the authority 
granted by law to guarantee or insure the va- 
lidity of titles to real estate. The company 
has, as well, a safety deposit vault, which is a 
structure of great strength, is modern and 
complete in its appointments and equipment, 
and contains boxes of such variety in size and 
price as permits selection in precise accord- 
ance with the requirements of each individual. 

The board of directors is made up of active, 
substantial and successful business men, their 
names being as follows : Henry B. Ledyard 
(chairman), F. J. Hecker, A. E. F. White, 
Charles Stinchfield, Henry Russel, Elliott T. 
Slocum, Truman H. Newberry, Charles A. 
Ducharme, Harry A. Conant, Charles L. 
Palms, D. C. Whitney, Philip H. McMillan, 
Herbert E. Boynton, George Hendrie, Albert 
L. Stephens, Paul F. Bagley, Burnham S. Col- 



150 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



burn, George B. Remick, Frank W. Blair, 
George M. Black, Allen F. Edwards. The 
officers of the company are as follows : Henry 
B. Ledyard, chairman; Frank W. Blair, presi- 
dent; A. E. F. White, second vice-president; 
Gerald J. McMechan, secretary; Charles R. 
Dunn, treasurer ; Alexander C. Long, assistant 
secretary ; Hobart B. Hoyt, trust officer ; Israel 
T. Cowles, manager of title, guaranty and ab- 
stract department; W. T. Bradford, bond of- 
ficer; Gilbert R. Osmun, custodian safety de- 
posit vault; Frank X. Lingemann, real estate 
officer; Russel, Campbell, Bulkley and Led- 
yard, general counsel. 

Frank W. Blair, president of the Union 
Trust Company, was born in Troy township, 
Oakland county, Michigan, on the 13th day 
of May, 1870, and his parents were numbered 
among the sterling pioneers of that county, 
where his father became a successful farmer. 
Mr. Blair was afforded the advantages of the 
public schools, including the high school, and 
his initial experience in the banking business 
was secured in the Exchange Bank of Bir- 
mingham, Michigan, and later he was employed 
for some time in a drug store. In 1900 he as- 
sumed a position in the office of the auditor 
general of Michigan, at Lansing, where he 
remained engaged until 1905, as inheritance 
tax examiner. In the year last mentioned he 
was made incumbent of the office of state 
bank examiner, and in the following year he 
became auditor of the State Savings Bank, 
of Detroit, an office which he retained until 
1908, when he was chosen president of the 
Union Trust Company. Prior to his retire- 
ment from the office of auditor of the State 
Savings Bank tlie institution had been merged 
with the People's Savings Bank, under title 
of the People's State Bank, with which latter 
institution he continued as auditor until as- 
suming his present office. 



THE OLD DETROIT NATIONAL BANK. 

There is no one factor which so well de- 
termines and designates the status and stability 
of a community as the extent and character of 
its banking institutions, and in this regard the 



financial solidity of Detroit has been main- 
tained by banks of ample capital, reinforced by 
conservative management and by the enlist- 
ment of the capitalistic support of citizens of 
the highest and most representative character. 

The old Detroit National Bank holds pres- 
tige as one of the most solid financial institu- 
tions in the state, and is the successor of the 
Second National Bank, whose standing also 
was ever of the best, and of the Detroit Na- 
tional Bank, which succeeded the latter. The 
Detroit National Bank was organized and in- 
corporated in 1883, beginning business Feb- 
ruary 26th of that year and succeeding the 
Second National Bank, which was founded in 
1863. The Second National soon became 
known as the leading bank of the state, and 
within a short time after its organization it 
was made a United States depository, con- 
tinuing to exercise its functions as such until 
the election of President Cleveland in 1884. 
The bank was incorporated with a capital stock 
of five hundred thousand dollars, and this was 
later increased to one million dollars. The 
original executive corps of the Second National 
Bank was as follows : Henry P. Baldwin, presi- 
dent; Christian H. Buhl, vice-president; and 
Clement M. Davison, cashier. Mr. Baldwin 
continued to give his personal attention to the 
affiairs of the bank after his election to the 
office of governor of Michigan and also after 
he had become a member of the United States 
senate, but he resigned October 20, 1887, hav- 
ing continued as president of the reorganized 
institution, the Detroit National. 

Shortly before the expiration of the charter 
of the Second National Bank, in 1883, the De- 
troit National was organized, with practically 
the same official corps as the old institution. 
Senator Baldwin was made the first president; 
Christian H. Buhl, vice-president ; and Clement 
M. Davison, cashier. The personnel of the 
first board of directors was as follows: H. P. 
Baldwin, C. H. Buhl, Frederick Buhl, James 
F. Joy, Allan Shelden, John S. Newberry, 
William C. Colborn, General Russell A. Alger, 
and Chauncey Hurlbut. Upon the resignation 
of Senator Baldwin from the presidency, in 
1887, he was succeeded by Christian H. Buhl, 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



151 



while William C. Colborn was chosen vice- 
president. On the 31st of December, 1891, 
Mr. Davison resigned the position of cashier 
and William T. DeGraff was chosen his suc- 
cessor. Mr. DeGraff began his banking career 
in the old Second National Bank June 6, 1865, 
and in 1867 he became paying teller in that 
institution. In 1882 he was promoted to the 
office of assistant cashier, of which he remained 
incumbent for twenty-six years, having con- 
tinued after the reorganization, and he has 
since remained cashier of the Detroit National 
Bank, and Old Detroit National Bank, proving 
in every respect a most able and discriminat- 
ing executive and having the unqualified con- 
fidence and esteem of the bank stockholders as 
well as of the many patrons of this popular 
financial institution. 

Mr. Buhl retired from the presidency Jan- 
ury 14, 1 89 1, and was succeeded by Alexander 
McPherson, who up to that time had been en- 
gaged in the banking business at Howell, 
Michigan. Mr. McPherson still retains the 
presidency, having been re-elected under the 
reorganization as the Old Detroit National 
Bank, upon the expiration of the second char- 
ter, November 18, 1902. 

During the three regimes — those of the 
Second National, Detroit National, and Old 
Detroit National Banks — the history of the 
institution has been one of uninterrupted and 
unqualified success, and the bank to-day is 
classed as one of the leading financial institu- 
tions of the Central states. The present board 
of directors is, as has always been the case, of 
distinctively representative order, and its per- 
sonnel is as follows : A. W. Wright, Elisha H. 
Flinn, Henry P. Baldwin, James Davidson, 
Henry Stephens, J. B. Ford, B. F. Berry, F. 
W. Gilchrist, Alexander McPherson, F. C. 
Stoepel, Clarence A. Black, Stanford T. Crapo, 
E. L. Ford, Charles A. Dean, Willis E. Buhl, 
E. D. Stair, and Charles B. Warren. The ex- 
ecutive officers are as follows : Alexander 
McPherson, president; Henry P. Baldwin, 
vice-president; Irvine B. Unger, assistant to 
the president ; Elisha H. Flinn, vice-president ; 
Wilham T. DeGraff, cashier, William H. 



Fowler, Elmer E. Ford, Ben G. Vernor, and 
Edward C. Mahler, assistant cashiers. 

From the official statement of the bank at 
the close of business on September 23, 1908, 
its capital stock is shown to be $2,000,000, paid 
in; surplus fund, $500,000; undivided profits, 
less expenses and taxes paid, $266,526.97 ; in- 
dividual deposits subject to check, $7,396,- 
122.06; demand certificates of deposits, $907,- 
362.64; and United States deposits, $150,000. 



THE WAYNE COUNTY SAVINGS BANK. 

The wise policy which has dominated the 
management of this fine institution from the 
time of its founding to the present has made 
it one of the greatest.of similar concerns in the 
middle west, and its enormous resources, ad- 
mirably conserved, make it a distinctive power 
in financial affairs of Detroit and Michigan. 
For nearly forty years has this bank been in 
existence and its history is one marked by con- 
secutive advancement and the most absolute 
solidity. In October, 1871, the Wayne County 
Savings Bank was organized and incorporated, 
the moving spirit in bringing about this result 
having been the late S. Dow Elwood, who had 
formulated a most definite system of operations 
before he secured the requisite capitalistic co- 
operation. He had decided to make a specialty 
of high-grade securities and to touch the purely 
commercial phase of the banking business as 
little as possible. He advocated the handling 
of municipal and school-district bonds of the 
gilt-edge type and issued for long terms. His 
wisdom was soon verified, for many of the 
securities thus purchased by the bank paid 
from eight to ten per cent, interest for long 
periods and were accumulated with scarcely 
more than a nominal premium. The plan of 
the national banking system in rendering it 
practically impossible for the national banks 
to handle real-estate securities, gave to Mr. 
Elwood the inspiration for taking up farm 
mortgages, as being more certain and substan- 
tial than those on city real estate, and at one 
time the bank of which he was the founder 
had loans extended on lands in twelve or more 



152 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



counties in the state and aggregating nearly 
one million dollars. The careful and con- 
servative methods employed in the extending 
of these loans made the margin of losses very 
narrow indeed. 

Upon the organization of the Wayne County 
Savings Bank Mr. Elwood was naturally 
chosen its secretary and treasurer, and he had 
enlisted the co-operation of leading capitalists 
and business men, so that the institution lacked 
naught in preliminary prestige when its doors 
were opened for business. The others of the 
original official corps were as follows : William 
B. Wesson, president; Dr. Herman Kiefer, 
vice-president; and William A. Moore, attor- 
ney. Besides these officers the board of trus- 
tees included also John J. Bagley, Dexter M. 
Ferry, Thomas W. Palmer, Jerome Croul, 
Paul Gies, J. B. Sutherland, L. P. Knight, 
Francis Adams, Jefferson Wiley, K. C. Bark- 
er, Traugott Schmidt, M. S. Smith. George 
F. Bagley, David M. Richardson, Jacob S. 
Farrand, Stanley G. Wight, William C. Dun- 
can, and David Knapp. In 1882 D. C. Whit- 
wood was elected second vice-president, the 
office having been created at that time, and in 
the following year he was elected first vice- 
president, to succeed Dr. Kiefer, who resigned, 
the office of second vice-president being per- 
mitted to remain without an incumbent. In 
1885 Jacob S. Farrand succeeded to the vice- 
presidency, upon the death of Mr. Whitwood, 
and in the same year the title of the board of 
trustees was changed to that of directors, the 
number being reduced to nine. This year also 
marked the election of General L. S. Trow- 
bridge to the dual offices of second vice-presi- 
dent and assistant secretary and treasurer. In 
1889 he resigned and in December of that year 
William Stagg assumed the position of assist- 
ant secretary and treasurer. 

William B. Wesson, the honored and excep- 
tionally able president of the bank, died 
in 1890, and S. Dow Elwood succeeded 
to the presidency of the institution of 
which he had been the virtual founder. He 
retained this office until his death, in 1898, and 
his name is inseparably connected with the 
upbuilding of the fine monetary institution with 



which he was so long identified. He was suc- 
ceeded by Charles F. Collins, who has since 
continued president of the bank. Mr. Farrand 
died in 1891, and in 1893 D. M. Ferry was 
elected first vice-president ; Jerome Croul, 
second vice-president; William Stagg, secre- 
tary and treasurer; and Charles F. Collins, 
assistant secretary and treasurer. In 1895 
Alfred K. Kiefer became assistant secretary 
and treasurer, Mr. Collins having been ad- 
vanced to the office of secretary and treasurer 
upon the death of Mr. Stagg, in the preceding 
year, and later having been chosen president, 
as already stated. In 1898 also Mr. Kiefer 
was promoted to the position of secretary and 
treasurer, and Edward H. Collins became as- 
sistant secretary and treasurer. Colonel 
Jerome Croul, an especially capable and popular 
officer, died in 1899, and was succeeded by 
William S. Green in the office of second vice- 
president. In 1900 the number of members on 
the board of directors was increased to eleven, 
the personnel at the present time being as fol- 
lows: D. M. Ferry, E. H. Flinn, H. Kirke 
White, F. H. Croul, William S. Green, J. B. 
Book, A. L. Stephens, Frank W. Eddy, S. Y. 
Seyburn, William V. Moore, and Charles F. 
Collins. Followmg are the names of the pres- 
ent executive officers of the bank : Charles F. 
Collins, president ; D. M. Ferry, first vice- 
president; W. S. Green, second vice-president; 
A. K. Kiefer, secretary and treasurer; and E. 
H. Collins, assistant secretary and treasurer. 

The capital of the Wayne County Savings 
Bank at the time of its incorporation was fifty 
thousand dollars, and notwithstanding the 
magnificent expansion of the business this 
figure represented the capital stock until 
1900, when, with the change in the 
state law governing banks with savings de- 
posits of more than five millions of dollars, 
the capital of the bank was augmented to its 
present figure of four hundred thousand dol- 
lars. The surplus fund (1908) aggregates 
one million dollars ; the undivided profits about 
three hundred thousand dollars, and the de- 
posits have reached the noteworthy aggregate 
of more than eleven millions. On the i8th of 
September, 1901, the bank secured a renewal 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



153 



of its charter for a term of thirty years, and its 
original policy of operation has remained es- 
sentially unchanged during the long period of 
its notably successful history. The bank owns 
and utilizes one of the most commodious and 
consistently arranged bank buildings in De- 
troit, the same being located at 32-34 Congress 
street west. The structure is six stories in 
height, and the entire main floor is used by 
the offices and fine safety-deposits vaults, few 
banks having so much available space for their 
own use. The safety vaults, of the most mod- 
em type, contain more than nine hundred com- 
partments, fire and burglar proof, and in addi- 
tion to this there are two other fire-proof vaults 
for the storage of more bulky effects, such as 
silver plate and other family or household 
valuables. The bank has long controlled a 
magnificent business, but each year records a 
still farther expansion, indicative of popular 
confidence and appreciation. 



H. W. NOBLE & COMPANY. 

Exercising important functions and to be 
noted as one of the representative concerns of 
its kind in the state of Michigan, the firm of 
H. W. Noble & Company controls a large and 
substantial business in the handling of bonds, 
local stocks, etc., while special attention is 
given to the placing of public-utility bonds of 
high grade. The enterprise is conducted along 
normal and conservative lines and absolute re- 
liability has gained to the firm high prestige in 
financial circles. Elsewhere in this volume is 
given a brief outline of the career of Herbert 
W. Noble, the founder and head of the firm. 

The business was established in 1894, by 
Herbert W. Noble and William E. Reilly, and 
operations were then initiated under the firm 
title of Reilly & Noble. In 1896 Mr. Reilly 
retired from the firm and Mr. Noble thereupon 
assumed control of the enterprise, adopting 
the present title of H. W. Noble & Company. 
He continued the business individually until 
1903, when William E. Moss was admitted to 
partnership and the: title of the firm was 
changed to Noble, Moss & Company. Mr. 
Moss retired from the business on the ist of 



January, 1905, and shortly afterward Mr. 
Noble formed ? partnership with J. Henry 
Wood, with whom he has since been asso- 
ciated under the title designated at the head of 
this article. The firm has shown much dis- 
crimination in the handling of stocks and bonds 
of the highest grade and has placed many im- 
portant securities on the market. A branch 
office is maintained in the city of Philadelphia, 
in the Land Title building, and the same is in 
charge of Mr. Wood, the junior member of 
the firm. The firm is a member of the Ameri- 
can Bankers' Association, the Michigan Bank- 
ers' Association, and the Pennsylvania 
Bankers" Association — connections which well 
indicate its status in the field of financial opera- 
tions. The Detroit offices of the firm are lo- 
cated in the Penobscot building. Fort street 
west. 



THE CENTRAL SAVINGS BANK, 

This solid, popular and representative bank- 
ing institution of Detroit was established in 
1888, and opened its doors for business on 
the i8th of April of that year. The founder 
of the bank was Joseph C. Hart, who had 
previously been engaged in the insurance busi- 
ness in Detroit for a number of years and 
who had become impressed with the idea that 
a banking house located in the center of the 
retail business district would meet a popular 
demand and liberal support. Results have 
most fully shown that his judgment and pre- 
science were justified. Associated with Mr. 
Hart in the organization and incorporation 
of the Central Savings Bank were Charles K. 
Latham, Gilbert Hart and Conrad Clippert. 
The bank was incorporated with a capital 
stock of one hundred thousand dollars and its 
first officers were as here noted : Gilbert Hart, 
president ; Conrad Clippert, vice-president ; and 
Joseph C. Hart, cashier. The chairman of 
the first board of directors was Michael J. 
Murphy, and other members of the original 
directorate were: William T. Gage, Marvin 
H. Chamberlain, Julius Stroh, Henry F. Lis- 
ter, William C. Stoepel, Henry O. Walker, 
William H. Irwin, and Albert E. Leavitt. The 



154 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



first banking offices were opened in the old 
Detroit Opera House building, which was de- 
stroyed by fire in November, 1897, and the 
institution was then removed to 151 Griswold 
street, in what was then known as "Bank 
Row." 

In January, 1900, a controlling interest in 
the bank was secured by John M. Nicol, a 
broker who represented in the transaction 
Harry J. Fox and a number of his friends, 
Mr. Fox at the time having been auditor of 
the Home Savings Bank. The deposits at the 
time aggregated five hundred thousand dol- 
lars, and under the new regime the following 
named officers were elected : William A. 
Pungs, president ; Conrad Clippert, first vice- 
president ; Charles P. Collins, second vice-pres- 
ident; and Harry J. Fox, cashier. Mr. Clip- 
pert died in the autumn of the same year and 
was succeeded by William Reid. In 1904 
William P. Holliday succeeded Mr. Pungs in 
the office of president, and Charles P. Collins 
succeeded Mr. Reid as first vice-president, 
while the office of second vice-president, va- 
cated by Mr. Reid, was filled by the election 
of William T. Gage. Since these changes 
none other has been made in the personnel of 
the executive corps. The bank retained quar- 
ters on Griswold street until August 12, 1907, 
when were secured the present finely appointed 
offices in the magnificent Majestic building, 
on the Campus Martius. 

William P. Holliday, president of the Cen- 
tral Savings Bank, is a well known manufac- 
turer of Detroit, where his capitalistic inter- 
ests are large and varied. He is the subject 
of an individual sketch on other pages of this 
work and is distinctively one of the substan- 
tial and representative business men of De- 
troit, in whose continued progress he has at 
all times shown an abiding faith and confi- 
dence. He is a director of the American Ex- 
change National Bank and was the first treas- 
urer of the Detroit Board of Commerce. 

Charles P. Collins, first vice-president of 
the Central Savings Bank, is the founder and 
head of the great cigar manufacturing busi- 
ness which is conducted under his name, and 
is a well known and successful business man 



of the Michigan metropolis. The second vice- 
president, William T. Gage, is general agent 
for Michigan of the Northwestern Mutual 
Life Insurance Company, of Milwaukee. As 
a counselor in regard to insurance matters his 
services are of especial value to the bank. 
Samuel T. Douglas, attorney of the bank and 
a member of its directorate, is a representative 
member of the Detroit bar and has large cap- 
italistic interests in the city ; he is a director of 
the Detroit Trust Company. 

Harry J. Fox, cashier of the Central Sav- 
ings Bank, has been closely identified with 
banking interests in Detroit for about twenty 
years and his marked ability in handling and 
directing financial afifairs is well , recognized. 
From 1889 to 1891 he was corresponding 
clerk in the Peninsular Savings Bank, and 
thereafter he was auditor of the Home Sav- 
ings Bank until 1900, when he resigned to 
accept his present office. 

The Central Savings Bank was one of the 
first to realize the importance and value of 
branch banking offices. Its first branch was 
established in 1903, at the corner of St. Aubin 
and Canfield avenues, and the management of 
the same has been entrusted from the begin- 
ning to Basil A. Lemke, son of the first Polish 
settler in the northeastern portion of the city. 
His family has been one of influence in that 
section, and has led in its civic and material 
development. Mr. Lemke has the un- 
qualified confidence of the residents of 
that part of the city in which the branch bank- 
ing office is thus located, and there a very suc- 
cessful and substantial business has been built 
up for the Central Savings Bank. In 1905 
the second branch was established, an office 
being then opened in eligible quarters at the 
corner of Grand River and Fourteenth ave- 
nues. This branch is maintained under the 
management of Thomas J. Fitzpatrick, who 
was reared in that immediate locality and 
whose ability and personal popularity have 
inured greatly to the success of the business 
placed in his charge. 

The capital stock of the Central Savings 
Bank is one hundred thousand dollars, paid in, 
and its surplus and undivided profits aggre- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



155 



gate about sixty-five thousand dollars. The 
commercial deposits, as shown in the official re- 
port of the bank issued September 23, 1908, 
were $301,984.25, and the savings deposits, 
$1,260,753.32. 



THE AMERICAN EXCHANGE NATIONAL 
BANK. 

Among the oldest and most favorably known 
financial institutions of the state of Michigan 
is this solid and popular banking house of 
Detroit, which was organized mainly through 
the efforts of Alexander H. Dey, who was 
here engaged in the private banking business 
from 1842 until 1865. In June of the latter 
year the American Exchange National Bank 
was incorporated with a capital stock of two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The per- 
sonnel of the original executive corps was as 
follows: President, Alexander H. Dey; vice- 
president, L. M. Mason; cashier, George B. 
Sartwell ; directors — L. M. Mason, A. H. Dey, 
Franklin Moore, John J. Bagley, Jacob S. 
Farrand, Eber Ward, Charles Root, M. S. 
Smith, and Edward Kanter. The original cor- 
porate name was the American National Bank, 
and from the names of those most prom- 
inently interested in the new institution those 
who know the history of Detroit will at once 
recognize under how favorable auspices the 
bank began operations. Its standing has ever 
remained of the highest and it has at all times 
enlisted the capitalistic support of leading cap- 
italists and business men of Detroit — men of 
impregnable integrity and honor. 

On the expiration of the first charter, in 
1885, the institution was reorganized as the 
American Exchange National Bank, with a 
capital of four hundred thousand dollars and 
with the following named officers and di- 
rectors: President, Alexander H. Dey; vice- 
president, M. S. Smith; cashier, George B. 
Sartwell ; assistant cashier, Hamilton Dey ; di- 
rectors — A. H. Dey, Charles Root, M. S. 
Smith, S. J. Murphy, Samuel Havenrich, 
Thomas W. Palmer, Alexander Chapoton, Sr., 
William A. Moore, and George B. Sartwell. 
The honored president, Alexander H. Dey, to 



whose able efforts and distinctive financial 
acumen the institution largely owes its up- 
building and prestige, died August 9, 1889, 
having been one of Detroit's influential and 
honored citizens and pioneer bankers. He 
was succeeded in the presidency by M. S. 
Smith, who remained the executive head of 
the institution until his death, October 28, 
1899. M'"- Sartwell became vice-president after 
the demise of Mr. Dey, and Hamilton Dey 
and Hermann Dey, sons of the former presi- 
dent, assumed respectively the ofifices of cashier 
and assistant cashier, which offices they have 
since retained. Mr. Sartwell retired from the 
vice-presidency and was succeeded by Waldo 
A. Avery, who held this position until the 
death of Mr. Smith, when he succeeded to the 
presidency, with John N. Bagley as vice-presi- 
dent. They have since been re-elected to their 
respective offices each year, as have the cashier 
and assistant cashier, and the other executive 
officer is John P. Williams, wlio is auditor of 
the bank. The capital of the bank is now four 
hundred thousand dollars and it has a surplus 
fund of one hundred thousand dollars. The 
present directorate comprises the following 
named gentlemen : W. A. Avery, John N. Bag- 
ley, Charles W. Baird, Hamilton Dey. F. W. 
Gilchrist (Alpena), Gilbert Hart, William P. 
Holliday, Joseph L. Hudson, William H. 
Murphy, Julius Stroh, D. D. Thorp, Clay H. 
Hollister (Grand Rapids), Frank S. Werne- 
ken, James N. Wright, and Fremont Wood- 
ruff. 

Since the death of his father and the retire- 
ment of Mr. Sartwell the active administration 
of the executive and details of the bank's 
counting room has devolved upon Hamilton 
Dey, who has attained to a leading position in 
the banking circles of the city and state. Mr. 
Avery brings to the presidency wide and 
varied experience as a man of affairs and is 
one of Detroit's substantial and well known 
capitalists, duly conservative in his methods 
and yet progressive in his attitude and demo- 
cratic in his views. 

The banking offices of the institution were 
first located in the Seitz Block, and later re- 
moved to the Newberry & McMillan building. 



156 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



where they were located at the time of the 
reorganization as the American Exchange Na- 
tional Bank and where the business was con- 
tinued until the completion of the magnificent 
building of the Union Trust Company, when 
the present spacious quarters, occupying the 
entire north end of the ground floor, were se- 
cured, thus making one of the finest banking 
offices in the city. 



THE SECURITY TRUST COMPANY. 

The Security Trust Company, of Detroit, 
Michigan, began business July i, 1906, with a 
capital and surplus of $1,000,000.00. At the 
end of two years the Company had paid $26,- 
250.00 in dividends, and had undivided profits 
of $106,000.00. 

The board of directors of the Security Trust 
Company is made up of representatives of the 
First National Bank, The People's State 
Bank, Dime Savings Bank, Peninsular Savings 
Bank, Home Savings Bank, American Ex- 
change National Bank, and various large De- 
troit corporations. 

In the following paragraph is given a list of 
the officers, board of directors and advisory 
board of the company. 

Officers: M. J. Murphy, president; Lem W. 
Bowen, vice-president ; Frederic F. Sanford, 
secretary ; Emory W. Clark, vice-president ; 
Charles Moore, vice-president ; J. Harold Mur- 
phy, assistant secretary ; Gray & Gray, counsel. 
Board of directors : Russell A. Alger, president 
Alger, Smith & Company ; William K. Ander- 
son, vice-president Home Savings Bank ; John 
N. Bagley, vice-president American Exchange 
National Bank ; Lem W. Bowen, treasurer D. 
M. Ferry & Company ; Henry M. Butzel, at- 
torney; Emory W. Clark, vice-president First 
National Bank; John M. Dwyer, secretary 
Peninsular Stove Company; D. M. Ferry, Jr., 
secretary D. M. Ferry & Company ; J. B. Ford, 
vice-president Michigan Alkali Company; 
William J. Gray, of Gray & Gray, attorneys; 
James S. Holden, real estate; Charles C. Jenks, 
president Jenks & Muir Manufacturing Com- 
pany; J. H. Johnson, president Peninsular 
Savings Bank; George E. Lawson, vice-presi- 



dent People's State Bank ; William Living- 
stone, president Dime Savings Bank; Charles 
Moore, vice-president Security Trust Com- 
pany; M. J. Murphy, president Murphy Chair 
Company; Henry C. Potter, Jr., vice-president 
People's State Bank ; John T. Shaw, vice- 
president and cashier First National Bank; 
James D. Standish, secretary and treasurer 
Hammond, Standish & Company ; Morris L. 
Williams, president First National Bank. 
Advisory board: Hon. Lincoln Avery (Port 
Huron), W. T. Barbour, A. D. Bennett (Port 
Huron), Hon. James V. Barry (Lansing), F. 
W. Hubbard (Bad Axe), Ralph M. Dyar, 
Theodore H. Eaton, E. G. Filer (Filer City), 
M. W. O'Brien, Arthur M. Parker, Cornelius 
J. Reilly, Walter S. Russel, General George 
Spalding (Monroe), Thomas Cranage (Bay 
City), James Dempsey (Manistee), E. W. 
Sparrow (Lansing), Dudley E. Waters 
(Grand Rapids), Jere C. Hutchins. 



THE MICHIGAN SAVINGS BANK. 

Thirty years have elapsed since this solid 
and ably managed financial institution came 
into existence, and its history has been one of 
substantial, merited and constantly growing 
success. The bank was founded on the 17th 
of February, 1877, by the late Thomas 
McGraw and Samuel R. Mumford, the former 
of whom was president of the institution until 
1880, when he resigned, being succeeded by 
George Peck, who has continuously served as 
chief executive since that time. The bank's 
headquarters from the start until Dec, 1907, 
were in the McGraw building, and were then 
removed to the Moffat Block, where the ap- 
pointments and facilities are those demanded 
in a modern and metropolitan banking house. 

The Michigan Savings Bank was originally 
capitalized for sixty thousand dollars, and its 
operations were instituted on the 2d of April, 
1877. On the I St of May, 1882, the capital- 
istic reinforcement was increased to one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. At the 
present time the capital stock is two hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars. The first officers of 
the bank were as here designated: Thomas 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



157 



McGraw, president; Nicol Mitchell, vice-presi- 
lent; Samuel R. Mumford, secretary and 
treasurer. The first board of trustees included 
these officers and also the following named 
gentlemen : Horace M. Dean, George W. 
Balch, William Perkins, Jr., Newell Avery, A. 
G. Lindsay, Julius Stroh, Joseph Kuhn, and 
George Peck. Upon the death of Mr. Mitchell 
Mr. Dean succeeded to the office of vice-presi- 
dent, of which he continued incumbent until 
his death, when J. H. Kaple, former post- 
master of Detroit, was chosen to fill the vacant 
office, which he retained until his death. He 
was succeeded by C. C. Jenks. Mr. Mumford 
died on the 24th of May, 1894, and his place 
as secretary and treasurer was filled by the 
selection of Charles Emerson. 

Following is the personnel of the executive 
officers and directorate of the Michigan Sav- 
ings Bank : President, George Peck ; vice- 
presidents, Charles C. Jenks, James D. Stand- 
ish and James S. Holden; cashier, George 
Wiley ; assistant cashier, Hugh R. Burns. Di- 
rectors : Lem W. Bowen, Clarence M. Burton, 
Dexter M. Ferry, Jr., J. B. Ford, W. J. Gray, 
J. S. Holden, James Inglis, Charles C. Jenks, 
M. J. Murphy, Thomas Neal, George Peck, 
Hoyt Post. John T. Shaw, James D. Standish, 
F. F. Sanford, M. L. Williams, George Wiley. 

According to the statement of the Michigan 
Savings Bank at the close of business Septem- 
ber 23, 1908, as called for by the commissioner 
of the banking department of the state, the 
capital stock paid in is shown to be $250,000; 
surplus fund, $125,000; commercial deposits, 
$900,893.36; certificates of deposit, $4,017.88; 
savings deposits, $1,393,864.45; and savings 
certificates, $128,322.79. These figures indi- 
cate adequately for the purposes of a publica- 
tion of this nature how substantial and popular 
is the institution, whose management has 
always been conservative and yet progressive. 



THE CITIZENS' SAVINGS BANK. 

At all periods in her history has Detroit 
maintained a high reputation for the solidity 
and able management of her banking institu- 
tions, and among the institutions which are 



upholding this reputation at the present time 
is the Citizens' Savings Bank, which exercises 
most beneficent functions in its various depart- 
ments and which has the best of capitalistic and 
executive reinforcement. 

The Citizens' Savings Bank was organized 
March 5, 1885, and succeeded the private bank- 
ing house of Roberts, Austin & Company, lo- 
cated at 63 Griswold street. The interested 
principals in the firm of Roberts, Austin & 
Company were Lorenzo B. Austin, Albert S. 
xA.ustin and Ephraim K. Roberts. The new 
bank was capitalized at one hundred thousand 
dollars and engaged in business with both com- 
mercial and savings departments. Its first of- 
ficial corps was as follows : President, Milton 
H. Butler; vice-president, Cyrus B. Barnes; 
and cashier, Ephraim K. Roberts. The mem- 
bers of the original directorate were, in addi- 
tion to the executives just mentioned, as fol- 
lows : John H. Avery, L. B. Austin, Thomas 
Berry, William G. Brownlee, Amos Chafee, 
S. L. Fuller, W. W. Hannan. 

On the 5th of May, 1887, Ephraim K. 
Roberts was elected president, to succeed Mr. 
Butler, who had declined a re-election. Edwin 
F. Mack was elected cashier and his father. 
Christian Mack, president of the Ann Arbor 
Savings Bank, was added to the board of di- 
rectors. October 3, 1889, Mr. Roberts re- 
signed, to devote his attention to other business 
interests, and Christian Mack was elected to 
the presidency. In January, 1890, the bank 
decided to place itself under the banking law 
of 1888, and took out a certificate with the 
commissioner of banking. On April 29th of 
the same year the capital stock was increased 
to two hundred thousand dollars, and the of- 
fices were removed to more spacious and 
eligible quarters, in the Newberry building. 
At this time also the following officers were 
elected : Collins B. Hubbard, president ; 
Richard H. Fyfe, vice-president ; Edwin F. 
Mack, cashier; and Frank F. Tillotson, assist- 
ant cashier. In May, 1895, ^^^ bank was re- 
moved to its present handsome offices in the 
Chamber of Commerce building. July i, 1898, 
Frank F. Tillotson was elected cashier, to suc- 
ceed Edwin F. Mack, resigned, and at the 



158 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



annual election in the following December 
Richard H. Fyfe was elected to the presidency, 
upon the resignation of Mr. Hubbard. Hugh 
Wallace is now vice-president; Mr. Tillotson, 
cashier; F. J. Kirts, assistant cashier; and 
Charles E. Bryant, auditor. The attorneys of 
the bank are the firm of Barbour & Field, and 
the directorate is as follows : Levi L. Barbour, 
Thomas Berry, David S. Carter, Richard H. 
Fyfe. Frank Filer, James H. Flinn, Gaylord 
W. Gillis, Charles A. Kent, W. F. Jewell, 
George Osius, Hugh Wallace, and Frank F. 
Tillotson. The bank is a depository of the city 
of Detroit and the state of Michigan. Its sur- 
plus fund is fifty thousand dollars, and its un- 
divided profits in excess of ten thousand 
dollars. 



THE DETROIT TRUST COMPANY. 

In the stability, scope and management of 
her financial institutions Detroit has a source 
of just gratulation and pride, and among the 
prominent concerns exercising important 
functions and fortified by all that is reliable in 
executive control and capitalistic reinforce- 
ment, is the Detroit Trust Company, which 
has gained distinctive priority within the com- 
paratively few years of its existence. 

The articles of incorporation of the Detroit 
Trust Company were approved by the state on 
the 8th of December, 1900, and the first meet- 
ing of the stockholders was held on the 17th 
of the same month, when the following named 
gentlemen were chosen to constitute the first 
board of directors : Henry Stephens, Theodore 
D. Buhl, Henry P. Baldwin, James N. Wright, 
Henry L. Kanter, Chester G. White, Elisha 
H. Flinn, Sidney T. Miller, Ammi W. Wright, 
George Peck, James E. Davidson, Edwin C. 
Nichols, Henry B. Joy, Rasmus Hanson, 
Edward H. Butler, Eldridge M. Fowler, James 
McGregor, Frank W. Eddy, Charles A. Dean, 
James Edgar, Charles M. Heald, John H. 
Avery, Merton E. Farr, Fred E. Driggs, Oren 
Scotten, Alexander McPherson, and Frank W. 
Gilchrist. 

At the initial executive meeting of the board 
of directors, on December 20, 1900, the fol- 



lowing officers were elected: President, Alex- 
ander McPherson, and vice-presidents, Theo- 
dore D. Buhl and Henry Stephens. The 
company inaugurated its active business on the 
5th of January, 1901, its offices being located 
on the second floor of the building at Nos. 82 
and 84 Griswold street. George L. McPherson 
was incumbent of the office of treasurer of the 
company from the time of its formal organiza- 
tion until December i, 1902, and on the ist 
of March, 1903, Howard J. Lesher succeeded 
him in this important office, of which he has 
since remained the able and popular incumbent. 
In 1903 also Henry Stephens resigned his po- 
sition as vice-president, and he was succeeded 
by Edward H. Butler, who is still serving in 
that capacity. On the 6th of May, 1901, Ralph 
Stone entered the ser\nce of the company in the 
office of assistant secretary, and later he was 
elected secretary, which office he still retains, 
proving a most discriminating executive of- 
ficer and supervising the details of the office 
with an exactitude and care that have gained 
to him the unequivocal commendation of the 
interested principals in the institution. 

The Detroit Trust Company is capitalized 
for $500,000, and its business has shown a 
steady and gratifying expansion, placing it 
already among the leading concerns of the 
kind in the state. Its surplus fund at the pres- 
ent time is maintained at the same figure as its 
capital stock — five hundred thousand dollars, 
and its undivided profits amount to $554,- 
794.85. The trust deposits of the institution, 
as shown in the report of its condition at the 
close of business September 23, 1908, as called 
for by the commissioner of the banking depart- 
ment, reach the noteworthy aggregate of 
$2,094,679.37. 



THE NATIONAL BANK OF COMMERCE. 

The financial and industrial interests of the 
commercial world have long maintained as 
their regulators and conservators the banking 
institutions, and upon the stability and proper 
systematization and management of the latter 
must depend the solidity and strength of prac- 
tically all other lines of business enterprise. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



159 



Detroit is especially favored in the extent and 
character of her banking institutions, and one 
of the more recent but none the less representa- 
tive and stable concerns of this sort is that 
whose name appears as the heading of this 
article. This bank, whose offices are located in 
the Union Trust Building, opened for business 
on the 1st of June, 1907. 

In a brochure issued by the bank in the 
month following its initiation of business ap- 
peared the following pertinent statements : 
"The National Bank of Commerce of Detroit 
was organized by young business men who are 
in intimate practical connection with various 
lines of active business. It represents the ag- 
gressive, progressive and at the same time con- 
servative commercial and manufacturing ele- 
ments of the city of Detroit. The officers are 
all in daily active attendance at the bank to 
give prompt attention to the interests of our 
customers. The small depositor is made as 
welcome as the large. Our aim is first that 
this bank shall be strong by its conservatism 
and large by its aggressiveness." These force- 
ful statements bear their own significance and 
truly denote the policy of the bank, whose suc- 
cess has been pronounced from the start. 

The National Bank of Commerce received 
its charter under date of April 24, 1907, and 
its designated number is 8703. The one most 
prominent in the promotion of the organiza- 
tion of the new institution was its present 
cashier, Henry IT. Sanger, of whom indi- 
vidual mention is made in this publication. 
The original and present officers of the bank 
are as follows : Richard P. Joy, president ; 
William P. Hamilton, vice-president ; Henry 
H. Sanger, cashier; and Charles R. Talbot, 
assistant cashier. Concerning the personnel 
of the directorate the following data are 
entered : Frederick M. Alger is president of 
Alger, Smith & Company and vice-president 
of the Manistique Railway Company ; William 
M. Davies is president of the Acme White 
Lead & Color Works ; Edwin Denby is a rep- 
resentative lawyer of Detroit and member of 
congress from the first district of Michigan; 
Francis T. Dwyer is president of the Standard 
Foundry Company; Ralph M. Dyar is secre- 



tary of the Trussed Concrete Steel Company 
and president of the Mexican Crude Rubber 
Company; G. B. Gunderson is secretary and 
treasurer of the Detroit Stove Works and vice- 
president of the Northern Motor Car Works; 
Charles H. Hodges is second vice-president of 
the American Radiator Company and president 
of the Detroit Lubricator Company ; James 
Inglis is president and manager of the Ameri- 
can Blower Company ; Lewis H. Jones is presi- 
dent of the Detroit Copper & Brass Rolling 
Mills; Richard P. Joy is ex-controller of the 
city of Detroit, vice-president and treasurer 
of the Detroit Union Railroad Depot & Station 
Company, and vice-president of the Detroit 
Copper & Brass Rolling Mills; Edward M. 
Mancourt is western manager of the Fairmont 
Coal Company, Southern Coal & Transporta- 
tion Company, Somerset Coal Company and 
Consolidated Coal Company ; Edwin H. Nelson 
is president of Nelson, Baker & Company, of 
Detroit; John S. Newberry is president and 
general manager of the Detroit Steel Casting 
Company; Dr. R. Adlington Newman is man- 
ager of the estate of the late Daniel Scotten; 
Edward D. Stair is president of the Detroit 
Free Press Company and the Detroit Journal 
Company; Frederick K. Stearns is president 
of Frederick Stearns & Company, of Detroit; 
Dr. Ernest T. Tappey is a practicing physician 
and secretary of the Universal Button Com- 
pany; Benjamin S. Warren is a lawyer and 
president of the Hutchins Car Roofing Com- 
pany; Charles B. Warren is a lawyer and 
president of the Michigan Sugar Company; 
Dudley E. Waters, of Grand Rapids, is presi- 
dent of the Grand Rapids National Bank and 
vice-president of the Michigan State Telephone 
Company. This constitutes assuredly a list 
of representative and active business men and 
capitalists, and the bank is thus fortified in all 
that is strong through the interposition of men 
of standing and worth. 

The National Bank of Commerce is capi- 
talized for seven hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars, all of which amount is paid in. The 
surplus fund is one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars and the deposits aggregate over two 
million dollars. 



160 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



In a circular recently issued the bank calls 
attention to the following pertinent facts : That 
at no time during the recent panic was the 
bank below the required legal reserve; that it 
had called no loans whatever during this panic 
and had in every way been of service to the 
community at large; and that it has paid out 
currency on demand at all times since the 
bank was organized. 



DETROIT SAVINGS BANK. 

One of the oldest and most substantial and 
popular of the banking institutions of Detroit 
is that whose title is here noted. The Detroit 
Savings Bank dates its inception back more 
than half a century, being the successor to 
the Detroit Savings Fund Institute, which was 
incorporated March 5, 1849, being the first 
institution in Michigan to receive deposits and 
pay interest on the same. Its charter was 
granted by Governor Epaphroditus Ransom, 
who appointed the following board of trustees : 
Elon Farnsworth (ex-chancellor of the 
state), Shubael Conant, Zina Pitcher, David 
Smart, Charles Moran, George M. Rich, John 
Palmer, Levi Cook, James A. Hicks, Benjamin 
B. Kercheval, and Gurdon Williams. 

The Detroit Savings Fund Institute was 
differentiated from the banking institutions of 
the present day in one important particular. 
It was incorporated without capital stock and 
was conducted upon the co-operative plan, the 
depositors sharing the profits on a mutual 
relative basis. This plan of banking was then 
much in vogue in the eastern states, and in 
some districts in that section of the Union 
obtains at the present time. Elon Farnsworth 
was chosen first president of this important 
pioneer banking institution and continued in 
this chief executive office until his death, which 
occurred in 1877. This bank was for many 
years without competition in its prescribed 
field of operation, and numbered in its direct- 
orate many of the most prominent and influ- 
ential men of Detroit, among the number being 
the following: Henry N. Walker, Governor 
Henry P. Baldwin, Henry Ledyard, Samuel 
Lewis, Henry P. Bridge, Edward Lyon, Will- 



ard Parker, Edmund Trowbridge, Alexander 
Chapoton, Sr., Thomas Ferguson, George 
Jerome, William K. Muir, Alexander Lewis, 
and Sidney D. Miller. 

On the loth of July, 1871, the bank was 
reorganized under the name of the Detroit 
Savings Bank, which title has since been re- 
tained. It was at this time incorporated with 
a capital stock of two hundred thousand dol- 
lars, and the charter granted had a double 
liability clause, for the more effective protec- 
tion of its depositors. Elon Farnsworth was 
continued in the presidency of the new insti- 
tution and remained in this position until 
his death, as has already been noted in this 
context. When he was called from the scene 
of life's endeavors, in 1877, after a career of 
unqualified distinction and honor, he was suc- 
ceeded in the presidency by Alexander H. 
Adams, the cashier, who retained both ofiices 
thereafter until 1882, when he retired from 
the position of cashier, though remaining in- 
cumbent of the office of president until his 
death, in the following year. The next head of 
the institution, Sidney D. Miller, was chosen 
from the board of directors, and, like his pred- 
ecessors, he proved a most able and popular 
executive, holding the presidency until his 
demise. He was succeeded by the present in- 
cumbent, Dewitt C. Delamater, one of the 
honored business men and substantial capital- 
ists of the metropolis of the state. 

It is consonant that in this brief review 
mention should be made of other prominent 
citizens who have served as members of the 
board of directors of this fine old banking 
bouse. F. B. Sibley was a director for twenty- 
five years and also served as vice-president; 
Hon. James McMillan was a director for 
twenty-seven years; George Hendrie, who is 
now one of the oldest bank directors livine in 
Detroit, has been a valued member of the board 
for the past thirty years ; and others who have 
done most effective service have been Charles 
A. Dean, D. C. Delamater, Sidney D. Miller, 
E. A. Chapoton, M. D., and W. K. Anderson. 

The present executive corps of the Detroit 
Savings Bank is as follows : D. C. Delamater, 
president ; Charles A. Dean, vice-president ; E. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



161 



C. Bowman, assistant to the president; Cyrus 
Boss, cashier; and T. F. Hancock, assistant 
cashier. The board of directors comprises the 
following: George Hendrie. D. C. Delamater, 
Charles A. Dean, W. K. Anderson, E. A. 
Chapoton, M. D., Phihp H. McMillan, Sidney 
T. Miller, Strathearn Hendrie, Arthur M. 
Parker, and John M. Dwyer. 

The rate of interest paid by the Detroit Sav- 
ings Bank on savings accounts is three per 
cent., and since its organization there have been 
more than one hundred thousand accounts 
opened, while it has paid to its depositors in 
interest more than one-half millions of dollars. 
In 1900 the capital stock, paid in, was in- 
creased to its present figures, $400,000, and the 
official report of the bank at the close of busi- 
ness September 23, 1908, as called for by the 
commissioner of the banking department. 
shows that it has a surplus of $400,000 ; undi- 
vided profits, net, $235,888.40; commercial 
deposits, $704,167.05; and savings deposits of 
$7,278,639.69. The history of the bank has 
been one of consecutive and splendid growth 
and prosperity, and it has ever maintained an 
inviolable hold upon the confidence of the pub- 
lic. This venerable banking concern merits 
consideration in every publication which 
touches the annals of the city of Detroit and 
the history of financial operations in the state. 
The present banking offices are in commodious 
and finely equipped quarters in the Penobscot 
building. 



citizens of Wyandotte. He secured the sup- 
port of Frederick B. Sibley, George Hendrie, 
and William H. Zabriskie, all of Detroit, and 
these gentlemen were associated with him in 
the organization of the new institution. Other 
prominent men who were represented on the 
first board of directors were Dr. Edmond P. 
Christian, of Wyandotte; Samuel L. Potter, 
manager of the Rolling Mill Company ; Oscar 
T. Brinton, manager of the blast furnace of the 
same company; and Simon Mandelbaum, of 
Detroit, well known in connection with the or- 
ganization of the famous Calumet & Hecla 
Company, which controls the greatest of the 
copper mines of the northern peninsula of 
Michigan. Frederick B. Sibley was vice-presi- 
dent of the bank from the beginning until his 
death, in 1907, and since that time George 
Hendrie has held this office. William Van 
Miller was the first cashier and held this office 
until 1897, when he was succeeded by the 
present incumbent, Frederick E. Van Alstyne, 
a son of the president of the institution. The 
bank has been conducted according to con- 
servative methods, has secured the financial 
co-operation of men of the highest standing 
in the business world, and has well merited the 
public confidence which it has ever enjoyed. 
The bank has at the present time in earned 
surplus and undivided profits a fund of forty- 
five thousand dollars. 



THE WYANDOTTE SAVINGS BANK. 

As one of the substantial, popular and ably 
conducted financial institutions of Wayne 
county this bank is entitled to definite consid- 
eration, and it affords to the city of Wyandotte 
facilities which are greatly appreciated. 

The Wyandotte Savings Bank was organ- 
ized in 1 87 1, on the nth of November of 
which year it was incorporated under the laws 
of the state, with a capital of fifty thousand 
dollars. The enterprise was promoted by 
John S. Van Alstyne, who has been president 
of the bank from its inception and who is one 
of the most honored pioneers and influential 



THE DIME SAVINGS BANK. 

Among the leading institutions of Detroit 
and the state this bank holds a position of no 
little relative priority and popularity, and in 
its operations it is fortified by the support of 
representative capitalists and business men as 
officers and stockholders and by the impreg- 
nable strength of management and control. 

The Dime Savings Bank of Detroit was or- 
ganized in the year 1884, with a capital of 
sixty thousand dollars, and it initiated business 
on May ist of that year. The personnel of its 
first board of directors was as follows : A. M. 
Henry, S. M. Cutcheon, J. E. Scripps, William 
Livingstone, Jr., J. L. Hudson, William Hull, 
R. T. F. Roehm, E. W. Voigt, and C. A. War- 



162 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ren. The first officers of the new institution 
were as follows : Sullivan M. Cutcheon, presi- 
dent ; James E. Scripps, vice-president ; and 
Frederick Woolfenden, casiiier. A. M. Henry 
served as president from May i, 1884, until 
May 24, 1884. 

The year following the opening of the bank 
its capital stock was increased to one hundred 
thousand dollars, and in 1887 a further in- 
crease was made, to the amount of two 
hundred thousand dollars. At the present time 
the capital stock, paid in, is five hundred thou- 
sand dollars. Upon the death of Mr. Woolf- 
enden, in 1 89 1, Charles A. Warren, one of the 
original directors and for many years city pas- 
senger and ticket agent of the Michigan Cen- 
tral Railroad, became cashier, an office of 
which he has since remained incumbent. 

On the i8th of April, 1900, S. M. Cutcheon, 
who had for six years been the able and hon- 
ored executive head of the bank, was called 
from the scene of life's activities, after a career 
of signal usefulness and inviolable integrity. To 
his conservative management and financial 
acumen and to his devotion to the advancement 
and stability of the bank's interests its growth 
was in a large measure due. He was succeeded 
in the presidency by William Livingstone, who 
IS one of the best known of the representative 
business men of Detroit, where his interests are 
wide and varied, and who has well upheld the 
prestige of the institution through his wise and 
careful policy and broad grasp of affairs. He 
is extensively interested in lake shipping and 
general marine affairs, is president of the Lake 
Carriers' Association and the Michigan Navi- 
gation Company. He is ex-president of the 
Detroit Board of Trade, ex-collector of the 
port of Detroit, and ex-president of the Detroit 
park and boulevard commission. He is a 
prominent and valued member of St. Andrew's 
Society and the Fellowcraft Club, of each of 
which he has served as president, and is ex- 
vice-president of the American Bankers' As- 
sociation and ex-president of the Michigan 
State Bankers' Association. For many years 
he was publisher of the Detroit Journal, which 
has long been recognized as one of the leading 
daily newspapers of the central states. The 
vice presidents are George H. Barbour and 
Joseph L. Hudson. Mr. Barbour is vice- 



president and general manager of the Michigan 
Stove Company, one of the largest concerns of 
the kind in the world, and is ex-president of 
the Manufacturers' Association of the United 
States. Mr. Hudson has long been known as 
one of the merchant princes of the state, being 
president of the J. L. Hudson Company, of 
Detroit. The other executive officers are: 
Charles A. Warren, cashier; L. C. Sherwood, 
David S. Carnegie and Charlton E. Partridge, 
assistant cashiers; and George T. Breen, audi- 
tor. The full personnel of the directorate is 
as follows : William Livingstone, George H. 
Barbour, Joseph L. Hudson, James B. McKay, 
Bethune Duffield, Marshall H. Godfrey, Au- 
gustus C. Stellwagen, Silas P. Hovey, Aaron 
A. Parker, John Pridgeon, Jr., James E. Dana- 
This bank was founded primarily for the 
purpose of attracting small depositors, and 
her, and Charles A. Warren, 
under the capable management of its officers 
and directors it has overtaken some of its older 
competitors, has built up a commercial busi- 
ness of large volume, and is one of the staunch 
financial institutions of the city of Detroit. 
According to its official statement of September 
23, 1908, the bank has a surplus fund of $250,- 
000; undivided profits, net, $36,675.10; com- 
mercial deposits, $1,565,030.43; and savings 
deposits, $3,433,272.86. 



THE HOME SAVINGS BANK. 

Distinctively unique in the history of the 
banking institutions of Detroit is that of the 
Home Savings Bank, whose record has been 
that of conservative and discriminating man- 
agement when operations were conducted upon 
a modest scale, while the same has held true 
in the amplification of the functions of the bank 
to so great an extent as to place it among the 
leading financial institutions of the state. 

This bank was organized in December, 1888, 
its charter being granted on the nth of that 
month. The bank was incorporated with a 
capital stock of two hundred thousand dollars, 
of which amount one hundred and twenty 
thousand dollars were paid in as the practical 
basis of operations. The institution initiated 
business in January, 1889, and its offices were 
at first located in the McGraw building. The 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



163 



prime object of the promoters and organizers 
was to build up a savings and commercial bank, 
without relying up the handling of accounts 
from country banks, whose exchange business 
entails much care and labor and ofifers little 
profit to the city institutions handling the same. 
The Home Savings Bank had its original stock 
well distributed in safe keeping, though its 
principal holders were not largely of the 
heaviest capitalistic class. It has been signally 
favored in having from the start to the present 
a chief executive who, though he had not had 
practical experience in banking, was well forti- 
fied for the duties of the presidency, as he had 
been a particularly successful business man, 
endowed with great pragmatic ability and ani- 
mated by that integrity and liberality which 
are so essential in the proper handling of the 
affairs of a bank. Of the honored president, 
James McGregor, individual mention is made 
elsewhere in this work, and to the article in 
question reference may be made for a succinct 
outline of his business career. 

The first official report of the Home Sav- 
ings Bank was issued March 30, 1889, after it 
had been doing business about three months, 
and it is interesting, in view of its standing to- 
day, to revert to the fact that in this report its 
resources were shown to aggregate $274,- 
871.71. In an appreciative article published in 
the Michigan Investor concerning this institu- 
tion, the following words are worthy of repro- 
duction and consequent perpetuation in this 
volume : "Its history has been closely associ- 
ated from the start with the most conservative 
business interests of the city and for more than 
the latter half of it with some of the most pow- 
erful. The influence of a single strong man, 
now, as from the start, its president, who did 
not intend to become a banker when the insti- 
tution was organized but who accepted its 
presidency because his friends rather forced 
him into it, is traceable the entire growth and 
policy of the institution." 

In May, 1894, the bank removed from the 
McGraw building to its present attractive quar- 
ters in the building erected primarily for its 
accommodation, on the corner of Michigan 
avenue and Griswold street, opposite the city 



hall, the building having been erected and fitted 
up by the president of the bank. At that time 
the offices were unexcelled by those of any 
other banking institution in the state, and they 
still remain of high comparative standard, not- 
withstanding the many fine buildings which 
have since been erected in Detroit with special 
provision for banking business. In the year of 
removal began the period of marked growth 
and expansion in the business of the Home 
Savings Bank. The present cashier, in June of 
that year, succeeded the original incumbent of 
the office, John S. Schmittdiel, and he had the 
distinction of being at the time the youngest 
bank cashier in Michigan, having been but 
twenty-five years of age at the time of his pro- 
motion to his responsible office but having lit- 
erally grown up in the banking business, in 
which he had developed distinctive executive 
power and a thorough comprehension of de- 
tails, so that he was well fortified for the du- 
ties devolving upon him. Ably seconding the 
policy of the president of the bank, he has done 
much to further the upbuilding of an institu- 
tion which now holds high rank among the 
banking concerns of the state of Michigan. 
He has been connected with the bank from the 
time of its organization, and he has won his 
advancement through the various grades to his 
present office, in which he has made a most 
admirable record. 

The Home Savings Bank now conducts its 
business upon a capital stock, paid in, of four 
hundred thousand dollars, and it has a surplus 
fund of three hundred thousand dollars. From 
its statement of September 23, 1908, are de- 
rived the following significant items relative to 
its resources: Commercial deposits, $1,276,- 
017.01 ; certificates of deposit, $23,149.20; due 
to banks and bankers, $94,583.78; certified 
checks, $5,962.12; savings deposits, $4,133,- 
150.02; savings certificates, $93,210.13; undi- 
vided profits, net, $50,108.55. In view of the 
significance of this record and the necessary 
limitations prescribed for this descriptive ar- 
ticle, it is needless to enter into farther details 
concerning the magnificent growth of this 
popular institution. Its functions as a savings 
bank are specially well ordered and beneficent. 



164 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Its facilities in this department are in every 
way admirable, attracting a most desirable 
class of patrons. 

The present officers of the Home Savings 
Bank are as follows : James McGregor, presi- 
dent ; W. K. Anderson, vice-president ; Charles 
I. Farrell, vice-president; Julius H. Haass, 
cashier ; Edwin J. Eckert and Arthur E. Loch, 
assistant cashiers; William H. McClenahen, 
manager of the Michigan avenue branch; 
Henry A. Schulte, manager of the Gratiot ave- 
nue office; Alfred B. Tapert, manager of the 
Mount Elliott avenue branch ; and U. Grant 
Race and Walter F. Haass, attorneys. The 
following named constitute the directorate of 
the bank : James McGregor, W. K. Anderson, 
Charles I. Farrell, Orla B. Taylor, Frederick 
Guenther, Ralph Phelps, Jr., George H. Clip- 
pert, Emory W. Clark, Leartus Connor, and 
Julius H. Haass. This bank was the pioneer 
in the establishing of branch offices to meet the 
legitimate demands of and furnish accommo- 
dations to the citizens of sections far removed 
from the central institution. The policy has 
proven a wise one in every respect and has 
been emulated by other leading banking houses 
of the city. 

The bank makes loans on improved real es- 
tate in Detroit and Wayne county only. Loans 
are made of only small amounts, — to home 
builders, small manufacturers and merchants, — 
so that the loss of any loan or number of them 
could not affect the bank to any extent. 



THE NATIONAL LOAN & INVESTMENT 
COMPANY. 

For the exercising of two specific and im- 
portant functions was effected the organization 
of this company, which was incorporated under 
the laws of the state in November, 1889. Its 
primary objects have thus been succinctly 
stated : First, to assist those who desired to 
buy or build homes to pay off an indebtedness 
upon them by small monthly payments, cover- 
ing a period of years ; and, second, to furnish 
a safe depository for the funds of its members 
having regular incomes from salaries, wages 
or any other source, and to enable them sys- 
tematically to lay aside a portion of their in- 



come each month, to which reserve should be 
added a proportionate amount of the profits of 
the business until the deposits, together with 
the profits upon the same, had reached a cer- 
tain definite amount, when that amount would 
be paid to the investor in a lump sum. 

The company has now been in operation for 
nearly a score of years, and within this time it 
has accomplished a most beneficent work. 
Through its instrumentality have been built and 
paid for more than eight thousand homes, and 
through its medium thousands of persons have 
been enabled to accumulate sums ranging from 
one hundred to several thousands of dollars. 
Its receipts and disbursements, based princi- 
pally upon small transactions in the lines men- 
tioned, have reached at the opening of the 
present year (1908) more than thirty millions 
of dollars, — a statement which bears its own 
imperial significance. The company has with- 
out exception promptly met every demand 
placed upon it and its present undivided profits 
are one hundred and thirty-two thousand dol- 
lars. From an article descriptive of this valued 
institution of Detroit and appearing in Wen- 
dell's history of banks and banking in Michi- 
gan, is made the following pertinent extract : 
"This company is prohibited by law from ac- 
cepting any commercial risks whatever or from 
making loans upon anything but its own stock 
up to ninety per cent, of its cash withdrawal 
value, and upon real estate worth not less than 
double the amount of the loan. One of the 
greatest and most beneficent functions exer- 
cised by the company is its demonstration of 
the value of monthly-payment system of dis- 
charging mortgages." fl 

The National Loan & Investment Company 
now has well appointed and spacious offices at 
204 Griswold street, and its business has from 
the start been of the most substantial order, 
based upon the supervision of men of ability 
and capital and upon conservative but distinctly 
progressive management. Its capital stock paid 
in is $2,553,803.50 and the present officers of 
the company are as here noted : James H. 
Tribou, president ; Fred P. Todd, vice-presi- 
dent ; Frank B. Leland, secretary ; Laverne 
Bassett, assistant secretary; and Joseph B. 
Standart, treasurer. 



LEADING 

Industrial and Commercial 
Institutions 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



167 



PARKE, DAVIS & COMPANY. 

Of primary and most insistent relevancy to 
the industrial and general commercial history 
of the Michigan metropolis is the record of the 
splendid corporation whose title initiates this 
article. There can be no measure of incon- 
sistency in saying that of all the great con- 
cerns which have contributed to the commercial 
advancement and prestige of Detroit none other 
has been a factor of so distinct importance as 
has Parke, Davis & Company, whose establish- 
ment is the largest of the kind in the world, 
whose business ramifications have carried the 
name of Detroit into all quarters of the globe, 
and whose beneficent influence, by very rea- 
son of products sent forth, has transcended the 
bounds of mere commercialism and made for 
the wellbeing of humanity. This statement will 
readily be understood when recognition is had 
of the scope of the magnificent enterprise of 
the company, — manufacturers of pharmaceuti- 
cal products, new chemicals, digestive ferments, 
empty capsules and other gelatin products, 
pressed herbs, etc.; propagators of vaccines, 
serums, antitoxins and other biological prod- 
ucts ; and importers of crude vegetable drugs, 
oils, etc., in original packages. The great main 
laboratories and general offices of the company 
are in Detroit, and the extent of the plant is in- 
dicated in the fact that six city blocks are 
owned and utilized by the company,— Atwater, 
Guoin and Wight streets, between Joseph Cam- 
pau avenue and Walker street. Branch labora- 
tories are maintained in Walkerville, Ontario, 
and London, England, and branch warehouses 
are to be found in New York city, Baltimore, 
New Orleans, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas 
City, Minneapolis, and Indianapolis, United 
States of America; and in the following 
named foreign cities: Montreal, Quebec; 
Sydney, Australia ; Bombay, India ; St. Peters- 
burg, Russia; Tokyo, Japan; and Buenos 
Ayres, Argentina. The capital stock of the 
corporation at the present time is eight million 
dollars, and the personnel of the official and 
executive corps is as here noted: Frank G. 
Ryan, president; David C. Whitney and 
Henry M. Campbell, vice-presidents; Ernest 



G. Swift, secretary and general manager; and 
George Hargreaves, treasurer. 

The history of the inception and develop- 
ment of every large industrial enterprise in- 
variably presents varied phases, each bearing 
its specific and analytical interest, but of these 
several presentations it is quite probable that 
to the general reader only one may be of indi- 
vidual interest. Thus in a publication of the 
province assigned to the one at hand there is 
no propriety in entering into a scientific review 
of the development of the great industry rep- 
resented by Parke, Davis & Company. Rather 
should the object be to convey to the reader a 
conception of the relative importance of the 
enterprise as bearing upon the commercial 
precedence of Detroit and to offer succinct 
statements as to the generic scope of the busi- 
ness. Those who are not particularly con- 
cerned in the nature of the products which 
Parke, Davis & Company scatter so extensively 
over the world that there is probably not a 
civilized country, and few semi-civilized, 
where their label may not be found, will never- 
theless be entertained and perhaps instructed 
by the prosaic recital of the principal incidents 
which mark the commercial development of 
the enterprise. 

On the 7th of May, 1867, Dr. Samuel P. 
Duffield and Messrs. Hervey C. Parke and 
George S. Davis organized a partnership under 
the title of Duffield, Parke & Company, and 
prepared to engage in the manufacturing of 
pharmaceutical preparations. Their first labo- 
ratory, which was one of very modest order, 
was established at the corner of Cass avenue 
and Henry street, in the city of Detroit. This 
formed the nucleus around which has been 
evolved the gigantic enterprise now controlled 
by Parke, Davis & Company. In 1869 Dr. 
August F. Jennings succeeded Dr. Duffield as 
a member of the firm, whose title was there- 
upon changed to Parke, Jennings & Company. 
In 1871 Dr. Jennings retired, and Messrs. 
William H. Stevens and John R. Grout be- 
came special partners. With this change was 
inaugurated the present title of Parke, Davis 
& Company, which has thus obtained for 



168 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



nearly forty years. With the retirement of 
Dr. Jennings, Messrs. Parke and Davis became 
the active partners and managers of the busi- 
ness. It should be remembered that at that 
time Detroit had not become widely known as 
a manufacturing city. The founders of this 
great house could scarcely have had a concep- 
tion that their operations would reach beyond 
the circumscribed confines of the territory then 
supplied by Detroit's wholesale and manufac- 
turing concerns. The business, however, de- 
veloped to such an extent that it was regarded 
as an unwise policy to allow it to remain sub- 
ject to the radical changes in methods and 
control which might be entailed by the death 
or retirement of a partner, and on the 14th of 
January, 1875, the business was incorporated, 
under the title of Parke, Davis & Company, 
with a capital stock of one hundred and twenty- 
five thousand dollars, of which eighty-one 
thousand, nine hundred and fifty dollars were 
paid in. The names of the incorporators and 
first board of directors were: Hervey C. 
Parke, George S. Davis, John R. Grout, 
William H. Stevens, and Harry Tillman.' 
The president was Mr. Parke, the secretary, 
Mr. Davis, and the treasurer, Mr. Tillman. 

The consecutive expansion and development 
of this corporation is marked in no more em- 
phatic way than by the successive increases in 
its capital stock, brought about by the neces- 
sity of augmenting its capacity and facilities 
or of making proper provision for the utiliza- 
tion of its earned surplus. In 1881 the capital 
stock was increased to two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars; in 1884 to five hundred thou- 
sand dollars; in 1887 to one million dollars; 
in 1895, when the expired term of its cor- 
porate existence was extended, to two million 
dollars; in 1903 to four million dollars; and in 
1907 to eight million dollars. But the growth 
has been indicated with almost equal signifi- 
cance by the successive enlargements of the 
company's plant. The somewhat obscure 
quarters at the comer of Cass avenue and 
Henry street continued to be utilized until 
1873, when the firm acquired about four-fifths 
of an acre, comprising somewhat less than the 
east half of the block bounded by Joseph Cam- 



pau avenue, Guoin street, McDougall avenue 
and Atwater street, and upon this site an un- 
pretentious brick building of two stories was 
erected. These quarters, however, were very 
capacious as compared with those originally 
secured by the firm. It was thought that the 
new building would meet all requirements for 
many years, but in 1879 it was found necessary 
to enlarge the laboratory building, and this 
was accomplished by the erection of an addi- 
tion two stories in height and two hundred 
and forty by sixty feet in dimensions, on the 
river front of the lot. At the same time an 
ofiice and shipping building, sixty feet square 
and three stories in height, was erected. In 
1880 the laboratory was further enlarged, by 
an addition two stories in height and two hun- 
dred feet long by twenty feet wide. In the 
spring of 1883 a three-story building, for 
cnide-stock and printing purposes, was erected 
on the parallel wing, forming an extension of 
the ongmal laboratory building, sixty by two 
hundred feet. With this improvement the 
laboratory occupied the entire tract of land 
originally secured, with a court in the center 
It was realized as imperative that more ground 
should be secured, and the remainder of the 
block was therefore purchased by the com- 
pany, which soon afterward purchased also the 
block immediately to the north. The acquire- 
ment of surrounding property was extended 
from year to year, to meet the demands of the 
ever expanding business, and the company now 
own and utilize thirteen and one-third acres 
comprising practically six city blocks of the 
average size. The building operations of the 
company have been almost unparalleled 
Omitting mention of small, subsidiary struc- 
tures, the following data are worthy of con- 
sideration. The office building erected in 
1879, although apparently adequate for years 
to come, was soon found to be too small for 
Its purposes, and in 1887 a new office building 
one hundred by sixty feet, was erected, to be 
devoted solely to office and shipping purposes. 
The significance of this greatly enlarged pro- 
vision as taken in connection with the growth 
of the business is shown in the fact that at the 
present time several of the office departments 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



169 



have been crowded out of the same, for lack 
of room. What was conceived at the begin- 
ning to be ample space for the storage of fin- 
ished packages, and for packing and shipping, 
is now devoted entirely to counting-room pur- 
poses. The second story has been increased 
in size by additions and is devoted entirely to 
the offices of the executive officials, the man- 
agers, and the purchasing and sales depart- 
ments. The third story accommodates a large 
force of general clerks and stenographers, in 
addition to the legal department and the de- 
partment of animal industry. The fourth 
story has been refinished for the use of the 
department devoted to the publications in 
which the company is interested. In 1890, in 
order to meet requirements for manufacturing 
and storage, a building three stories in height 
and sixty feet deep was extended around the 
block, occupying one hundred and twenty-five 
feet on Atwater street, two hundred feet on 
Joseph Campau avenue, and two hundred and 
fifty-seven feet on Guoin street. This brought 
about the enclosure of the entire square. 

The development of the biological depart- 
ment necessitated the acquirement of two 
massive buildings originally erected by the 
late Hiram Walker for car-building purposes, 
but never so used. In 1899 the company, aftei 
having acquired the block between Guoin and 
Wight streets, erected thereon a three-story 
building, five hundred and eighteen feet long 
and sixty feet deep. About the same time was 
also effected the purchase of the building pre- 
viously erected by the United States Capsule 
Company, on the northeast comer of Joseph 
Campau avenue and Wight street. In 1903 
was erected the fine scientific building, three 
stories in height and sixty by one hundred and 
sixty feet in dimensions, and this is devoted 
almost entirely to research work in chemistry, 
biology, etc. Its equipment is undoubtedly 
unexcelled by that of any other of the kind in 
the world, — either in connection with a manu- 
facturing industry or collegiate institution. It is 
well understood to-day that all the phenomena 
of life are to be explained on the basis of 
chemical and physical laws, and it is partly 
because of a clear recognition of this fact that 



biological chemistry has gained the eminence 
it has now reached as a division of biology. 
It has furnished direct and positive aid to 
physiology and both practical and experimental 
medicine, and Parke, Davis & Company have 
accomplished a wonderful work in this field of 
research and development. In 1905 was com- 
pleted the large three-story structure which is 
now used entirely for shipping purposes and 
finishing stock, and which has an aggregate 
floor space of one hundred and thirty-seven 
thousand, seven hundred and sixty square feet. 
A new four-story building with basement, 
four hundred and ten by sixty feet, was com- 
pleted in 1908, and was occupied in July of 
that year. This gives the institution a total 
floor space aggregating fully 16.68 acres. 

In the number and character of employes 
and in the equipment of machinery and other 
facilities the same steady progression has been 
marked. At the initiation of the enterprise 
not more than twenty persons were demanded 
in conducting the same, and at the present time 
the requisition is from two thousand to twenty- 
five hundred in connection with the main es- 
tablishment in Detroit. The number engaged 
in manufacturing operations means little to 
those unfamiliar with the technique of the in- 
dustry under survey, but it can not be inap- 
propriate to state at this juncture that to-day 
there are employed in manufacturing depart- 
ments at the laboratories of Parke, Davis & 
Company in Detroit about two thousand per- 
sons; in the Canadian laboratories three hun- 
dred, and in the Continental laboratories, at 
Hounslow, England, two hundred and fifty 
persons. In the last mentioned are manufac- 
tured only such products as can not be more 
economically imported. The sales department 
in Detroit engages the attention of two hun- 
dred and fifty office employes and commercial 
travelers, and a combined force of about three 
hundred and sixty traveling representatives 
are scattered through the various branches. 
In manufacturing, assembling, packing and 
shipping, employment is given to about twenty- 
five hundred persons. 

There is an ethical and sentimental side to 
every successful business enterprise. Early in 



170 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



its historj' this important concern recognized 
certain marked deficiencies in manufacturing 
pharmacy, and at once undertook to correct 
them. The management also conceived the 
idea that there was no reason why the manu- 
facturing pharmacist should not take the same 
interest in the scientific problems that con- 
fronted the physician in his practice or the pro- 
fessor in his college. Scientific men, investi- 
gators and students in medicine and pharmacy, 
were at first suspicious of this commercial in- 
truder in their domain, but soon gave it their 
confidence and recognized it as a most val- 
uable coadjutor; the more so because it 
eschewed certain business methods and prac- 
tices which medicine and pharmacy had come 
to regard as unefhical and as prejudicial to 
public health. 

It may well be noted that long before the pos- 
sibilities of serum-therapy and biologic phar- 
macy had dawned upon the world of medical 
and pharmaceutical science, Parke, Davis & 
Company explored the unknown botanic field, 
and expended large treasure in investigation 
and experimentation. The layman will best ap- 
preciate the importance of this work when he 
learns that Cascara Sagrada, than which there 
are probably not more than four or five drugs 
in more common use, was introduced to the 
medical profession by Parke, Davis & Com- 
pany. Other such botanic drugs evolved and 
exploited by this great concern are : Grindelia 
Robusta, Guarana, Coca, Verba Santa, Tonra, 
Manaca, Chekan, Boldo, Jaborandi and 
Cocillana. 

In the field of biologic chemistry and serum- 
therapy, Parke, Davis & Company occupy an 
advanced position. In 1894, when the virtues 
of diphtheria antitoxin had been heralded 
throughout the world and the supplies were 
limited to what was produced in Germany, the 
United States congress was considering the 
proposition of appropriating twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars for the manufacturing of anti- 
toxin in this country. At this juncture, as was 
announced in an Associated Press dispatch at 
the time, Parke, Davis & Company had al- 
ready anticipated the demand and concluded 



experiments and arrangements which would 
enable them to supply it. 

This concern's reputation for progressive- 
ness has naturally brought to its attention 
many discoveries and improvements in medi- 
cine and pharmacy. Its policy has always been 
to carefully test and try out every preparation 
thus brought to its consideration. More often 
than otherwise the discovery is found to be of 
no value or impracticable for utilization in 
large manufacturing operations, but from the 
whole some valuable products, such as Taka- 
Diastase. for illustration, have been added to 
the physician's armamentarium. Adrenalin is 
another valuable example of the company's 
initiative in scientific investigation. 

It can not be doubted that nothing has more 
signally conduced to the phenomenal success 
of Parke, Davis & Company than the high 
plane of pharmaceutical integrity on which its 
operations have ever been maintained. Re- 
garding quality and therapeutic efficiency as 
of the utmost importance, the company have 
wonderfully improved the standards of the 
different pharmaceuticals existing at the time 
they came into the field, and the name itself 
of the concern is a voucher for the maximum 
of excellence in all products. Improvements 
have been made which insure the uniform 
quality of fluid extracts; the permanency and 
assimilability of gelatine-coated products, and 
likewise has essential perfection been attained 
in sugar and gelatine-coated pills, elixirs and 
other of the various forms in which remedial 
agents are presented to the physician. The 
confidence which is given to Parke, Davis & 
Company by the medical profession of the 
world and the consequent patronage accorded, 
are a natural recognition of the concern's co- 
operative efforts in medical and pharmaceutical 
progress. 

With the company have been identified a 
number of the representative capitalists and 
business men of Detroit, and changes have oc- 
curred from time to time, due to death, com- 
mercial exigencies, etc. To enter into details 
concerning all those who have been officers 
and stockholders of the corporation is, as a 
matter of course, apart from the scope of such 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



171 



an article as is here entered concerning one of 
Detroit's most magnificent industrial and com- 
mercial institutions and one in which the city 
has long taken a just and commendable pride. 



THE DETROIT & CLEVELAND NAVIGA- 
TION COMPANY. 

Since the dawn of its history as a civilized 
community Detroit has found appreciation of 
its unexcelled water-transportation facilities, 
and among the agencies which have fostered 
the development of these natural advantages 
none has been and continues more prominent 
and efifective than that exerted by the corpo- 
ration whose name initiates this article. Its 
history dates back more than a half century 
and its fleet of vessels comprises the highest 
examples of marine architecture known to 
lake-marine navigation. The company has ex- 
erted a most potent influence in the industrial 
and civic development of the Michigan me- 
tropolis in its advancement to a position of 
importance among the leading industrial, 
financial and commercial centers of the United 
States, and a brief review of its history is 
demanded in this publication. 

The first passenger and freight service to be 
established between the cities of Detroit and 
Cleveland was initiated in the year 1850, when 
the steamers "Southerner" and "Baltimore" 
were placed in commission between these ports 
by Captain Arthur Edwards. These steamers 
covered the route during the seasons of 1850- 
51, and were succeeded in 1852 by the "Forest 
City," completed that year for John Owen and 
associates and run jointly with the steamers 
"St. Louis" and "Sam Ward," owned by E. B. 
Ward & Company. In 1853 the steamers 
"May Queen," built that year, and the "City 
of Cleveland," built the year previous, suc- 
ceeded the former vessels on the route. In 
1855, the steamer "Ocean" was added with a 
view to operating both day and night lines. 
This arrangement continued during the sea- 
son of 1855, and a portion of that of 1856, 
when the "Queen" was laid up, due to unre- 
munerative business. The seasons of 1857-61, 
inclusive, saw the route covered by the "May 



Queen" and the "Ocean." In 1862, the 
"Morning Star" was completed and displaced 
the "Ocean," and then during the latter part of 
the season the "City of Cleveland" displaced 
the "May Queen." The route was covered 
during the years 1863-66, inclusive, by the 
"Morning Star" and the "City of Cleveland." 
In 1867, the "R. N. Rice" was completed and 
displaced the "City of Cleveland." The busi- 
ness at this time was operated as the Detroit 
& Cleveland Steamboat Line and was run in 
connection with the Michigan Central Rail- 
road, affording the latter company a water 
route to Cleveland from Detroit, at that time 
its eastern terminus ; and the service was 
known and advertised as the Michigan Central 
Railroad Line. The business was conducted 
under the management of John Owen, who 
was heavily interested, and its local affairs 
were taken care of by Keith & Carter, at De- 
troit, and by L. A. Pierce, at Cleveland, act- 
ing as agents. The business had, during the 
seventeen years of operation, grown to such 
volume that it was necessary to weld the vari- 
ous private interests which controlled its ves- 
sels more closely, and during the winter of 
1867-68, John Owen and David Carter per- 
fected an organization which resulted in the 
incorporation, in April, 1868, of the Detroit 
& Cleveland Steam Navigation Company, 
with the following incorporators : John Owen, 
David Carter, Captain Ira Davis, Captain E. 
R. Viger, W. B. Watson, James Moreton, W. 
McKay, Joseph Cook and S. Gardner, of De- 
troit, and L. A. Pierce and George B. Burton, 
of Cleveland. The company was incorporated 
with a capital of three hundred thousand dol- 
lars and granted a thirty year charter by the 
state of Micliigan. Its first election of officers 
occurred in May, 1868, when John Owen was 
elected president and treasurer, and David 
Carter, secretary. Its vessels were two in 
number, the steamers "R. N. Rice" and 
"Morning Star." The latter steamer was lost 
in collision with the schooner "Cortlandt" on 
the 20th of June, 1868, with a loss of twenty- 
six lives, and her place on the route was filled 
by the steamer "Northwest," which with the 
"R. N. Rice" was run continuously until the 



172 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



close of navigation in 1876. During the win- 
ter of 1876-7, the "Northwest" was rebuilt at 
a cost of eighty thousand dollars and the fol- 
lowing summer the "R. N. Rice" was prac- 
tically destroyed by fire, while lying at her 
moorings in Detroit, the "Saginaw" taking her 
place on the route for the balance of the sea- 
son. The first vessel to be built for this com- 
pany was the "City of Detroit," a composite 
hulled steamer, completed in 1878, at a cost 
of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dol- 
lars. This steamer, with the "Northwest," 
took care of the traffic on the Cleveland route 
until 1886. The second vessel constructed was 
the "City of Cleveland," which was built in 
1880, and which was placed on a route be- 
tween Detroit and Houghton, Michigan, re- 
maining in this service during the seasons of 
1880-81-82. In 1883 the third vessel, the 
"City of Mackinac," an iron steamer, costing 
one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, was 
completed, and m connection with the steamer 
"City of Cleveland." whose name had been 
changed to the "City of Alpena," the company 
maugurated the ser\ace on the route between 
Detroit and St. Ignace, and known as the 
Lake Huron division. The fourth vessel to 
be built for the company marked a great ad- 
vance in lake passenger-steamers, being the 
first steel-hulled steamer constructed for pas- 
senger service on the Great Lakes and the first 
to be equipped with feathering wheels. This 
steamer was completed in 1886, at a cost of 
three hundred thousand dollars, was named the 
"City of Cleveland" and replaced the "North- 
west," which was sold to the White Star Line, 
and by them rebuilt and renamed the "Grey- 
hound." In 1889, the fifth vessel was com- 
pleted for the company, a steel steamer costing 
three hundred and fifty thousand dollars and 
named the "City of Detroit." This replaced 
the older vessel of that name on the Detroit- 
Cleveland route. The latter steamer was 
known as the "City of Detroit" No. i, during 
the season of 1889, and was run on the route 
between Chicago and St. Joseph, Michigan. 
The following year she was renamed the "City 
•of the Straits" and has since plied between 
Cleveland and Put-in-Bay. The demands of 



a constantly increasing business on the Lake 
Huron division taxed the capacity of the steam- 
ers operated on this route, and necessitated the 
building of new steamers of larger carrying ca- 
pacity; accordingly, in 1893, the twin vessels 
"City of Alpena" and "City of Mackinac" were 
completed at a cost of three hundred thousand 
dollars each, and they replaced the steamers 
of the same names formerly operated on the 
route, the old vessels being sold to the Cleve- 
land & Buffalo Transit Company, forming its 
first fleet; the "City of Alpena" being renamed 
the "State of Ohio" and the "City of Macki- 
nac" changed to that of the "State of New 
York." In 1906 contracts were let for the 
construction of the eighth vessel to be built for 
the company and to be ready for the season of 
1907. The hull of this vessel was laid in 
1906, her upper works were practically com- 
pleted and a large portion of her machinery 
installed when, on May 13, 1907, she was 
burned to her steel framework, entailing a loss 
to her builders, the Detroit Shipbuilding Com- 
pany, of seven hundred thousand dollars, be- 
sides that involved in the needed tonnage and 
other service which she would have supplied 
during the season. Expecting to replace the 
"City of Cleveland" with this new steamer, 
her name was changed in 1907, to the "City 
of St. Ignace" and she was to have been oper- 
ated on the Lake Huron division, but the de- 
struction of the new vessel kept her on her 
former route. The completion of the last ves- 
sel, the eighth in order of construction, marks 
the highest advancement in lake-marine con- 
stniction. The cost of the completed steamer 
is one million two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars and she is the largest, most sumptuously 
furnished and equipped of any passenger vessel 
on fresh water, and is not excelled in appoint- 
ments, comforts or construction by the best 
ocean-going steamers. Her trial trip on the 
28th of April. 1908, resulted most satisfac- 
torily to her designer, her constructors and the 
officials of the company. The new "City of 
Cleveland" has a passenger capacity of four 
thousand five hundred persons and a freight 
capacity of one thousand tons. She will be 
operated upon the Detroit-Cleveland route 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



173 



during the mid-summer months, the "City of 
St. Ignace" commencing and concluding th€ 
season on this route and during the openatioB 
of the "City of Cleveland" will be run as an 
excursion steamer on Lake Huron and adja* 
cent waters. 

In 1896-98, the Cleveland & Buffalo Tran- 
sit Company replaced the steamers "State of 
New York" and "State of Ohio" by new ves- 
sels and the Detroit company purchased a half- 
interest in these steamers, which were oper- 
ated jointly by. the two corporations as the 
Cleveland & Toledo Line. The season of 
1908 finds the "State of New York" placed 
upon the run between Detroit and Bay City, 
the initiation of this service due to repeated 
and urgent requests upon the part of the mer- 
chants and traveling public of Bay City and 
Saginaw. On the expiration of the charter 
granted to the Detroit & Cleveland Steam 
Navigation Company in April, 1868, and run- 
ning until April, 1898, the company was rein- 
corporated as the Detroit & Cleveland Navi- 
gation Company, with a capital of one million 
five hundred thousand dollars. This amount 
was increased in 1907 to two and one half 
million dollars. The terminal property owned 
by the company in both the city of Detroit and 
at Cleveland is easily accessible to the traveling 
public and also afifords the best of shipping 
facilities, while its buildings offer exceptional 
comforts to its patrons as well as the necessary 
accommodation tor the handling of its freight 
business. 

The history of the development of the busi- 
ness of this company has been marked by pro- 
gressiveness on the part of the executive of- 
ficers, both in the operative and financial de- 
partments of the organization. The continued 
insistance upon the part of the management 
that at all times the vessels of the fleet should 
excel in the controlling essentials of safety, 
speed and comfort, the spirit of enterprise and 
confidence in the appreciation by the public of 
the improvements for its benefit, have ad- 
vanced in a very marked degree the commer- 
cial development of the city and state. That 
the traveling public has justly appreciated the 
efforts of the management is easily proven by 



the universal commendation of "its service and 
the oft repeated statement "that nowhere on 
fresh water is found a fleet of vessels which 
are maintained at such a high state of ef- 
ficiency in all departments as are those of the 
Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company." 

During its life of forty years the company 
had as executive chiefs the following : John 
Owen, who with David Carter, was one of its 
most active organizers ; Mr. Owen was its first 
president and treasurer and remained its execu- 
tive head until he was succeeded by the late 
Senator James McMillan, who upon his death, 
in 1903, was in turn succeeded as president by 
his son, William C. McMillan : upon the death 
of the latter, in 1907, his brother, Philip H. 
McMillan, was elected to the office. With the 
history of the company the name of David 
Carter is indissolubly linked. The organiza- 
tion of the corporation was in great measure 
due to his efforts and the result of his ideas. 
He more than any other effected the develop- 
ment of its service, and to his unflagging zeal, 
persistent industry and impregnable faith in the 
possibilities of the line, upon the success of 
which he was ready to and did stake his all in 
the decade closing in 1870, the success and 
present unassailable position of the line are in 
a great measure due. He was connected with 
the service between Detroit and Cleveland 
some sixteen years previous to the organiza- 
tion of the company and on its incorporation 
was elected its first secretary. Shortly after- 
ward he was appointed general manager, and 
in these dual positions he remained until his 
death, in 1901. On other pages of this volume 
is printed a memoriam to him, to which the 
reader is referred for supplemental informa- 
tion. Mr. Carter was succeeded upon his 
death as general manager by the late William 
C. McMillan. Upon the death of the latter, in 
1907, he in turn was succeeded by Arnold A. 
Schantz, who became connected with the com- 
pany in 1878, and who by sheer ability and in- 
defatigable effort has risen from an unim- 
portant position in connection with the pas- 
senger department to that of executive head of 
the operative department of the company. 
Those in charge of the various departments of 



174 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



operation of which Mr. Schantz is chief are 
men of exceptional ability and who have been 
connected with the line for many years. Per- 
sonal mention of the various executives is 
printed elsewhere in the work under their re- 
spective names and the personnel is as follows : 
Executive officers — Philip H. McMillan, presi- 
dent; James McGregor, vice-president; George 
M. Black,- secretary and treasurer. Operating 
executives — Arnold A. Schantz, general man- 
ager; Bert C. Wilder, general auditor; Lin- 
coln G. Lewis, general passenger agent ; Dan- 
iel C. Mclntyre, general freight agent ; and 
Louis Thorne, chief of commissary depart- 
ment. The general offices, with the exception 
of that of general freight agent, are in the com- 
pany's building at the foot of Wayne street, 
Detroit. 



D. M. PERRY & COMPANY. 

The name of no industrial concern in De- 
troit is better known throughout the world 
than that which initiates this article, for the 
ramifications of its business are gigantic in 
scope and variety. It would be difficult for 
one not familiar with details to realize the 
multifarious agencies which have been brought 
to bear in this building up of an industry 
which is the most extensive of the kind in 
existence, for not only has it demanded the 
great executive and administrative talent and 
progressive methods which must ever be the 
concomitants of so marked commercial suc- 
cess, but there has also been the necessity for 
patient experimentation and investigation 
along definite scientific lines, a close study of 
plant growth and of the best means for gain- 
ing the products suited for varying soil and 
climatic conditions, as well as for propagating 
the ultimate types of the thousands of vege- 
tables and flowers whose seeds are the output 
of this splendid Detroit institution. An indus- 
try of so great magnitude and under a man- 
agement which is all that experience and 
science can offer, assuredly should be given 
more than cursory attention in this publication, 
within whose province it is to indicate as clearly 
as may be the sources through which the larger 
and greater Detroit is being developed. On 



other pages of this volume appears a brief re- 
view of the career of Dexter M. Ferry, the 
late head of D. M. Ferry & Company, and the 
two articles should be brought into mental 
juxtaposition by the reader in order that a 
clearer idea may be gained of the business 
enterprise to which the sketch at hand is 
devoted. 

This industry dates its practical inception 
back more than half a centur3^ the firm of 
M. T. Gardner & Company, seedsmen, having 
been organized in 1856 and the three inter- 
ested principals having been Miles T. Gard- 
ner. Dexter M. Ferry and Eber F. Church. 
Under the title noted the enterprise was con- 
ducted until 1865, when Mr. Gardner sold his 
interest to his associates and the firm name of 
Ferry, Church & Company was adopted. Be- 
sides Messrs. Ferry and Church, H. Kirke 
White and Charles C. Bowen were represented 
as members of the new firm, of which Mr. 
Ferry was executive head until his death, 
which occurred November 10, 1907. He 
stood as the only person who had been identi- 
fied with the business from the time of its 
foundation, and it is needless to say that its 
rise to its present status has been resultant 
upon his efiforts and abilities more than to 
those of all others who have been concerned 
with the underraking. In 1867 the present 
title of D. M. Ferry & Company was adopted 
and in 1872 Albert E. F. White was admitted 
to the firm. The business was continued under 
partnership relations and control until 1879, 
when, under the same title, it was incorporated 
under the laws of the state, with a capital of 
seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Mr. 
Ferry became president and general manager 
of the new corporation. The other original 
officers chcsen were as follows : James 
McMillan, vice-president; H. K. White, treas- 
urer; and Charles C. Bowen. secretary. The 
directorate included these executive officers 
and also A. E. F. White. John S. Newberry 
and W. K. Anderson. In 1894 the capital of 
the company was increased to its present 
amount, — eight hundred thousand dollars, — 
and the personnel of the administrative corps 
at the time of this writing is as follows : H. K. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



175 



White, vice-president; Lem W. Bowen, treas- 
urer and general manager; D. M. Ferry, Jr., 
secretary ; and A. E. F. White, auditor. These 
officers, with Sherman R. Miller and P. H. 
McMillan, constitute the directorate of the 
concern. 

Like many other industrial enterprises of 
Detroit, that of D. M. Ferry & Company had 
a modest inception, and it can well be under- 
stood how great energy, discrimination and 
generalship have been brought into play in the 
development of the same to its present mag- 
nificent proportions. The first headquarters 
of the original firm of M. T. Gardner & 
Company were established in a small store on 
Monroe avenue, and the aggregate transactions 
for the first year represented only about six 
thousand dollars, while the market was scarcely 
more than local in character. The trade of 
the concern to-day extends into almost every 
township in the United States and Canada 
and also into many foreign countries, and the 
aggregate business has reached an annual av- 
erage of fully two million dollars. The im- 
portations from English, French, German, 
Dutch and other European concerns are far in 
excess of any other seed house in America. 
The corporation supplies more than one hun- 
dred and sixty thousand retail merchants with 
complete assortments of seeds each year, and 
vast quantities are also shipped in bulk to 
wholesalers and jobbers. The average daily 
shipments now are enormous and significant. 
The corporation itself grows immense quanti- 
ties of seeds, and it also has contracts for the 
raising of stock by seed farmers in many sec- 
tions of the United States and Canada, as well 
as in European countries. These contracts are 
made with ample specifications as to care and 
conservation of the products and through this 
means are gained the hardiest and most prolific 
varieties and species of vegetables and flowers, 
with special reference to future propagation 
under the varying conditions which compass 
the patrons of the house. 

From the original store on Monroe avenue 
the establishment was removed to a more 
eligible location on Woodward avenue, where 
four stores were finally demanded to accom- 



modate the constantly expanding business. In 
1880 the business was removed to its present 
location, on Monroe avenue, where a substan- 
tial four-story warehouse with appropriate 
business offices had been erected for the pur- 
pose. In January, 1886, the entire building 
and contents were destroyed by fire, entailing 
a total loss of eight hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars, with about one-half insurance in- 
demnity. On the same site the present build- 
ing was erected, being equipped with facili- 
ties far superior to those of the original build- 
ing. The aggregate floor space now utilized 
in the headquarters and warehouses A & B 
is four hundred and thirty-five thousand five 
hundred and thirty-six square feet, lacking 
only fourteen square feet of being ten acres 
and not including their box factory, — their 
main building being a substantial brick and 
stone structure three hundred by one hundred 
and twenty feet in dimensions and six stories 
in height. Through the energy and fertility 
of resource exhibited by the interested prin- 
cipals in the corporation of D. M. Ferry & 
Company there was no interruption of business 
at the time of this disastrous fire, and tem- 
porary quarters were used until the new build- 
ing could be completed. The concern now 
has three large buildings, including the 
original structure as built in 1887, and the 
trial grounds, used for experiments in seed- 
germinating, etc., are of the finest type 
and conducted under scientific methods. The 
seed-growing department of the enterprise 
was for twenty-two years in charge of 
Professor William W. Tracy, now an of- 
ficial of the department of agriculture in 
the national capital, and he has able successors 
have effectively carried forward the work 
to which he gave his attention, with all of his 
interest and enthusiasm, for so long a term of 
years. D. M. Ferry & Company have a branch 
house at Windsor, Ontario, Canada, the same 
having been established in 18S0, to facilitate 
the Canadian trade, and they also have well 
equipped receivmg warehouses at Charlevoix 
and Harbor Beach, Michigan, — much propa- 
gating work being done in the vicinity of these 
two cities. The entire executive control of 



176 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the business, however, remains placed in the 
home estabHshment in Detroit. The concern 
gives employment to more than a thousand 
persons, including one hundred and twenty- 
five traveling representatives in the United 
States and twelve in the Canadian provinces. 
The beneficent effects of this great concern 
upon the industrial and commercial precedence 
of Detroit may well be imagined, and Mr. 
Ferry and his associates deserve prominent 
mention as being among the foremost of those 
who have aided in and are contributing to the 
upbuilding of the "Greater Detroit." 

It is consonant that in this article a word of 
special appreciation should be uttered concern- 
ing the late Charles C. Bowen, who was identi- 
fied with the enterprise from 1865 until his 
death, which occurred in August, 1900. He was 
one of the influential and honored business men 
of Detroit and was a citizen of distinctive loy- 
alty and public spirit. He was bom in Orleans 
county. New York, in 1831, and was reared 
and educated in the old Empire state, where 
he remained until 1863, when he took up his 
residence in Detroit. He had previously been 
identified with business interests in the city of 
Rochester, New York. His connection with 
the firm and corporation of D. M. Ferry & 
Company has been adequately noted in pre- 
ceding paragraphs. He was one of the chief 
stockholders in the Standard Life & Accident 
Insurance Company, of Detroit, of which he 
was vice-president for a number of years an- 
tecedent to his death, and he had also other 
local capitalistic interests of important order, 
besides being concerned in mining and rail- 
road enterprises in Arizona. He was a zealous 
and devoted member of the Baptist church, 
to the various departments of whose work he 
contributed with all of consecrated apprecia- 
tion and liberality. He was for many years a 
member of the board of trustees of the Wood- 
ward Avenue Baptist church, was a trustee of 
Kalamazoo College at the time of his demise 
and also of the University of Chicago, which 
is in general a Baptist institution. Prior to his 
removal to Michigan he was married to Miss 
Julia M. Hord, of New York state, and she 
survived him by only a short interval, her death 



occurring in 1901. They are survived by one 
son and two daughters. Lem W. Bowen, the 
only son, practically assumed his father's in- 
terests in the business of D. M. Ferry & Com- 
pany, of which corporation he had been treas- 
urer for thirteen years prior to the death of 
her father, after which he became general 
manager, while still retaining his incumbency 
as treasurer. He is one of the most enthu- 
siastic of those enterprising citizens who are 
working so earnestly for the making of the 
larger Detroit, and was president of the De- 
troit Board of Commerce, in the keeping of 
which is entrusted much of the promotive en- 
ergy brought to bear in this line. He is presi- 
dent of the Cadillac Motor Car Company, vice- 
president of the Security Trust Company, a 
director of the Michigan Fire & Marine In- 
surance Company, and vice-president of the 
Standard Accident Insurance Company. 

The only living members of the old firm of 
D. M. Ferry & Company are H. Kirke White, 
admitted into the firm of Ferry, Church & 
Company in 1866, a director in the cor- 
poration in 1879 and ever since, its treas- 
urer from 1879 to 1888, its vice-president 
since 1903; and A. E. F. White, admitted 
into the firm of D. M. Ferry & Company 
in 1872, a director in the corporation 
in 1S79 and ever since, and its auditor 
since its incorporation. He has been actively 
connected with the company continuously for 
forty-four years and H. K. White has been 
continuously connected with it forty-nine years. 
Both H. K. White and A. E. F. White are 
also largely interested in the Acme White 
Lead & Color Works and have been instru- 
mental in the success of that company from 
the beginning. They have many other impor- 
tant business and banking affiliations. 



THE MICHIGAN STOVE COMPANY. 

No small measure of the great industrial 
prestige which pertains to Detroit may be justly 
attributed to the great concern whose business 
is conducted under the corporate title here des- 
ignated and which is the largest concern of its 
kind in the world. Its products are sold in 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



177 



practically every civilized country and it has 
been built up along conservative lines and upon 
the highest business principles, from which 
there has never been the slightest deviation. 
Such are the industries to which "Greater De- 
troit" points with distinctive pride and gratifi- 
cation and upon such enterprises rests to a 
large degree the material and civic prosperity 
of the fair "City of the Straits." 

Of the inception of the Michigan Stove Com- 
pany mention is made in the individual sketch 
of its virtual founder and present president, 
Jeremiah Dwyer, elsewhere in this work, and 
the two articles should be read in connection 
if a distinct grasp of the salient features of the 
history of the company is desired. In 1871 
Mr. Dwyer promoted the organization of this 
company, enlisting as his coadjutors Messrs. 
Charles Ducharme, Richard R. Long, Mer- 
rill I. Mills and George H. Barbour. The 
last named became actively identified with the 
company June 29, 1872. The company incor- 
porated under the present title and the origi- 
nal capital stock was one hundred thousand 
dollars. How great the advancement of the 
industry has been in the intervening period of 
thirty-six years may be measurably appreciated 
when it is stated that operations at the present 
time are based upon a capital of three millions 
of dollars. The original official corps of the 
Michigan Stove Company was as follows: 
Charles Ducharme, president; Jeremiah 
Dwyer, vice-president and manager; Merrill 
I. Mills, treasurer; and George H. Barbour, 
secretary. The gentlemen who organized the 
company constituted its first board of directors. 

The original plant of the concern was lo- 
cated on Jefferson avenue, corner Adair street, 
and was erected in 1872, within a period of 
twelve months. The main building was about 
one hundred by seven hundred feet in dimen- 
sions, with five stories and basement. In 1881 
was erected to the east of the original building 
an addition of about the same dimensions as 
the latter, also same height. In 1885 another 
addition was made eastward from the one com- 
pleted in 1 88 1, and in 1889 was completed 
another building as large as all of those pre- 
viously constructed. On the 8th of January, 



1907, all except the main buildings first erected 
were destroyed by fire, entailing a loss of seven 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. With 
characteristic energy the company at once in- 
stituted the rebuilding of the plant, which was 
made ready for occupancy within the brief 
period of thirteen weeks. The large and sub- 
stantial plant as it now stands is equipped with 
all modern facilities, including the best pos- 
sible fire protection. 

At the beginning of operations the company 
gave employment to but three hundred me- 
chanics, and the products were a small variety 
of both coal and wood stoves, which found 
market almost exclusively within the confines 
of the states of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. 
The operative force of the factories at the 
present day numbers fifteen hundred persons, 
nearly all being skilled mechanics, and the an- 
nual output of stoves of all kinds, including 
gas ranges and heaters, is one hundred and 
fifty thousand stoves. A Chicago house is 
maintained, where all their business out of 
Chicago is handled, and agencies controlling 
largely the foreign trade are those established 
in London, Paris, Berlin, Constantinople, 
Spain, Honolulu and Manilla, Philippine 
Islands. The trade of the company extends 
throughout the entire United States, European 
countries, Great Britain, the Orient, and Mex- 
ico. The present official corps of this great 
company are as here noted : Jeremiah Dwyer, 
president ; George H. Barbour, first vice-presi- 
dent and general manager; Charles A. 
Ducharme, second vice-president and secre- 
tary; Merrill B. Mills, treasurer; Edwin S. 
Barbour, assistant treasurer; Harry B. Gil- 
lespie, corresponding secretary; W. J. Keep, 
superintendent; Robert L. Morley, western 
manager, with headquarters in Chicago. The 
above officers, with the exception of the three 
last mentioned are members of the directorate 
of the company, as are also Charles L. Palms 
and Francis Palms. 

Concerning the connection of Mr. Dwyer 
with the manufacturing of stoves in Detroit 
his personal sketch gives ample details, and the 
article thus incidentally makes record of the 
circumstances and conditions which led up to 



178 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the founding of the company of which he is 
now the executive head. A repetition of the 
data is not demanded in the present article. It 
may be said, however, that Mr. Dwyer manu- 
factured the first cook stoves ever made in De- 
troit and that one of them is still owned by 
the Michigan Stove Company, being retained 
as a unique and valued relic. 



ACHE WHITE LEAD & GOLOB WORKS. 

In this age of colossal enterprise and marked 
intellectual energy the prominent and success- 
ful men are those whose abilities lead them 
into large undertakings and to assume the re- 
sponsibilities and labors of leaders in- their re- 
spective fields of endeavor. Success is 
methodical and consecutive and however much 
we may indulge in fantastic theorizing as to its 
elements and causation in any isolated instance, 
in the light of sober investigation we shall find 
it to be but the result of the determined appli- 
cation of one's abilities and powers along the 
rigidly defined lines of labor — whether mental 
or manual. 

Among the great industrial enterprises 
which have conserved and are admirably main- 
taining the commercial prestige of the city of 
Detroit is that conducted under the title ap- 
pearing above, and perhaps no better descrip- 
tion of the same, as available for this com- 
pilation, can be gained than that which ap- 
peared in the Detroit News Tribune of Sun- 
day, December i6, 1906, and which is there- 
fore here reproduced with only such minor 
changes in statement and phraseology as facts 
and incidental expediency may dictate. 

Few stories of human achievement are filled 
with greater interest than that which is caus- 
ing the assembling in Detroit this week of one 
of the most unique congresses that has ever 
come to the city, — a congress of men who come 
from all parts of the United States and who 
are the living characters to-day in that story, 
begun by two poor young men nearly a quar- 
ter of a century ago, which describes the pic- 
turesque growth from pigmy to giant of the 
greatest institution of its kind in the world. 
When this congress of men, brought together 



from every state between the two seas, meet 
in the big assembly hall of the Acme White 
Lead & Color Works to-morrow, a fitting cli- 
max will have been reached in a history of 
human endeavor beyond which young men of 
to-day need not seek for a better object lesson. 
It will be the gathering of a great "family," — 
the last step in the achievement of an ambition 
born in the brains of two moneyless youngsters 
more than twenty years ago, and who, begin- 
ning with the mixing and selling of a single 
barrel of paint, now *and at the head of an 
institution unrivaled the world over. During 
the whole of this week the one hundred and 
twenty-five salesmen of the Acme White Lead 
& Color Works will be entertained by the com- 
pany. While twenty-two years ago the ex- 
penditure of a ten-dollar bill was regarded as a 
matter of considerable moment by the "com- 
pany," its reunion now means a total suspen- 
sion of soliciting business in every state in the 
Union for an entire week and the expenditure 
of a small fortune in bringing its "family" to- 
gether and caring for it while in the city. 

Just as the representatives of Michigan, of 
Ohio, and of other states go to Washington to 
participate in making laws for the welfare of 
the nation, so do these many traveling men and 
general salesmen come to Detroit to work in 
the interests of their company. Each of the 
district managers is known by the company 
as a "senator" and is so called, while each of 
the salesmen is a "representative." Together 
they form the only "congress" of its kind 
known. Being a congressman of this kind is 
not regarded as a joke. It is a position which 
demands even greater work than does such a 
berth in the ship of state. During the session 
of congress this week each of these men will 
advance ideas for the advancement of work, 
in his own territory or throughout the entire 
country. When congress adjourns next Sat- 
urday afternoon the members will return to 
their respective territories and the active work 
of the greatest factory of its kind in the world 
will again be taken up. 

Until one visits this Detroit institution, until 
he knows that it covers fourteen acres of land 
and that its capital is now one and one-quarter 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



179 



millions of dollars, it will be difficult for him, 
perhaps, to fully appreciate the efforts which 
have given this industrial giant to the city. 
During the month of November there were on 
the books of the company "immediate-deliv- 
ery" orders for one hundred and sixty-two 
carloads of paint, besides innumerable smaller 
orders. Just twenty-two years ago the "com- 
pany's" first order was for one small barrel. 
In those days there were two young men in 
Detroit, each twenty-six years of age, both 
poor but both filled with pluck and ambition. 
These were William L. Davies and Thomas 
Neal, the former now the president and the 
latter the secretary and general manager of 
the Acme company. These young fellows were 
close chums, as they have remained through- 
out their lives, and together they formulated 
scheme after scheme for going into business 
for themselves. At that time ready-mixed 
paints were a new thing, for nearly everybody 
mixed his own. Like an inspiration came the 
idea to Davies and Neal that they might go 
into the paint business. But neither knew any- 
thing about it and neither had much money. 
For a time they worked like tigers, sold every- 
thing they possessed and pooled their money. 
Together they had about twenty-eight hun- 
dred dollars. Neal took charge of the business 
at the start and Davies retained his salaried 
position, working in a wholesale drug store. 
In the meanwhile young Neal hustled for a 
location and a paintmaker. In the year 1884 
every half-grown boy was familiar with the 
old circus grounds, located on the Jones farm, 
near Grand River and Fourth avenues. It was 
in this vicinity that the Acme White Lead & 
Color Works started in business. A building 
forty by seventy feet in dimensions was rented 
and the work of making ready-mixed paints 
was begun. At that time the concern employed 
just two men, — young Neal and the paintmak- 
er. No difficulty was found in making paint, 
but for a time it looked as though people had 
stopped painting their houses or wouldn't use 
the "ready-mixed stuff." Then one day the 
first order came. It was for one barrel. A few 
days later another order came, and they rolled 
in, one after another, — the Acme White Lead 



& Color Works was under full steam. Both 
Davies and Neal made a point of working ten 
hours a day. Neal was manager, bookkeeper, 
superintendent, shipping clerk, janitor and 
factory hand, and seldom went home before 
eleven o'clock at night, frequently remaining 
at work until two o'clock in the morning. 
After his day's labor in the drug establishment 
Davies would join him and would work in the 
factory until late at night. So, step by step, 
through their indomitable energy and pluck, 
the little industry, which was to result in the 
greatest institution of its kind in the world a 
few years later, slowly gained its hold. 

After the first hard fight was won the enter- 
prise developed with remarkable rapidity. In 
the second year its capital was increased to 
twenty-five thousand dollars and Albert E. F. 
White and H. Kirke White became financially 
interested. The little business was now out- 
growing its quarters. A salesman had been 
put upon the road, the manufacturing staff had 
been increased to about twelve persons, and at 
the end of the second year it was found neces- 
sary to secure another Grand River avenue 
building, thirty by one hundred feet in size. 

Davies now gave up his position in the drug 
house and devoted his entire time, with his 
friend, to the development of their own con- 
cern. Within two years, and before either had 
passed his twenty-eighth year, these young 
men had successfully launched what quickly 
developed into one of the city's chief enter- 
prises. In 1886 another three-story building 
was added, and the following year several 
other buildings were secured. Again and 
again new capital was added to the company, 
until in 1887, only five years after two poor 
young men had set out to earn a livelihood by 
making paint, the largest part of the present 
site of the Acme White Lead & Color Works 
was purchased. From that time on the growth 
of the institution was little less than phenom- 
enal. From 1893 to 1896, years of great finan- 
cial depression, when corporations were either 
failing or calling in their traveling men, the 
Acme company added to all their traveling 
forces, arguing that "when the other fellows 
are down is the time to hunt for trade." So 



180 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



indomitably did the)' work through these years 
of panic that in 1896, when the era of depres- 
sion was ending, the erection of the present- 
day factories was begun, upon the site pur- 
chased a few years before. 

A more striking contrast could not be imag- 
ined than that between the plant of to-day and 
the little factory of twenty-two years ago. 
While it had only two men at work then it now 
employs four hundred persons in Detroit, be- 
sides one hundred and twenty-five traveling 
salesmen. The industry, which started on a 
barrel of paint and which occupied but one 
large room, now produces a larger output than 
any other paint factory in the world, and its 
magnificent buildings occupy fourteen acres of 
land. Out of the "twenty-five hundred dollar 
scheme" of two poor young men have grown 
the several great industries of the present-day 
institution with its capital of one and one- 
quarter millions of dollars. These are a fac- 
tory for making mixed paints, a dry-color fac- 
tory, a white-lead corroding plant, and fac- 
tories for the manufacturing of chemicals and 
linseed oil. 

One of the most remarkable things in con- 
nection with the upbuilding of this magnificent 
Detroit institution is the fact that every dollar 
of its capital has been earned. In other words, 
the Acme White Lead & Color Works has 
made itself, dollar by dollar. Additions were 
made only as the plant earned the necessary 
money. Outside capital was never solicited. It 
is absolutely a self-made factory, — just as the 
two hard-working youngsters who started it 
are self-made men. And this fact has had much 
to do with its history. It has brought its em- 
ployes in closer sympathy with it, and all 
over the country Acme people speak of the 
plant as "home." And it is a home, as nearly 
as any factory on earth could be. The men who 
became associated with the factory in its early 
days still remain with it, and it is with great 
pride that the men at its head to-day point to 
the fact that here have been no "family" quar- 
rels among them. 

To properly appreciate what may be done 
by young men of energy and pluck, even 
though they may be poor financially, one 



should take a trip through this greatest plant 
of its kind in existence. From the time one 
enters the magnificent offices until he comes 
out at the last door of the works he will en- 
counter new and interesting things. From the 
elegance of the one great office floor he may 
pass into the dining rooms, where prettily ar- 
ranged tables await the employes, and from 
there he may pass into the great assembly hall, 
where "congress" of the concern assembles. As 
he continues his journey he will pass through 
one of the biggest printing offices in the city; 
he will cover floor after floor in great ware- 
houses, and then he will be plunged into the 
noise and activity of the manufacturing plants, 
where he may pass one of the most interesting 
days of his life. And when he comes forth and 
goes once more on his way, he may well won- 
der at the indomitable energy which produced 
— from a barrel of paint, two men and a little 
shop — this industrial giant of to-day. 

William Davies is president of the company, 
and Thomas Neal, secretary and general man- 
ager. Brief biographies of the president and 
secretary of the company appear elsewhere in 
this work. 



THE PENINSULAR STOVE COMPANY. 

The name of Dwyer has been most conspic- 
uously identified with the manufacturing of 
stoves in Detroit and representatives of the 
name have had most to do with bringing to 
the city the prestige of having the largest 
stove manufactories in the world. The virtual 
founder of the concern whose title initiates 
this article was James Dwyer, of whom indi- 
vidual mention is made in this work and who 
was originally associated with his brother Jer- 
emiah, to whom likewise a specific sketch is 
dedicated in this publication. 

The business of the Peninsular Stove Com- 
pany may properly be said to date its founda- 
tion back to the year 1861, though the present 
title was not adopted until a score of years 
later. In the year first mentioned, Messrs. 
Jeremiah and James Dwyer and Thomas W. 
Mizner organized the firm of J. Dwyer & 
Company, which established a small stove 
foundry at the corner of White street and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



181 



Mount Elliott avenue, Detroit. Two years 
later Mr. Mizner's interest was purchased by 
Jeremiah Dwyer, and the firm name continued 
the same as previously until 1864, when a 
stock company was organized, under the title 
of the Detroit Stove Works. In 1871, on ac- 
count of impaired health, Jeremiah Dwyer 
sold his interest in the Detroit Stove Works to 
his brother James, who continued to be ac- 
tively identified with the management of the 
business for a decade thereafter. In 1881 
James Dwyer purchased the old Eureka Iron 
Works, in the village of Wyandotte, and un- 
der his effective supervision the business was 
there built up to a point where about four tons 
of iron were used per diem, while employment 
was given to about fifty hands. The original 
products were principally cook stoves, and the 
same found sale mostly in Detroit and the 
southern part of the state. Under the 
title of James Dwyer & Company the 
enterprise was continued until 1882, in 
March of which year the business was 
incorporated under the present title of 
the Peninsular Stove Company. The 
headquarters were then transferred to Detroit 
and the plant was established on its present 
site, at the corner of Fort and Eighth streets. 
The original plant at this location had a front- 
age of three hundred feet on Fort street, and 
the magnificent growth of the enterprise is 
measurably indicated in the status of the pres- 
ent works, which occupy two entire blocks on 
Fort street, running back a distance of four 
hundred feet. The entire tract is covered with 
the buildings of the company and employment 
is now afforded to twelve hundred men, most 
of whom are skilled mechanics. In meeting the 
requirements of the pay roll the company ex- 
pends from twenty-five thousand to thirty 
thousand dollars every two weeks, and the 
annual output, including heating and cooking 
stoves, is seventy-five thousand stoves. The 
products are sold in all parts of the United 
States and Canada, and the foreign trade is 
constantly expanding. 

The Peninsular Stove Company was incor- 
porated with a capital stock of fifty thousand 
dollars, and this has since been increased to 



three million dollars, to meet the demands 
placed upon the institution by its immense 
business and amplified operations. The origi- 
nal organizers of the company were James 
Dwyer, William B. Moran, Fred T. Moran 
and R. McD. Campau, and the respective offices 
which were assumed were as here noted: 
William B. Moran, president; James Dwyer, 
vice-president and general manager; and R. 
McD. Campau, secretary. The present officers 
of the company are as follows : Fred T. 
Moran, president; James Dwyer, vice-presi- 
dent and general manager; John M. Dwyer, 
secretary; James M. Dwyer, treasurer; and 
Daniel T. Crowley, auditor. On the director- 
ate are found, besides these executive officers, 
a number of the best known and most influ- 
ential capitalists and business men of Detroit. 
The concern is now one of the largest of the 
kind in the world and has had much potency 
in furthering the industrial precedence of 
Detroit. 

THE BURROUGHS ADDING MACHINE 
COMPANY. 

One of the splendid manufacturing concerns 
which constitutes a brilliant jewel in the in- 
dustrial crown of the city of Detroit is that 
whose title initiates this article, and that the 
same has been gained to the Michigan metrop- 
olis is but another mark of appreciation of 
the superior advantages here offered as a 
manufacturing and distributing center. The 
unique product of the Burroughs company is 
now known throughout the civilized world, 
for the Burroughs adding machine was the 
first practical device of the sort ever placed on 
the market, its supremacy has easily main- 
tained at all times and against all competition, 
and its use has simplified, facilitated and in- 
sured accuracy in the handling of all lines of 
business. It is not within the province of this 
necessarily circumscribed article to enter into 
details concerning the labors of the earnest 
and determined inventor of this splendid piece 
of mechanism, nor to reveal the struggles and 
vicissitudes he encountered ere he was enabled 
to perfect the device, but it is sufficient to say 
that the name of William Seward Burroughs 



182 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



will go down in history as that of the inventor 
of one of the most useful mechanisms ever 
given to the business world. He lived to wit- 
ness the definite success of his protracted and 
self-denying efforts and was summoned from 
life in the very prime of his strong and useful 
manhood. His death occurred on the 14th of 
September, 1898, and well may it be said that 
"His works do follow him." The company 
which perpetuates his name and manufactures 
his invention has issued a beautiful little 
brochure in which is entered a review of his 
life history, and to this the interested reader 
may be referred. Mr. Burroughs died a num- 
ber of years before the company established 
its great plant in Detroit, but it is fitting that 
in this article due honor be paid him as having 
made possible the upbuilding of the magnifi- 
cent concern which is contributing so materi- 
ally to the industrial and commercial prestige 
of Detroit. From the artistic little memorial 
work just mentioned we draw the following 
brief extract: "Finally there was produced 
the perfected Burroughs adding and listing 
machine. The patient inventor was at last 
triumphant, and soon the whole world mar- 
veled at the invention — a perfect adding 
mechanism — adapted to the uses of the bank, 
the counting-room, and of every business re- 
quiring quick and accurate accounting. Bur- 
roughs had won. When he died, honored by 
the world, wealth at last had become his; but 
he valued far more the love and esteem of his 
official associates and of the 350 employes of 
the company he had founded. A beautiful 
marble shaft was erected by his friends and 
associates over his grave in Bellefontaine 
cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri. Under that 
stately column reposes a man who was noble 
in poverty, humble in wealth, and great in his 
benefits to humanity." Mr. Burroughs was 
but forty-one years of age at the time of his 
death. 

The manufacturing and placing on the mar- 
ket of the Burroughs adding machine was 
instituted in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, 
in 1888. In January of that year was organ- 
ized the American Arithmometer Company, 
which was incorporated with a capital stock of 



one hundred thousand dollars; this was in- 
creased to five hundred thousand dollars prior 
to the death of Mr. Burroughs. The original 
officers were as here noted : Thomas Metcalfe, 
president; William S. Burroughs, vice-presi- 
dent; Richard M. Scuggs, treasurer; and A. 
H. B. Oliver, secretary. William R. Pye was 
also one of the stockholders in the original 
company. All of those who were thus interested 
are now deceased. At the start the company 
struggled against great obstacles and for some 
time its existence was rather precarious, but 
the passing years could not fail to bring suc- 
cess to a venture based upon a foundation of 
so substantial an order. The original company 
eventually brought the output of its factory 
up to about twenty machines a day. The head- 
quarters of the enterprise remained in St. 
Louis until 1904, when the removal to Detroit 
was made, principally through the influence 
of Joseph Boyer, president of the company at 
the present time. His intimate association with 
the industry is noted more fully in the specific 
sketch of his career, on other pages of this 
work. In Detroit was organized in 1905 the 
Burroughs Adding Machine Company, which 
was incorporated in January of that year, 
under the laws of the state, and with officers 
as follows: Joseph Boyer, president; Henry 
Wood, of St. Louis, vice-president; Benjamin 
G. Chapman, secretary and treasurer; Alvan 
Macauley, general manager; Alfred J. 
Daughty, manager of the works; and Joseph 
Boyer, Benjamin G. Chapman, Henry Wood, 
Edward Rector, and Emil P. Wenger, direc- 
tors. The gigantic plant of the company is 
located on Second avenue and Amsterdam 
street, where a tract of nine acres was secured 
for the purpose. One-third of this area is 
covered by the buildings, which have an ag- 
gregate floor space of three and one-half acres. 
The main building is three hundred and 
twenty feet square and a part of the same is 
two stories in height. All of the buildings are 
constructed of brick and stone and are of the 
most substantial and modern type, as is also 
the mechanical equipment in every department 
of the great institution. Employment is now 
given to more than sixteen hundred persons. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



183 



including operatives and office force, and over 
two hundred men represent the concern 
through its trade territory. It is scarcely 
necessary to state that the factory employes 
are nearly all skilled artisans, and the pay 
roll of the company represents an average 
weekly expenditure of twenty-five thousand 
dollars. The aggregate of sales in 1906 was 
more than three and one-half millions of dol- 
lars, and this was exceeded by the sales for 
1907. Detroit takes justifiable pride in having 
gained to herself this magnificent industry, the 
largest of the kind in the world and one whose 
prestige is ever increasing. 

THE AMERICAN CAR & FOUNDRY COM- 
PANY. 

The Detroit branch of this great manufac- 
turing institution is comprised of what was for- 
merly known as the Peninsular Car Company, 
located at Ferry and Russell streets ; the Michi- 
gan Car Company; the Detroit Car Wheel 
Company, and Detroit Pipe and Foundry 
Company, located at Michigan and Clark ave- 
nues ; and the Baugh Steam Forge, located on 
the Detroit river at the foot of Clark avenue. 
All of these properties were merged into the 
Michigan-Peninsular Car Company in Sep- 
tember, 1892, and in March, 1899, were 
acquired by the American Car & Foundry 
Company, with other plants located in Chi- 
cago, St. Louis, Buffalo and other cities. The 
plants in Detroit are designated as the Penin- 
sular Department, Michigan Department and 
Forge Department. In 1884 the Peninsular 
Car Company purchased twenty-five acres of 
land at Ferry and Russell streets and in the 
same year erected buildings and installed 
equipment of the best to be had at that time. 
It was then only necessary to arrange for the 
construction of wooden cars. When the de- 
mand for steel cars made it apparent that 
eventually the wooden car would give way 
to the car of steel construction, large shops 
were erected at this plant and equipped with 
machinery adapted to this work. The build- 
ings alone now cover about twenty acres and 
the total acreage occupied is fifty-two. The 
capacity of the plant is about seventy-five cars 



per day and the large acreage occupied is 
necessary for storage of material and for 
trackage to handle new cars. There are also 
foundries at this plant in which are made the 
wheels and castings for cars turned out. When 
operated to capacity about forty-five hundred 
men are employed, one-third of whom are 
skilled mechanics. 

The Michigan Department, at Michigan and 
Clark avenues, occupies thirty-nine acres. The 
capacity of the Michigan car shop is twelve 
thousand cars per annum, made up of box, 
gondola and refrigerator cars. At the found- 
ries one hundred thousand car wheels are 
made annually, about twenty thousand tons of 
gray iron castings, for cars, locomotives and 
structural work, and twenty thousand tons of 
water and gas pipe. This latter is supplied to 
municipalities and public-service corporations. 

At the Forge Department, occupying nine 
acres of land on the shore of the Detroit river 
at the foot of Clark avenue, about fifty thou- 
sand tons of bar iron are made annually, prac- 
tically all of which goes into the construction 
of new cars. 

The American Car and Foundry Company 
occupy, within the radius of the three-mile 
circle, one hundred acres of land and when 
operating their Detroit plants to capacity em- 
ploy in all about seven thousand men, and the 
amount paid for labor is seventy-five thousand 
dollars per week. This is Detroit's largest in- 
dustry and the amount of its weekly pay roll 
indicates its value tu the city. 

The company's general offices are in St. 
Louis, Missouri. Mr. George H. Russel is the 
local representative on the board of directors. 
Joseph G. Johnston is district manager, and 
P. H. Sullivan, assistant manager of the De- 
troit district. Both of these men have been 
identified with the company for a number of 
years. 

Representative Detroit capitalists who were 
formerly identified with the car building in- 
dustry in Detroit are Colonel Frank J. Hecker, 
C. L. Freer and James McGregor, and the late 
Senator James McMillan, John S. Newberry, 
Christian H. Buhl, Theodore D. Buhl, Gen- 
eral Russell A. Alger, James F. Joy, and Will- 
iam C. McMillan. 



184 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



THE DETROIT UNITED RAILWAY. 

If there is any one feature which gives 
emphasis to the enterprising character of the 
city of Detroit in this progressive era it is the 
superiority of the facihties provided for rapid 
transit within her borders, and judged by the 
high standard maintained, the Michigan 
metropolis holds rank with the leading metro- 
politan centers of the country. 

The Detroit United Railway controls all 
street and suburban lines in and entering the 
city of Detroit, and its policy is one of liber- 
ality and utmost progressiveness, as is mani- 
fest in the fine equipment and the service 
accorded. The company was incorporated 
under the laws of the state of Michigan on the 
31st of December, 1900, and its capital stock 
is twelve and one-half million dollars. The 
franchises of the company cover all lines in the 
city, and at the time of incorporation the 
ownership of the Grosse Pointe and Highland 
Park lines also became vested in this corpora- 
tion. In 1902 were acquired also the Detroit 
& Flint and the Detroit & Pontiac interurban 
lines, as well as the Detroit & Northwestern, 
(known as the Orchard Lake division), and 
the Detroit & Wyandotte lines. The company 
also owns all the stock of the Rapid Railway 
system, the line from Grosse Pointe to Mount 
Clemens, the Detroit & Toledo line, and that 
between Detroit and Jackson. Since this com- 
pany was incorporated it has added seven 
hundred and eight miles of track to its prop- 
erties, and in the province of Ontario, Canada, 
it owns and operates the lines from Windsor 
to Walkerville and Tecumseh. In Detroit the 
system has been greatly amplified by the ex- 
tension of the existing lines and by the install- 
ing of new ones. Cars of the most modem 
and improved type have replaced those of in- 
ferior order and the constant aim is to main- 
tain the highest perfection in service and 
facilities. The company owns all of the capital 
stock of the Detroit & Port Huron Shore Line 
Railway, and also all of the capital stock of 
the Sandwich, Windsor & Amherstburg Rail- 
way. Its total mileage is now nearly eight 
hundred miles; its rolling stock consists of 
1,561 cars, 2,637 motors, and 2,019 trucks. 



At the time of incorporation the company 
elected the following named officers : Henry 
A. Everett, president; Jere C. Hutchins, vice- 
president and treasurer; Albert E. Peters, sec- 
retary; and Antoine B. du Pont, general 
manager. The last mentioned official resigned 
his position within the same year and removed 
to St. Louis, Missouri. The personnel of the 
present official corps (1908) is as follows: 
Henry A. Everett, of Cleveland, Ohio, chair- 
man of the board of directors; Jere C. Hutch- 
ings, Detroit, president; Arthur Pack, Detroit, 
vice-president; Edward W. Moore, Cleveland, 
second vice-president; Edwin Henderson, 
New York, secretary; George H. Russel, De- 
troit, treasurer; Albert E. Peters, Detroit, 
assistant secretary; and Frank W. Brooks, 
Detroit, general manager. All of the officers 
mentioned with the exception of the secretary 
and assistant secretary are also members of 
the board of directors, which includes also the 
following named : Robert B. Van Cortlandt, 
New York city; Charles M. Swift, Detroit; 
Alonzo Potter, New York city ; and A. J. Fer- 
guson and J. M. Wilson, of Montreal, 
Quebec. 

THE MICHIGAN MUTUAL LIFE INSUR- 
ANCE COMPANY. 

One of the most beneficent forces that has 
entered into and permeated modern civiliza- 
tion is that of life insurance. Its functions 
are in the protection of those who are nearest 
and dearest to the individual and thus they 
touch the home — that conservator of all that 
is best and most enduring in the scheme of 
human existence. In the light of recent de- 
velopments and investigations which have 
revealed much that is wrong in the conduct of 
the business of certain corporations conducting 
life-insurance business there is no reason for 
public disquietude or lack of confidence, for 
the basic elements of indemnity remain un- 
changed and exalted and there are innumer- 
able concerns which have a high sense of their 
stewardship and regulate their operations upon 
a broad, safe and humanitarian basis, enlisting 
the highest personal integrity and manipulat- 
ing their financial affairs for the distinct and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



185 



prime benefit of those who seek security 
through their interposition. Such a concern 
is the Michigan -Mutual Life Insurance Com- 
pany, of Detroit, a corporation whose magnifi- 
cent growth has been the diametrical result of 
effective service, honorable methods and pub- 
lic appreciation of the same. 

This well known and substantial insurance 
company instituted business forty years ago, 
and its history is without spot or blemish. In 
1867 it was incorporated under the laws of 
Michigan and began the transaction of life- 
insurance business within its assigned prov- 
ince, which then comprised practically only 
the state. Concerning its inception and growth 
the following pertinent extracts are taken 
from the Michigan Investor, a weekly publi- 
cation, of the issue of August 27, 1904. 

"The Michigan Mutual Life Insurance 
Company has far outgrown the dreams of its 
original organizers. It has become one of the 
big organizations of Detroit and Michigan 
and is now on the high road to take rank as 
one of the large insurance companies of the 
country. The dreams of the organizers of the 
company were modest, it must be chronicled. 
They expected the company to do largely a 
local business, with possible extensions into 
Ohio and Indiana. With such a restricted 
field its growth was naturally slow. The fact 
that it wrote endowment business almost ex- 
clusively- for many years also was a check upon 
rapid advancement, as in course of time the 
endowment policies matured almost as fast 
as new business could be written. All this is 
changed now. The methods pursued by the 
company were revolutionized with the advent 
of Mr. O. R. Looker as secretary and man- 
ager, in 1883. From this year dates the real 
growth of the Michigan Mutual Life into a 
big insurance concern. 

"The company is now abreast of any like 
concern in the world in the issuance of all ap- 
proved forms of life-insurance contracts. It 
was the first company in the United States to 
endorse cash surrender values upon insurance 
policies, and it also has been the pioneer in 
many of the most attractive insurance con- 
tracts which are now universally approved and 



used. Perhaps the most important of these 
is the provident plan of insurance, a method 
whereby the payments are made by the insured 
in monthly installments, instead of annually, 
thus supplying the masses with reliable old- 
line life insurance upon terms easily within 
their reach. This form of insurance has be- 
come so popular that many competing com- 
panies have copied and adopted it. - 

"Prior to 1883 the company's business 
had been confined to Michigan, Ohio and In- 
diana. Now it is ably and vigorously repre- 
sented in twenty states, and the expansion is 
not yet ended. What the company has accom- 
plished within the period of forty years that it 
has been doing business can be best told in 
figures. These show that it passed through 
the various periods of business depression 
which have occurred during the four decades 
with flying colors, surviving financial panics 
which stranded many older companies — a high 
compliment to the conservative methods of its 
officers. The whole number of policies issued 
during 1869 was 842, and the net number of 
policies in force was 1,018, carrying aggregate 
risks of $1,694,600. By December 31, 1873, 
the assets had passed the half million mark, 
standing at $500,336.21, despite the financial 
panic. There was a steady mounting of the 
assets of the company for the next four years. 
In 1880 the million-dollar mark had been over- 
hauled, and there has been no setback in 
growth since. The three-million mark was 
passed in 1890 and the four-million mark was 
crossed in 1892. On January i, 1904, the 
books showed the magnificent figures of $8,- 
355,318.29. At this time the whole amount 
of insurance in force was $42,804,923.47, and 
the policies in force were 32,719. The sur- 
plus yet stands near the $500,000 mark. (On 
the I St of January, 1907, the books of the 
company showed assets to the amount of $9,- 
902,754, and since that date the ten-million 
mark has been passed. The insurance in force 
now aggregates forty-seven million dollars). 
"The proof of the successful management 
of a life-in-^urance company, it is repeatedly 
asserted, is the earning power of the funds 
intrusted to its care by its policy holders and 



186 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the wisdom and care with which such funds 
are invested. The funds of the Michigan 
Mutual Life Insurance Company are all in- 
vested in first-mortgages upon real estate, 
worth in all cases at least twice the amount 
loaned thereon, and upon the security of its 
own policies. Not a dollar of the funds of this 
company is invested in stocks or other fluctu- 
ating securities. The Michigan Mutual Life 
Insurance Company was originally capitalized 
at one hundred thousand dollars, which 
amount was increased to two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars in 1876, at which figure 
it yet stands. This capital is all paid up, and 
in addition the company has in the custody of 
the treasurer of Michigan a deposit of one 
hundred thousand dollars as a security for its 
policy holders. This money can not be with- 
drawn while a policy of the company remains 
in force." 

It is not within the province of an article 
of this nature to enter into manifold details 
as to the history and status of any of the con- 
cerns here represented, but this outline of the 
admirable record of one of Michigan's splen- 
did institutions is consistently given place in 
the pages. The first president of the company 
was the late Hon. John J. Bagley, who was 
succeeded, after a regime of four years, by 
Jacob S. Farrand, who remained at the head 
for nearly a quarter of a century, when death 
severed the connection. He was succeeded by 
William A. Butler, who died within the same 
year and who was succeeded by Hon. Thomas 
W. Palmer, who served until 1893, when the 
present incumbent, Oscar R. Looker, was 
elected president, still retaining the position of 
active manager. Of the men mentioned in this 
connection there is no need for extended men- 
tion, for their names loom large in the finan- 
cial and civic history of Detroit and the state 
of Michigan. During all the years through 
which the company has been doing business it 
has had the executive and capitalistic support 
of citizens of the highest type, and the direc- 
torate, as well as the executive corps, has ever 
been a voucher for reliability and correct 
methods. The present officers are as follows : 
O. R. Looker, president ; C. A. Kent, first vice- 



president and counsel ; Hoyt Post, second vice- 
president; A. F. Moore, secretary; Theron F. 
Giddings, general superintendent of agencies; 
G. W. Sanders, actuary; T. E. McDonough 
and B. A. Welstead, assistant secretary and as- 
sistant actuary, respectively; J. P. Dawson, 
cashier; A. H. Wilkinson, attorney; and C. 
A. Devendorf, M. D., medical director. The 
full personnel of the directorate of the com- 
pany is as follows : O. R. Looker, A. F. Moore, 
T. F. Giddings, C, A. Kent, Hoyt Post, A. 
H. Wilkinson, C. A. Devendorf, T. E. 
McDonough, D. M. Ferry, George Peck, R. 
P. Williams, C. H. Candler, W. S. Green, L. 
H. Chamberlin, W. H. Brace, Thomas A. 
Wadsworth, M. L. Williams, E. H. Elwell, 
D. F. Mooney, and J. J. Mooney. 

The foregoing record offers a brief resume 
of the upbuilding of this strong and valued 
Michigan institution, and the work accom- 
plished by the Michigan Mutual Life Insur- 
ance Company has brought to it all of honor 
and prestige and has reflected distinction upon 
the city and state. 

Concerning the headquarters of the com- 
pany the following description is taken from 
the Michigan Investor, to which we are in- 
debted for previous excerpts. 

"When the company began business it oc- 
cupied an office in old Fireman's hall, in the 
Biddle block, on Jefferson avenue, and its 
office force consisted of three persons. Later 
it moved to the Buhl block on Griswold street. 
To-day it owns the historic building at the cor- 
ner of Jefferson avenue and Griswold street, 
and employs more than fifty persons to trans- 
act its office business alone. The framed check 
which paid for its home is one of the prized 
possessions of the company. 

"The building is one of the landmarks of 
Detroit. It was the first stone structure to 
be erected in Detroit, if not in Michigan. 
Originally built for the Bank of Michigan, in 
the '40s, it was occupied by Uncle Sam with 
the postoffice and federal courts, and the fed- 
eral government retained possession of it until 
1855, when it again became a banking office, 
being occupied by the Michigan Insurance 
Bank, the National Insurance Bank, and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



187 



finally the First National Bank. The site of 
the building is prominently identified with the 
early history of the city. A bronze tablet 
which appears upon the face of the structure 
was dedicated by the Society of Colonial Wars 
and the Society of the Sons of the American 
Revolution. It tells this story: 

"This tablet designates the site of one of the 
gateways of Fort Detroit. The original stock- 
ade was known as Fort Pontchartrain and was 
erected when the city was founded, in 1701. 

"Through the gateway here located, Pontiac, 
the Ottawa chief, with a band of Indians, 
passed on May seventh, 1763, intending to 
surpise and massacre the garrison. 

"The exposure of his plot on the previous 
day caused the defeat of his plans and gave the 
English the supremacy of this region until the 
close of the Revolutionary war." 



THE CALVERT LITHOGRAPHING COM- 
PANY. 

One of the largest and most modernly 
equipped institutions of the kind in the Union 
is that conducted in Detroit under the cor- 
porate title appearing above, and the concern 
has the farther distinction of being one of the 
oldest in the country. Like many others of the 
magnificent business and industrial enterprises 
of Detroit, it had its inception on a most 
modest scale, and its growth to its present 
proportions has been the diametrical result of 
the application . of energy, technical skill, 
marked commercial prescience and inviolable 
integrity of purpose. On other pages of this 
work appears a brief review of the career of 
Claudius H. Candler, president of the com- 
pany. 

In the spring of the year 1863, after a so- 
journ of several years in the state of Minne- 
sota, Thomas Calvert came to Detroit, where 
he soon afterward entered into partnership 
with John Gibson, a practical lithographer, 
who had lately established the business in this 
city, and they engaged in the lithographic 
business under the firm name of John Gibson 
& Company, beginning operations in a small 
building at the southwest comer of Jefferson 



avenue and Bates street. In the following 
year Mr. Calvert purchased his partner's in- 
terest and changed the title to Calvert & Com- 
pany. The enterprise was thus continued, 
with a modest office in a building at the north- 
east corner of Jefferson avenue and Griswold 
street, until 1867, when, on the i6th of March, 
the business was incorporated under the laws of 
the state, as the Calvert Lithographing & En- 
graving Company. Under the new regime the 
capital stock was placed at forty thousand dol- 
lars, and the first official corps was as follows : 
Thomas Calvert, president; Claudius H. Cand- 
ler, vice-president and secretary; and Charles 
B. Calvert, treasurer. In 1870 the plant of the 
company was removed to quarters in the 
Arcade building, on Earned street west, and in 
1874, still more commodious quarters were 
secured in the new Tribune building, adjoin- 
ing the Arcade. In 1881, having outgrown 
these quarters, the business was removed into 
the new building erected by the late Frederick 
Buhl, at the southwest corner of Earned and 
Shelby streets. Eventually the concern se- 
cured and utilized this entire building, five 
stories in height, and there the headquarters 
were maintained for the long period of twenty- 
two years, within which the company had 
gained prestige which made its name known 
in the most diverse sections of the Union. 

In 1897 the charter of the company expired 
by limitation, and on the i6th of March, the 
thirtieth anniversary of its granting, the 
original stockholders, including William A. 
Ross, held a meeting and formally transferred 
the property of the company to its lineal succes- 
sor the Calvert Lithographing Company, whose 
interested principals and officers remained 
practically the same, George W. Heigho, 
who had been identified with the concern for 
sixteen years, becoming a stockholder at this 
time. Mr. Calvert remained president of the 
company, and actively supervised its affairs 
until his death, in 1900, and in the meanwhile 
the capital stock was increased from time to 
time until it reached its present figures, two 
hundred thousand dollars. In 1901 the com- 
pany began the erection of its present exten- 
sive plant, at the corner of Grand River ave- 



188 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



nue and Elizabeth street, and the same was 
completed and ready for occupancy in May, 
1902. Fifty-two days were required in mak- 
ing the removal into the new quarters, and the 
cost involved was six thousand dollars. The 
present plant represents an expenditure of one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and is one 
of the most modern and complete lithograph- 
ing establishments in the country. 

When the business was instituted originally 
it gave employment to two men and a boy, 
and was almost entirely local. It now employs 
over three hundred hands and extends 
throughout the entire United States and their 
possessions. During the corporate life of this 
company the lithographic business has been 
practically revolutionized, but the company has 
more than kept pace with the multifarious 
changes. In the present plant one hundred 
and fifty thousand square feet of floor space 
are utilized, and every department is thor- 
oughly modern and complete in equipment and 
appointments. The personnel of the present 
executive corps of the company is as follows : 
Claudius H. Candler, president; William A. 
Ross, vice-president; and George W. Heigho, 
secretary and treasurer. 



THE DETROIT CREAMERY COMPAKY. 

An industry of magnitude and one whose 
operations are based on ample capital and all 
that thorough experience and care can bestow, 
is that conducted under the title which forms 
the caption of this article. No concern of 
similar functions in the state of Michigan ex- 
cels this in the extent and importance of its 
work, and the company is recognized as one 
of the substantial and emphatically proo-ressive 
corporations of this favored commonwealth. 

The Detroit Creamery Company controls 
a business whose inception dates back nearly 
forty years and whose history has been one of 
consecutive growth and ever increasing suc- 
cess. The company was incorporated in 1900, 
with a capital stock of one hundred and forty 
thousand dollars, which was increased to two 



hundred thousand dollars in 1906, while in 
the following year, in meeting the amplifying 
demands of the enterprise, a further increase 
was made, to the noteworthy capital stock of 
four hundred thousand dollars. The company 
succeeded to the business of the firm of A. 
Easter & Son, and the latter represented a 
copartnership which was formed in 1889, to 
assume control of the business which had 
previously been conducted in an individual 
way by its founder, Alfred Easter, who initi- 
ated operations on a comparatively small scale 
in the year 1872. The story of the upgrowth 
of this really great concern is interesting to 
contemplate, and it bears at every stage the 
impress of the personality of its founder,— a 
man of marked business acumen and power 
and one whose progressive ideas and efforts 
have been the chief factors in the building up 
of the magnificent enterprise. 

The plant of the Detroit Creamery Com- 
pany, representing all that modem and 
thorough scientific principles and appliances 
can supply, occupies practically the entire 
triangular block bounded by Grand River ave- 
nue. Middle and Clififord streets and Adams 
and Cass avenues. This location is in the 
heart of the business district of the city,— a 
fact which has marked bearing on the facility 
with which the gigantic business is handled. 
In 1906 the fine ice plant was erected at the 
comer of Clifford and Middle streets, at a cost 
of eighty thousand dollars, and in the follow- 
ing year was instituted the erection of a three- 
story brick ice-storage building and milk de- 
partment, at the southwest comer of Clifford 
street and Adams avenue, on the former of 
which it has a frontage of one hundred feet 
and on the latter of one hundred and eighty 
feet. The plant as completed represents a 
storage capacity for the accommodation of 
five thousand tons of ice. The new building 
involved an expenditure of more than one 
hundred thousand dollars, and the plant of the 
company is conceded without reservation to be 
one of the most perfect of the kind in the 
United States, both in size and in matter of 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



189 



facilities, sanitary provisions, etc. The com- 
pany are dealers in milk and cream, and manu- 
facturers of ice cream. Their sales of milk 
and cream aggregate an average of two mil- 
lion gallons annually, and they virtually con- 
trol the ice-cream trade of the city of Detroit, 
in which department of th6 business the sales 
have attained to as high a volume as six 
thousand gallons in a single day. The in- 
dustry affords employment to a force of one 
hundred persons in the manufacturing and 
milk departments, and sixty-five in the delivery 
department. The company's stables, located 
at the corner of Second avenue and High 
street, have a force of fifteen employes and 
show an average of one hundred and forty 
horses, with a relative complement of fine de- 
livery wagons and other necessary vehicles. 
The company pay out annually in wages alone 
the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars, and this represents but a comparatively 
small part of the incidental expense involved 
in the operations of the business. The busi- 
ness covers Detroit and its suburban towns and 
villages, and this territory they virtually con- 
trol, by reason of superior service in every 
particular. The policy of the interested prin- 
cipals of the company is essentially and em- 
phatically progressive, no expense being 
spared in maintaining every department at the 
highest standard at all times, and the products 
command the well merited commendation of 
the general public, which is ever appreciative 
of service of high standard and of a business 
conducted upon principles of honor and fair- 
ness. The company have done much to pro- 
mote, if not, indeed, to compel the raising of 
the standard of production in their line on the 
part of all competitors, and the great benefit 
of this result inures to the public. The officers 
of the company at the time of this writing, 
in 1908, are as here noted: Stephen Baldwin, 
president; Austin E. Morey, vice-president; 
Ferdinand W. Ulrich, secretary and treasurer ; 
and Alfred Easter, the founder of the business, 
general manager of the great enteiprise, to 
which he may well point with pride and satis- 
faction. 



RUSSEL WHEEL & FOUNDRY COMPANY. 

One of the substantial manufacturing enter- 
prises of Detroit is that conducted under the 
title noted, and the business dates its inception 
back to the year 1880, when Messrs. George 
H. and Walter S. Russel founded the works 
and began operations on a modest scale, at the 
foot of Walker street. In 1892 the business 
was removed to its present location, on Chene 
street, where the company owns a tract of fif- 
teen acres, and where large and substantial 
buildings have been erected, equipped with the 
best of machinery and facilities. 

The company is incorporated with a capital 
stock of five hundred thousand dollars, and 
the personnel of the executive corps is as fol- 
lows: W. S. Russel, president; George H. 
Russel, vice-president; John R. Russel, secre- 
tary ; A. W. Russel, treasurer ; and C. W. Rus- 
sel, assistant manager. The company gives 
employment to seven hundred men, principally 
skilled operatives, and the annual pay roll 
reaches an aggregate of nearly four hundred 
thousand dollars. The company makes a 
specialty of manufacturing cars for mining- 
and similar operations, and also of structural 
iron work. The business has grown to be one 
of wide scope and importance and contributes 
its quota to the commercial prestige of the 
city. Walter S. Russel is a member of the 
directorate of the American Radiator Com- 
pany, of which he was one of the founders, 
in association with his brother George H. 
Dr. George B. Russel, the father of George 
H., Walter S., and John R., made the first gas 
and water pipe ever manufactured in the state 
of Michigan, and was the founder of the Ham- 
tramck Iron Works. In this manufactory 
were turned out the first car wheels ever manu- 
factured in the west. George H. Russel was 
secretary of this company. 



THE MICHIGAN COPPER & BRASS COM- 
PANY. 

Detroit offers unequaled inducements for 
the prosecution of industries of great magni- 
tude and, in particular, to manufacturing en- 
terprises, by reason of her available supply 



190 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



sources, desirable internal facilities and ready 
financial fostering. That these facts are real- 
ized is shown by the wide scope and import- 
ance of the industrial and commercial activi- 
ties of the Michigan metropolis, and the ad- 
vancement along normal lines of business has 
been greatly accelerated within the past decade, 
through the application of that progressive 
spirit which is making for the upbuilding of 
the larger and greater city. The representa- 
tive capitalists and business men of Detroit are 
duly conservative, and this fact is to be looked 
upon with satisfaction, but they are ever ready 
to lend influence and tangible co-operation in 
the promotion of business undertakings of 
legitimate order and in maintaining them upon 
the highest plane of productive activity. A 
noteworthy example is afforded in the secur- 
ing to the city the Michigan Copper & Brass 
Company, whose business is one unique in the 
middle west, as the functions of its great plant 
have hitherto been practically monopolized by 
institutions of the sort in the eastern states, — 
particularly Connecticut, which has virtually 
controlled eighty-five per cent, of the brass and 
copper manufacturing of the Union. The 
products of the Detroit plant include copper, 
brass and German silver in sheets, rolls, rods, 
tubing, wire, blanks and shells, and the equip- 
ment of the mammoth and thoroughly mod- 
em establishment is unexcelled by that of any 
other in the country. It is needless to say 
that the industry is a distinctive acquisition 
to Detroit, both in a direct and collateral 
sense. 

The Michigan Copper & Brass Company 
was organized in 1906, and its articles of in- 
corporation were approved in that year. The 
original capital stock was four hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and in enlisting this capital the 
chief promoter was George H. Barbour, the 
president of the company from the start and 
known as one of the most substantial and 
progressive of Detroit's representative capi- 
talists. Later, the capital was increased by 
two hundred thousand dollars, represented in 
the issuing of preferred stock. The issuing of 
this additional stock was found expedient in 
view of the fact that as the work of erecting 



and equipping the fine plant progressed it was 
found that greater expenditures were entailed 
than had originally been contemplated. The 
policy was to spare no expense in making the 
plant perfect in every detail, and Mr. Bar- 
bour's enthusiastic and indefatigable efforts 
found their reward when the privilege became 
his, on the 24th of July, 1907, of giving the 
signal which started the operation of the ma- 
chinery in the splendid plant of the company. 
The buildings are of the most approved type 
of modern construction, being located on 
River street, just east of Fort Wayne. The 
following description is substantially that 
given in the Detroit Free Press of July 24, 
1907, only such paraphrase and elimination 
being made as to make the statements con- 
sonant with the prescribed limitations of this 
publication. 

"Entering the long, clean building, made 
light by the saw-tooth roof in which are set 
the skylights, the visitor is confronted with a 
maze of overhead shafting and tracks for 
traveling cranes. The cranes traverse the 
building at intervals and two great cranes go 
the entire length of the structure, a distance of 
five hundred and sixty-eight feet. At the front 
of the building are the tube-drawers, with their 
tremendous pulling power. Six of these mas- 
sive machines will make the tubes and heavy 
rods. The immense immersion and pickling 
tanks along-side of them have a business-like 
look, the pickling vats being lined with three- 
eighths inch lead, as smoothly put on as if it 
were paper. At the rear of the building are 
the initial furnaces which receive the copper 
and spelter. Flanking the drawing benches, 
with their endless chains and nippers, are the 
wire-drawing machines, into which the rods 
go for the manufacturing of the larger sizes 
of copper wire. Other machines are provided 
which will make wire from the trolley size 
down to the diameter of fine linen thread, all 
the drawing being done cold. To the right of 
the main entrance of the building are several 
massive rolling machines, with their large 
cogged fly wheels. One shaft leading from 
the engine operates all the rolls, but any of 
the machines may be detached without inter- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



191 



fering with the operation of the others. The 
superintendent in charge of the building of 
the mill pronounced it the finest he had ever 
seen, and he had personally supervised the 
building of tvirenty-four mills prior to this. 
Power is furnished by a magnificent Allis- 
Chalmers engine of twelve hundred horse- 
power. Every labor-saving device possible has 
been provided, and yet this new plant will em- 
ploy five hundred men when running to full 
capacity. The plant has a unique water- 
works of its own, and in every particular the 
establishment is a model and one capable of 
turning out products of ultimate excellence." 

From the article to which recourse has just 
been made for the foregoing data it is not in- 
consistent to draw farther, in order to per- 
petuate the words of the president of the com- 
pany uttered on the occasion of the "dedica- 
tion" of the plant. Mr. Barbour spoke es- 
sentially as follows : "It is very gratifying to 
me, and I believe to all the stockholders and 
directors, to know that this plant and its 
equipment have been completed and paid for 
in cash and that there is not a dollar of in- 
debtedness upon it. I believe we have the 
most modern and up-to-date copper-rolling 
mill in the country. We believe this institu- 
tion will prove of great interest to the general 
manufacturing industries of Detroit. Why 
should we not manufacture the product of our 
own state? Here we are, located some seven 
or eight hundred miles nearer where the cop- 
per is produced than are many of our com- 
petitors, and is it not better to manufacture it 
right here at home than to have it shipped 
east, manufactured there and then returned to 
the west ? We are most favorably located for 
this particular branch of industry." The plant 
has a frontage and best of dock facilities on 
the Detroit river and has also a spur track 
from the Michigan Central Railroad, so that 
its shipping and receiving facilities are of the 
best. 

The official and executive corps of the Mich- 
igan Copper & Brass Company is as here 
noted: George H. Barbour, president; James 
E. Danaher, first vice-president; David M. 
Ireland, second vice-president; George H. 



Barbour, Jr., treasurer; John R. Owen, sec- 
retary; and Jeremiah Howe, general superin- 
tendent. All of the above mentioned gentle- 
men are members of the directorate of the 
company, and the others represented on the 
board of directors are James T. Whitehead, 
Henry B. Ledyard, Jeremiah Dwyer, Fred- 
erick T. Moran, Fred M. Alger, and Edward 
J. Corbett. 

THE DETROIT FIRE & MARINE INSUR- 
ANCE COMPANY. 

As the American republic stands to-day pre- 
eminent among all the nations of the globe in 
its capacity for conducting affairs of great 
breadth and scope, so does the splendid enter- 
prise of the Detroit Fire & Marine Insurance 
Company stand as a conspicuous example of 
the truth of this statement. The company has 
conducted its affairs according to the most 
honorable methods during its entire history, 
covering a period of more than forty-two 
years ; it is independent yet conservative in its 
mode of transactions, not controlled by influ- 
ence or direction of compacts or associations, 
offering secure and reasonable indemnity and 
securing to itself popularity and consequent 
prosperity. 

This company was organized on the ist 
of February, 1866, and was duly incorporated 
under the laws of the state, with a subscribed 
capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars, 
of which one hundred thousand were paid in. 
The paid-up stock was later increased to one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The per- 
sonnel of the first official corps of the company 
was as follows: Caleb Van Husan, president; 
Edward Kanter, vice-president; and S. War- 
ner White, secretary. In addition to these 
officers the board of directors included the fol- 
lowing named representative citizens of the 
state : John Owen, Charles Ducharme, William 
A. Moore, M. I. Mills, John J. Bagley, Eber 
Ward, Joseph Aspinall, F. Wetmore, L. M. 
Mason, S. Gardner, H. E. Benson, Emory 
Wendell and Edward Trowbridge, all of De- 
troit; and T. D. Gilbert, of Grand Rapids; S. 
P. Williams, of Lima, Indiana; P. Bach, of 
Ann Arbor; and S. S. Cobb, of Kalamazoo. 



192 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



From the above list it will be seen that all 
save one on the board of directors were Michi- 
gan men, and the company has remained es- 
sentially a Michigan institution during the 
long intervening years, which have witnessed 
the passing away of the greater number of 
those who were interested in its organization. 
The original headquarters of the new com- 
pany were at 124 Jefferson avenue, and later 
the present eligible location, at No. 100 Gris- 
wold street, was secured. Discriminating 
management soon secured to the company a 
good business through the southern part of 
the state, and from the beginning an excellent 
support was received in the department of 
marine insurance, which has continued an im- 
portant feature of the business until the pres- 
ent time. In 1871 the company, whose busi- 
ness had been extended into adjoining states, 
encountered very severe losses in the Chicago 
fire, as well as in disastrous fires in Holland 
and Manistee, Michigan, in the same year. 
This required the calling in of thirty per cent, 
of the stock, and the subscribed capital stock 
was then, by resolution, reduced to three 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Upon 
hearing of the Chicago fire, and before the ex- 
tent of the company's losses therein was 
known, William A. Moore offered the follow- 
ing resolution at a meeting of the stockhold- 
ers: "Resolved, That the officers of the com- 
pany be instructed to reply to inquiries as to 
its responsibility, that the company is solvent 
and that the business will be continued." This 
resolution exemplified the loyalty which has 
ever characterized the stockholders of the com- 
pany and the policy which has conserved its 
continued and gratifying success. 

Mr. Van Husan continued incumbent of the 
office of president until his death, in 1884, 
proving a most able and popular executive, as 
did also his successor, William A. Butler, who 
served until his death, in May, 1891. Mr. 
Butler was, in turn, succeeded by William A. 
Moore, who likewise had done much to further 
the success of the enterprise, and upon his 
death, in September, 1906, Edward H. Butler, 
the present popular incumbent, was elected to 
the presidency. S. Warner White continued 



in the office of secretary until March, 1868, 
when James J. Clark was chosen his successor. 
The latter held the office until 1891, when he 
was made vice-president, of which office he 
was in tenure until his death, which occurred 
in November, 1899. He was succeeded by 
C. L. Andrews, who was secretary of the com- 
pany until January, 1900, when he was elected 
to his present office, that of vice-president. 
A. H. McDonell became assistant secretary in 
1 89 1, and upon the advancement of Mr. 
Andrews to the vice-presidency he was chosen 
secretary, 'in which position he is still serving. 
Since its organization the company has paid 
in losses more than five millions of dollars. 
Since January 14, 1897, the capital stock has 
been five hundred thousand dollars, all paid 
up, and the gross assets, as indicated in the 
official statement under date of January i, 
1908, are $1,939,094.88. The names of the 
present officers of the company have already 
been noted with the exception of that of C. 
A. Reekie, who is now assistant secretary. 
The board of directors is as follows: Alex- 
ander Lewis (deceased since this article was 
prepared), E. O. Grosvenor, Oliver Goldsmith, 
Merrill B. Mills, George Peck, Edward H. 
Butler, Edward C. Van Husan, Charles A. 
Ducharme, Junius E. Beal, H. L. Jenness, D. 
E. Heineman, George N. Brady, Albert L. 
Stephens, William R. Croul, C. L. Andrews. 
Charles A. Dean, A. H. McDonell, D. L 
Quirk, W. V. Moore, and S. T. Miller. 



THE DETROIT WHITE LEAD WORKS. 

Under the title noted above is conducted 
one of the splendid manufacturing industries 
of Detroit and one which has grown from a 
most modest nucleus to its present magnificent 
proportions as one of the largest concerns of 
the sort in the world. 

The inchoation of the enterprise dates back 
to 1865, when J. H. Worcester established on 
Jones street, between Third and Fourth streets, 
a diminutive factory, in which he began opera- 
tions jDn a small scale, under the title of the 
Detroit White Lead & Color Works. Un- 
favorable circumstances finally forced the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



193 



failure of the business, but Mr. Worcester 
again resumed operations, which he continued 
until 1880, in the autumn of which year he 
again made an assignment, having in the 
meanwhile amplified the facilities of his plant 
to a point which placed it upon a modem basis 
for the time. At this juncture Colonel 
Fordyce H. Rogers, the present president and 
general manager of the corporation, purchased 
from the assignee the entire plant and business, 
and a short time afterward he effected the 
organization of the Detroit White Lead 
Works, which was incorporated December 22, 
1880, with a capital stock of fifty thousand 
dollars, of which amount twenty-two thou- 
sand five hundred dollars was paid in. The 
original president of the company was F. D. 
C. Hinchman, and the others of the executive 
corps were as follows : Horace M. Dean, vice- 
president; Carlos B. Shotwell, secretary, and 
Colonel F. H. Rogers, treasurer and general 
manager. 

Colonel Rogers inaugurated at once a most 
vigorous, progressive and well defined policy, 
and to him more than any other is due the 
upbuilding of the business to its present solid 
and extensive status. More capital was paid 
in within a short time and the plant was mod- 
ernized and remodeled. The first dividend 
of ten per cent, on fifty thousand dollars' capi- 
tal, was declared in July, 1882, and since that 
time as high a dividend as forty per cent, has 
been declared, the average being sixteen per 

cent. 

February 27, 1896, the plant was destroyed 
by fire, entaiHng a loss of ninety thousand 
dollars, with insurance indemnity of forty- 
two thousand dollars. The company at once 
prepared to rebuild upon a far more extensive 
and elaborate scale and secured the present 
eligible site, on Milwaukee avenue, in the 
northeastern environs of the city, where sub- 
stantial brick buildings were erected, admira- 
bly adapted for the various departments of 
manufacture. In the new plant operations 
were instituted on the 6th of November, 1896, 
and the buildings now cover a total of nearly 
four acres, having all modern facilities and ac- 
cessories, and being equipped with an auto- 



matic sprinkling system for protection against 
fire. No superior plant of the sort is to be 
found in the world and there are few more 
extensive in scope or controlling a larger busi- 
ness. The company maintains branch houses 
in Chicago and Buffalo, and maintain agencies 
in other leading American cities, as well as in 
the principal foreign countries. The trade of 
the concern ramifies into all sections of the 
civilized globe and is constantly expanding in 
scope and importance, owing to the aggressive 
business policy and the superiority of the pro- 
ducts. To meet insistent exigencies, the capi- 
tal of the company has been amplified from 
time to time and is now placed at seven 
hundred thousand dollars. 

The present executive corps of the Detroit 
White Lead Works is as follows: Ford H. 
Rogers, president and general manager; 
George Peck, vice-president; H. B. Levan, 
treasurer ; and Henry Duffield, secretary. The 
personnel of the directorate is as follows: 
Ford H. Rogers, George Peck, J. M. Thurber, 
W. H. Brace, and W. J. Weaver, the last men- 
tioned being superintendent of the works. 



THE MICHIGAN SUGAR COMPANY. 

Michigan's active interest in the beet-sugar 
industry dates from 1898, when the first fac- 
tory was erected. The preceding year both the 
state and nation passed favorable legislation 
to encourage the industry. In the course of 
an European trip Mr. N. B. Bradley, of Bay 
City, took occasion to investigate the beet- 
sugar industry in Germany and Holland. He 
became convinced that certain sections of 
Michigan, especially the Saginaw valley, are 
well adapted to beet culture. In his experi- 
mental work he was ably assisted by Professor 
Kedzie, of the State Agricultural College. As 
a result of this experimental work, a company 
was organized and a factory erected at Bay 
City to care for the crop grown the summer 
of 1898. The following year the industry was 
established in three distinct sections of the 
state. An additional factory was erected at 
Bay City and another at Alma, thus occupying 
the Saginaw valley. In southwestern Michi- 



194 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



gan factories were erected at Holland, Benton 
Harbor and Kalamazoo ; in the eastern section 
of the state, at Caro and Rochester. During 
the next two or three years two additional 
factories were built at Bay City, two at Sagi- 
naw, and one at each of the following places : 
Tawas, Owosso, Lansing, Croswell, Sebewa- 
ing, St. Louis, Mount Clemens, Marine City, 
Blissfield, Menominee and Charlevoix. Ex- 
perience taught that the light soil in certain 
sections of the state was not adapted to beet 
culture, and consequently the factories at 
Kalamazoo, Benton Harbor. Tawas and 
Rochester were moved to other states. It was 
also found that too many factories had been 
located in the Saginaw valley, and the original 
Bay City factory and one of the Saginaw fac- 
tories were moved west. 

Detroit capitalists early became interested in 
the factories located at Caro, Croswell and 
Rochester. Among those who supported the 
movement were Hon. James McMillan, Messrs. 
W. C. McMillan, George Peck, G. W. Lee, 
Henry B. Joy, Charies B. Warren, Cyrus 
Lothrop, C. A. Black, E. H. Parker, and 
Charles Bewick. 

Originally each company owned and oper- 
ated one factory. Later it was found that 
economies in operation could be made by ef- 
fecting certain consolidations. The factories 
at Lansing and Owosso were consolidated 
under the title of the Owosso Sugar Com- 
pany, with general offices at Bay City. In 
1906 six factories, located at Bay City, Sagi- 
naw, Alma, Caro, Croswell and Sebewaing, 
were consolidated under one company, known 
as the Michigan Sugar Company, with a capi- 
tal of twelve and a half million dollars. The 
officers of the company are : Charles B. War- 
ren, Detroit, president ; A. W. Wright, Alma, 
first vice-president; T. A. Harvey, Saginaw! 
second vice-president; F. R. Hathaway, De- 
troit, secretary; H. A. Douglas, Detroit, 
treasurer; and W. H. Wallace. Saginaw, gen- 
eral manager. The operating offices of the 
company are in Saginaw, while the offices of 
the president, secretary and treasurer are in 
Detroit. 



The beet-sugar industry of Michigan has 
increased during the past ten years to a point 
where this state is now manufacturing as 
much granulated sugar as it consumes, rank- 
ing second in the entire United States. The 
amount of sugar produced for each of the past 
two years is about two hundred million 
pounds, valued at nine million dollars. Some 
thirty thousand farmers are engaged in rais- 
ing the one hundred thousand acres of beets 
used annually by the factories of the state. 
For these beets they receive years five million 
dollars. This amount has been added to the 
agricultural output of the state without dimin- 
ishing in any way the other agricultural re- 
sources of Michigan. The general effect has 
been to improve agricultural conditions so that 
in those sections of the state in which beets 
are raised the actual yield in other farm pro- 
ducts has been increased by virtue of the im- 
proved methods necessitated by the cultivation 
of beets. The influx of ready money occa- 
sioned by the beet-sugar industry exerts a 
powerful beneficial influence in many lines of 
commercial activity. 

During the manufacturing season each of 
the sixteen factories now operating in the state 
employs from three hundred to four hundred 
workmen at an average daily wage of two 
dollars and twenty-five cents. About thirty- 
five per cent, of the beets used at the factories 
is received by wagon haul, the remainder by 
rail. No other crop yields as great returns per 
acre to railroads as does that of beets, the 
average freight on raw material, finished 
product and supplies being fourteen dollars an 
acre where the beets are transported by rail, 
and nine dollars an acre where they are hauled 
to the factory by wagon. The annual freight 
bill of the Michigan sugar companies is neariy 
a million dollars. 

When judged by the money invested, the 
money distributed, the effect upon rural dis- 
tricts, railroads and labor, it is safe to say 
that the beet-sugar industry is the most im- 
portant enterprise that has marked the de- 
velopment of the state during the past decade. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



195 



THE CADILLAC MOTOR CAR COMPANY. 

Within the past decade there has come a 
most gratifying realization and utilization of 
the advantages of Detroit as a manufacturing 
and distributing center, and the result has been 
the extraordinary development in industrial 
lines within that period, so that the term 
"Greater Detroit" is no misnomer. 

Among the great industrial enterprises here 
established and one that has important bearing 
upon the commercial prestige of the city is 
that conducted by the Cadillac Motor Car 
Company, whose vehicles have gained and 
maintained the highest reputation for superi- 
ority and whose trade has reached an enor- 
mous annual aggregate. 

The Cadillac Motor Car Company had its 
practical inception in 1902, when the business 
was established under the title of the Cadillac 
Automobile Company, and the concern was 
incorporated with a capital of three hundred 
thousand dollars. In preparing for active op- 
erations the company purchased the plant of 
the old Detroit Motor Company, and in 1903 
the works were considerably enlarged, to meet 
the demands of the new institution. In April, 
1904, misfortune overtook the company, in 
that the greater part of its plant was destroyed 
by fire, entailing a very considerable loss above 
the insurance indemnity carried. The upbuild- 
ing of the present finely equipped plant was at 
once instituted, and it now covers five hundred 
and twenty-five thousand square feet, most of 
the buildings being three stories in height. 
While the new quarters were in course of con- 
struction the company continued its manufac- 
turing, utilizing a storage building across the 
street from the present plant and completing 
and shipping one machine on the day follow- 
ing the fire. By the ist of July the concern 
had made the record of shipping from its plant 
a larger number of machines than had any 
other automobile factory in the world, in the 
quarter ending July ist, and they now manu- 
facture four thousand machines annually and 
place the same on the market, still maintaining 
the record of turning out more motor cars 
each year than any other manufactory in ex- 
istence. 



In 1905 the company secured control of the 
plant and business of the Leland & Faulconer 
Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of 
engines of all kinds, and this plant became an 
accessory and complement to the original con- 
cern, whose facilities were thereby greatly ex- 
panded. In 1905 of the year last noted a 
reorganization of the company took place and 
the present corporate title was adopted, while 
the capital stock was increased to the signifi- 
cant amount of one and one-half millions of 
dollars, giving the concern precedence over 
all others. The personnel of the executive 
corps of the company is as follows: Lem W. 
Bowen, president; William H. Murphy, treas- 
urer; Wilfred C. Leland, secretary ; and Henry 
M. Leland, general manager. 

In the direct operation of the gigantic plant 
employment is given to more than two thou- 
sand men, and as many more are retained in 
service in outside factories maintained by the 
company for the manufacturing of bodies, 
springs and other accessories. Of the labor 
employed fully seventy-five per cent, is of the 
skilled order, and the weekly pay roll repre- 
sents an expenditure of twenty-five thousand 
dollars. About ninety per cent, of the output 
of the plant is sold in the United States, and 
the export trade is steadily increasing, ex- 
tending to Great Britain, Australia, Mexico, 
Russia, Germany, Sweden, South America and 
the Dominion of Canada. The company has 
successfully met all foreign competition and 
its products are coming into greater favor as 
their superiority becomes known. A note- 
worthy fact in connection with the machines 
manufactured by this company is that not the 
slightest detail of mechanism and finish is per- 
mitted to fall below the highest possible 
standard. Inspection of all parts is most 
scrupulous and any piece of inferior order is 
rejected. The motor cars turned out represent 
the acme of excellence thus far attained in 
automobile manufacture, and this claim ap- 
plies not alone to the engines, driving mecha- 
nism, etc., but also to the finishing of every part 
of the vehicle. Detroit may well be proud of 
possessing, in this day of phenomenal produc- 
tion and popularity of automobiles, a factory 



196 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



which exceeds all others in the world in the 
total of its annual output and which produces 
machines of indubitable superiority. Since 
1905 the general supervision of the entire fac- 
tory has been in the able control of Henry M. 
Leland, of whom individual mention is made 
in this work. It is not within the province of 
this publication to enter into full details con- 
cerning the manufacturing and commercial 
industries which are given representation here, 
but it is gratifying to make record concerning 
so magnificent and efifectively managed a con- 
cern as that of the Cadillac Motor Car Com- 
pany, which represents one of the industrial 
giants not only of Detroit, but also, of the 
sort, in the entire world. 



THE CLARK WIRELESS TELEGRAPH & 
TELEPHONE COMPANY. 

In no branch of science pertinent to practical 
industrialism and public utilitarian purposes 
has been accomplished so wonderful a work 
as in the field of applied electricity. In fact, 
it cannot but be admitted that the subtle force 
which is engaging the attention of the best 
scientific minds and many of the leading in- 
dustrial economists of the day, is destined to 
still more marvelous development. Within the 
limits of a sketch of this character it is im- 
possible, and, indeed, unnecessary, to enter 
into an extended consideration of the applica- 
tion of wireless telegraphy and telephony in 
connection with practical commercialism. 
Proven results attest the value of the wireless 
systems, whose splendid showing has been a 
matter of wonderment and admiration. One 
of the successful inventors, developers and pro- 
moters of these systems is Thomas E. Clark, 
a brief sketch of whose career appears on other 
pages of this volume, and to him is due the 
establishing in Detroit of the plant and head- 
quarters of the Clark Wireless Telegraph & 
Telephone Company, of which he is vice-presi- 
dent and directing engineer. It is needless to 
say that the company has proved a noteworthy 
addition to the industrial concerns which con- 
tribute to the pre-eminence of Detroit, and the 
institution is one whose continuous expansion 



and cumulative success are emphatically as- 
sured. 

In the review of Mr. Clark's career are 
given adequate data concerning the efforts and 
movements which led to the organization of 
the Clark Wireless Telegraph & Telephone 
Company, which was incorporated under the 
laws of the state of Arizona in February, 
1907, with a capital stock of two million five 
hundred thousand dollars. The capital stock 
is divided into two million five hundred thou- 
sand shares at a par value of one dollar each. 
There is no preferred stock, no bonds are 
issued, and all stock is non-assessable. At the 
time of incorporation five hundred thousand 
shares of the company's stock were exchanged 
for the property of the original Clark Electric 
Engineering Company and Clark Wireless 
Telegraph Company, which latter company 
had been organized and incorporated in 1906. 
This special block of five hundred thousand 
shares of stock is to be held in escrow until 
the company shall have attained to a dividend- 
paying basis. The remaining two million 
shares of the company's stock have been set 
aside for the use of the treasury and will be 
ofifered for sale in limited allotments, at such 
time as expediency shall dictate, through the 
requirement for capital to increase the capa- 
city of the manufacturing plant, for the instal- 
lation of new stations in interior and lake- 
coast cities, for equipping steamships and other 
vessels on the Great Lakes with wireless tele- 
graph and telephone apparatus and for the 
necessary expenses to enable the company to 
operate on an extensive scale. The enterprise 
is in no sense a speculative scheme, but, as 
stated in a prospectus of the company, "is a 
plain business proposition, now in actual 
operation, easy of investigation, and of the 
merits of which any and all conservative in- 
vestors can fully familiarize and convince 
themselves before investing in shares of the 
company's stock." 

The personnel of the official and executive 
corps of the company stands as voucher for the 
legitimacy and strength of the proposition and 
for its practical and well demonstrated sue- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



197 



cess at the present time. These officers are 
numbered among the representative capitahsts 
and business men of Detroit, Cleveland and 
Buffalo —men of high financial standing and 
unassailable reputation. The list of officers 
is as here noted: R. R. Sterling, president; 
Thomas E. Clark, vice-president; J. H. Liv- 
sey second vice-president; N. A. Hawkins, 
secretary ; and E. E. Collins, treasurer. They 
also, with the addition of Edward Smith, of 
the Great Lakes Towing Company, Captain 
John Mitchell, of Cleveland, and William 
Gray, constitute the board of directors. Gray 
& Gray, of Detroit, are attorneys for the com- 
pany. Literature, descriptive and statistical, 
has been issued by the corporation and may be 
had upon application. 

Several of the leading lines of steamers on 
the Great Lakes are making practical and ef- 
fective utilization of the Clark wireless sys- 
tems, including the boats of the Detroit & 
Buffalo Steamship Company and the Detroit 
& Cleveland Navigation Company, which in- 
stalled the service in 1904. It is purposed by 
the Clark Company to rapidly and extensively 
expand its service on the Great Lakes and, 
based upon past results, the revenues from 
this source alone will be large and substan- 
tial. From the company's attractive brochure, 
which has already been mentioned, is secured 
the following excerpt : "Ten years ago (1898) 
saw the origin of the Clark Wireless Tele- 
graph & Telephone Company. This company 
had its birth in Detroit, carried on its expen- 
ments in the heart of the city, and learned to 
overcome all the difficulties that commercial 
wireless-telegraph companies will encounter. 
There is a vast difference in land and fresh- 
water conditions as compared with wireless 
transmission over or by salt water. Where 
the old-world demonstrators have been suc- 
cessful in the comparatively easy work over 
the ocean, this company has been doubly suc- 
cessful in the extremely difficult problem of 
wireless transmission over land and fresh 
water. The Clark Company was the first to 
advertise wireless instruments for sale for 
practical use. It was the first wireless-tele- 
graph company to communicate with a for- 



eign country by means of space telegraphy. It 
has the first and only factory ever built and 
equipped anywhere in the world solely for the 
purpose of manufacturing commercial wire- 
less-telegraph apparatus for sale to everybody. 
The fact that the Clark wireless-telegraph 
system was subjected to a most stringent in- 
vestigation by the United States signal corps 
department before it was accepted and adopted 
by the government, has dissipated much of the 
skepticism with which it has previously been 
regarded. The United States government 
adopted the Clark wireless system in various 
departments in the latter part of 1905. As is 
well known, the government requires the most 
rigid investigation before purchasing supplies 
of any kind. After the inventor, Thomas E. 
Clark, had demonstrated his apparatus before 
a board of experts, and in competition with 
several foreign systems, the Clark system was 
favored." In this connection a flattering re- 
port was made to the chief signal officer by 
the electrical engineer who conducted the in- 
vestigation and experiments. The Clark ap- 
paratus was the first to be introduced into 
educational institutions and many of the lead- 
ing universities and colleges of the country 
now utilize the same for illustrative and prac- 
tical purposes. 

The Clark wireless apparatus is also in use 
by the Japanese government, and from every 
source have come recommendations of its great 
efficiency and its economy in operation. 

In December, 1906, Mr. Clark made dem- 
onstrations of wireless telephone, achieving 
a noted success in his experimental work and 
has greatly developed wireless-telephone com- 
munication, so that now the scientific journals 
of the country predict that he has demonstrated 
practically what may be the nucleus of a won- 
derful telephone system in the future. In 
June, 1908, Mr. Clark showed the successful 
operation of wireless telephone which had been 
installed on the new steamer "City of Cleve- 
land" and on the Clark wireless-telegraph sta- 
tion at the foot of Wayne street, Detroit. 
Passengers on the steamer were able to talk 
twenty-five miles by the Clark wireless tele- 
phone. This apparatus Mr. Clark is contin- 



198 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ually developing and perfecting, extending the 
talking distance so that he is now able to talk 
fifty miles. He has every confidence that the 
time is not far distant when it will be possible 
to talk by wireless telephone from Detroit to 
New York city or Chicago. 

Following is a brief description of the pres- 
ent factory of the Clark Company, and it is 
the purpose of the corporation to erect in De- 
troit within the near future a magnificent 
laboratory and extensive plant, in harmony 
with the vast business possibilities which the 
enterprise oi¥ers. 

The factory of the Clark Wireless Telegraph 
& Telephone Company, corner of Cass and 
State streets, is located in the central down- 
town district of the city of Detroit. The build- 
ing is of brick and stone, fifty-eight by one 
hundred and thirty feet, three stories high. 
On the first fioor is located the office, well 
equipped with modern office furniture. A door 
leads directly from the office into the large 
factory room. Here are found the lathes, 
drill presses, screw machines, planers, auto- 
drills and electric winding machines, with a 
force of men turning out the machine-shop 
part of the work, electric motors being the 
power used to operate the various machines, 
both on this and the second floor. Adjoining 
the machine-shop is a specially large labo- 
ratory-testing room, used for testing and try- 
ing out the various instruments and apparatus 
manufactured by the company. Here is gath- 
ered together a complete storehouse of electric- 
testing instruments, scientific and chemical- 
laboratory apparatus to carry on the varied re- 
search work that is necessary in connection 
with the development of the Clark wireless 
telegraph and telephone systems. The second 
fioor is equipped with wood-circular saws, 
planers and the accessories necessary for cabi- 
net work, as well as an assembling and drying 
room. Here a force of men are engaged in 
assembling instruments and apparatus; and on 
long, narrow tables are completed wireless- 
telegraph and telephone instruments of the 
various types, from the smaller miniature sets 
to the larger station sets for long-distance 
work. A part of this floor is devoted at times 
to the giving of instruction to young men on 
the apparatus. The efficiency of all apparatus 
manufactured is fully up to the standard of the 
best electrical instrument, and the wireless 
telegraph apparatus is superior to any other. 



THE MICHIGAN STATE TELEPHONE COM- 
PANY. 

As representing one of the important public 
utilities of the state of Michigan, this com- 
pany, whose ofiicial headquarters are main- 
tained in Detroit, wields a most positive and 
valuable influence in connection with civic and 
commercial affairs. The corporation bases its 
extensive operations on large capital and most 
effective administration. The ramifications of 
its lines are virtually co-extensive with the lim- 
its of the state, and the system is maintained 
at the highest standard of modern telephony. 
The Michigan State Telephone Company 
was organized in February, 1904, and is the 
direct successor of the Michigan Telephone 
Company, which was practically the pioneer 
concern in the development of the telephone 
business in Michigan. The control of the 
original company was vested in William A. 
Jackson and the Newberrys and the McMil- 
lans of Detroit, but in reorganization four years 
ago it passed into other hands. 

The Michigan State Telephone Company is 
a state-wide corporation, connecting every vil- 
lage and city in the state with its network of 
local and long-distance lines. Outside of the 
state it connects over the lines of the Bell sys- 
tem with almost every city and town of any 
importance between the Rocky mountains and 
the Atlantic ocean. Although it is physically 
a part of the "Bell Company," it is entirely in- 
dependent of Bell ownership and control; it is 
strictly a locally incorporated and individually 
owned Michigan enterprise, and one that the 
state may justly claim with pride. In round 
numbers the Michigan State Telephone Com- 
pany. July I, 1908, connected with one hun- 
dred and forty-five thousand subscribers in 
Michigan and over three million in the United 
States. In the last four years it has actually 
doubled its number of subscribers and its wire 
mileage, and in 1907, with the single excep- 
tion of San Francisco, which was in process 
of rehabilitation, the percentage of increase in 
subscribers in the city of Detroit was the great- 
est of the twenty-five largest cities in the 
United States. Since January i, 1908, to the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



199 



time this work goes to press, September i, this 
company has made in Detroit a net gain of 
four thousand six hundred and forty-three,— 
a new subscriber every hour, night and 
day, excepting Sunday. This is the highest 
record of growth in Detroit for any equal 
period in the history of the company and the 
net gain of eight hundred and forty for the 
month of August, 1908, is the largest net gain 
for any one month. Financial depression evi- 
dently has not affected in any way the steady 
progress of the enterprise, for there was a 
thirteen per cent, increase in gross earnings for 
October, November and December, 1907, over 
the corresponding period of the preceding 

year. 

Although a fifteen million dollar corpora- 
tion, serving thousands of patrons and com- 
bining nearly three hundred connecting com- 
panies in one great unified system, this com- 
pany has undertaken a man-to-man policy of 
dealing with its thousands of customers and 
constituents. Its policy is on record, in printed 
form, framed and posted as a "declaration," 
in every office and exchange in the state, — to 
the effect that it will "furnish the best grade of 
telephone service, adopt every improvement, 
reduce rates whenever business safety will per- 
mit, adjust fairly each complaint, treat as man 
to man all subscribers, remove the idea of soul- 
less corporation, and bring about a personal, 
friendly feeling between the company and the 
subscribers." To-day the operations of the 
company have a practically impregnable forti- 
fication and the corporation is solid and de- 
servedly prosperous. The company has in op- 
eration fully two hundred and ninety-five 
thousand miles of wire, involving the use of 
one hundred and forty-five thousand telephone 
instruments and the employment of over six 
thousand miles of long-distance toll lines in 
Michigan, thus affording connections through- 
out the entire state. In the service of the com- 
pany is retained an army of nearly four thou- 
sand employes, duly assigned to the various 
departments of work. 

The officers of the Michigan State Telephone 
Company are as here noted: N. C. Kings- 
bury, president ; Dudley E. Waters, vice-presi- 



dent ; B. W. Trafford, vice-president and gen- 
eral manager; Walter I. Mizner, secretary; 
W. L. Burrows, treasurer; H. J. Booth, audi- 
tor; C. L. Boyce, engineer; and E. G. Ste- 
venson and W. E. Thompson, attorneys. 



THE NORTHWESTERN TRANSPORTA- 
TION COMPANY. 

The corporation here designated is one of 
the oldest and most important companies en- 
gaged in lake transportation business with 
headquarters in Detroit, and the enterprise is 
one of broad scope, having marked influence in 
upholding the great marine tonnage for which 
the fair "City of the Straits" has long been 
noted. 

The Northwestern Transportation Company 
dates its inception back nearly forty years, its 
organization having been effected on the 21st 
of January, 1869, when it was incorporated 
under the laws of the state, with a capital stock 
of two hundred thousand dollars, of which 
amount seventy-five thousand dollars were 
paid in. The organizers of the concern were 
Messrs. Robert J. and Henry Hackett, William 
McGregor, David Cotter, Duncan McLaugh- 
lin, James A. M. Morton and Andrew 
Hackett. The personnel of the first executive 
corps -was as follows: President, Henry 
Hackett; vice-president, William McGregor; 
secretary and treasurer, Robert J. Hackett. 
Besides these officers the directorate of the 
company included Messrs. McLaughlin and 
Cotter. The original charter, issued for a 
period of thirty years, was secured on the date 
noted above, and the company forthwith en- 
gaged in the general marine freight business, 
operating a number of tugs and freight boats 
and devoting special attention to the handling 
of iron ore and coal. 

In 1872 Elihu M. Peck was elected to the 
presidency, having acquired a large interest 
in the company in the preceding year, and he 
continued to be the executive head of the con- 
cern until his death, which occurred in 1896. 
He was an able and progressive officer and did 
much to upbuild the large business of the com- 
pany. The original organizers dropped out 
from time to time, the Hackett brothers having 



200 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



withdrawn about 1876, when Harvey H. 
Brown, of Cleveland, Ohio, now president of 
the company, was elected secretary pro tem- 
pore. Later George Hendrie became secretary, 
and upon the death of Captain Elihu M. Peck 
Mr. Brown was chosen to succeed him in the 
presidency, of which position he has since re- 
mained incumbent, his election having taken 
place in 1896. In 1882 Alexander McVittie was 
chosen secretary of the company, serving until 
1889, when he was succeeded by James Find- 
later. In 1892 Lewis C. Waldo succeeded to 
the office of secretary and in 1896 he was made 
general manager of the business. In 1891 the 
capital stock of the company was increased to 
six hundred thousand dollars, with four hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars paid in. In 
1879 they reorganized, with a charter for 
thirty years, under the same title. 

The company at the present time operates 
four boats, namely : The "Harv-ey H. Brown," 
with four thousand five hundred tonnage; the 
"S. R. Kirby," thirty-five hundred tons; the 
"Fayette Brown," thirty-five hundred tons; 
and the barge "George E. Hartnell," fifty-five 
hundred tons. The concern is now one of the 
oldest of the sort on the lake system and its 
reputation has ever been unassailable, while at 
every stage its management has been reliable 
and effective. The present officers of the com- 
pany are: Harvey H. Brown, of Cleveland, 
Ohio, president, and Lewis C. Waldo, of De- 
troit, secretary, treasurer and general manager. 



THOMAS BARLUM & SONS. 

An enterprise that has been built up from 
one of small scope to its present large propor- 
tions is that conducted by Thomas Barium & 
Sons, packers of pork products and wholesale 
and retail dealers in meats, with headquarters 
in the Barium building. Fifth street and Grand 
River avenue. The business was founded by 
Thomas Barium, of whom individual mention 
is made on other pages of this work. His first 
place of business was a stall in the old Central 
market, in Cadillac Square, and when the 
building was finally removed and the market 
so long maintained in the same was abolished. 



he secured quarters in the same vicinity, at the 
corner of Bates street and Cadillac Square. In 
1889 Mr. Barium admitted to partnership his 
eldest son, John J. Barium, who is likewise 
the subject of an individual sketch in this 
work. At the time this association was formed 
the firm title of Thomas Barium & Son was 
adopted, and in 1905, when the younger sons, 
Thomas J. and Louis P., were admitted to the 
firm, the present title was adopted. A branch 
retail store is maintained in the building owned 
by the senior member of the firm and known 
as the Barium flats, the same having been 
erected by Thomas Barium and being located 
at the corner of Fifth street and Grand River 
avenue, as already stated. 

In 1896 the firm began the packing of pork 
products in a small way, utilizing for this pur- 
pose the rear of the building just mentioned. 
At the outset only three men were employed 
in this department and the output did not ex- 
ceed twenty hogs a week. That the venture 
has proved a most successful one is best shown 
by the fact that at the present time (1907) 
fifty-four men are given employment in the 
packing department and that an average of 
fifteen hundred hogs are utilized each week. 
The firm have four traveling representatives 
and manufacture the finest grades of hams, 
bacon, lard, sausage of all kinds and English 
pork cuts. Their trade extends through 
Michigan. Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and they 
are also building up a large and substantial 
export trade in English cuts and bacon, 
handled principally in the markets of Man- 
chester and Liverpool, England, and Glasgow, 
Scotland. The basement and first floor of the 
Barium building are used for the market and 
manufacturing departments, the building hav- 
ing a frontage of one hundred and fifty feet 
on Grand River avenue, and one hundred feet 
on Fifth street. All of the slaughter work of 
the firm is done under contract, at Port Huron, 
Michigan, and the most scrupulous care is 
given to the selection of all stock used, so that 
the standard of the products is constantly 
maintained at the highest point. It is to the 
policy thus observed from the start that this 
splendid business enterprise has been built up. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



201 



and the firm has an unrivaled reputation for 
the superiority of its products, controlling an 
appreciative trade in both the wholesale and 
retail departments. The firm pays out in wages 
an annual average of forty thousand dollars, 
not including the salaries of the traveling sales- 
men and the office corps. The general man- 
j agement of the business is in the hands of 
I John J. Barium, the founder of the enterprise 
I having practically retired, though he still 
! maintains a general administrative function in 
I the directing of the affairs of the firm. 



C. H. HABERKORN & COMPANY. 

Among the successful industrial enterprises 
which contribute to the commercial supremacy 
of Detroit is that conducted under the title 
here designated. The enterprise is deserving 
of especial attention in this publication, not 
only by reason of its present extent and im- 
portance but also as standing typical of the 
results attained by the indomitable pluck and 
energy of the founder, who placed in subor- 
dination all other interests and evolved a most 
prosperous and remunerative business from a 
nucleus which was represented only in sub- 
jective personal vigor and executive and tech- 
nical ability. 

The concern is given over exclusively to the 
manufacturing of high-grade parlor and li- 
brary tables, and the products are unexcelled 
by those of any factory in the Union. This 
enterprise dates its inception back to the year 
1878, and thus it has been in existence more 
than a quarter of a century, within which 
period it has been advanced from a small and 
obscure undertaking to one of substantial and 
important order in its specific line, and one 
which is a valuable acquisition to the various 
industries of the Michigan metropolis. 

In the year mentioned, C. H. Haberkorn 
opened a factory in a building at the corner of 
Fourth and Porter streets, where he utilized a 
portion of the fourth floor and where he be- 
gan operations with a force of only eight em- 
ployes. The original output of the little fac- 
tory was parlor and library tables, but the 
grades were not at the time maintained at the 



specially high standard which now obtains, as 
it was found expedient, in an introductory 
way, to turn out such products as would meet 
the requirements of the limited market and 
render sufficient financial returns to expand 
the scope of operations. Mr. Haberkorn had a 
definite ambition, and had formulated his plans 
with marked discrimination, but he showed his 
fertility in expedients by availing himself of 
only such means of advancement as the busi- 
ness justified at any certain stage of progress. 
Thus the business has had a gradual but very 
substantial growth, and the founder has finally 
realized his ambition, in that the products of 
his factory are now of the highest grade and 
meet the demands of the most exacting and 
discriminating trade. 

Finally the business increased to such pro- 
portions as to necessitate the securing of larger 
quarters, and in 1887 was initiated the erec- 
tion of the present fine plant, which is located 
on Orchard street, between Brooklyn avenue 
and Eighth street. With the continued ex- 
pansion of the enterprise, additional buildings 
were demanded, and, in all, five have been 
added to the plant since the erection of the 
first, in the year mentioned. The plant uti- 
lizes four hundred feet frontage on Orchard 
street and extends back to a depth of one hun- 
dred and fifteen feet, with an alley at the rear. 
The main building is fifty by one hundred and 
fifteen feet in dimensions and five stories in 
height, and is a substantial brick structure. 
The finishing department occupies a building 
forty by one hundred and fifteen feet in di- 
mensions, and is four stories in height. The 
two stock rooms, or warehouses, are each 
forty-two by one hundred and fifteen feet in 
dimensions, and four stories in height. The 
office building, of three stories, is twenty-five 
by two hundred feet in dimensions, and the 
other two buildings, of similar design and con- 
struction and admirably equipped for the uses 
to which they are applied, are the dry kilns, 
forty by two hundred feet in dimension, and 
the power plant. 

All of the buildings are of brick, and the 
equipment of the factory is modern in every 
department, making the plant a model of its 



202 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



kind and one creditable to the city in which it 
is located. Employment is given to an aver- 
age force of one hundred and eighty opera- 
tives, and the larger number are skilled work- 
men. The average annual disbursement in 
wages is eighty-five thousand dollars. The 
products of the establishment are now shipped 
into the most diverse sections of the Union, 
and the foreign trade is also one of no incon- 
siderable magnitude, the products being essen- 
tially standard and being unexcelled by those 
of any other factory in the line. The firm 
maintains an export agency in New York city, 
where the business is thus controlled by Chip- 
man & Company, and other agencies are es- 
tablished in other of the leading markets of 
the Union. All goods are sold through agents 
and placed on the market on a purely com- 
mission basis, no traveling representatives 
being employed by the factory. 

Mr. Haberkom is virtually the sole propri- 
etor of the business which he has thus devel- 
oped, and from the start it has been conducted 
under the title of C. H. Haberkorn & Company. 



THE MORTON BAKING & MANUFACTUR- 
ING COMPANY. 

In reviewing those enterprises which have 
been material factors in the advancement of 
Detroit to a position of importance among the 
leading industrial, financial and commercial 
centers of the United States, a publication of 
this nature exercises its most important func- 
tion when it takes cognizance of those institu- 
tions which in a direct way effect the bodily 
welfare of her citizens. In the manufacture 
of one of the most important foodstuffs used 
by the public, of which the company whose 
name initiates this article is the most extensive 
producer in the state, the consumer is vitally 
interested, and in this connection the publishers 
of this volume take pleasure in publishing the 
brief review which follows. 

The present business of the Morton Baking 
& Manufacturing Company is the outgrowth 
of a modest bakery established by Robert Mor- 
ton in 1877, and first located at number 737 
Fort street west. As is usually the case in the 



majority of instances, the beginning was made 
with a modest force, which consisted of Mr. 
Morton and one other, who is still in the em- 
ploy of the company. A thorough knowledge 
of the business and careful attention to his 
patrons, together with continued insistence 
that quality and purity of the materials made 
should ever be foremost, resulted in an almost 
immediate expansion and necessitated a re- 
moval to larger quarters. The second loca- 
tion of the business was at number 75 Grand 
River avenue and here the business was con- 
tinued until 1882, when these quarters proved 
inadequate. In April of this year the business 
was incorporated as the Morton Baking & 
Manufacturing Company and was capitalized 
at forty thousand dollars. Suitable buildings 
were erected for the business and the latest 
improved equipment installed. Additions have 
been built from time to time as the expansion 
of the business required, and every effort pos- 
sible has been made and no expense spared to 
keep in the lead in the matter of equipment, 
sanitation and methods of manufacture. The 
present plant of the company is located at 
numbers 72-84 Plum street, having a frontage 
of one hundred and forty feet, and extends to 
Cherry street, a distance of two hundred and 
forty-eight feet, covering the numbers 67-73 
on the latter. This entire ground surface of 
about one-half acre is covered by substantial 
brick buildings, equipped with the best ma- 
chinery known to the baking trade, and the 
sanitation is as perfect as modern science can 
devise. The products manufactured are to be 
relied upon and are made from the purest of 
materials by the most expert workmen ob- 
tainable. The process of manufacture pre- 
cludes the possibility of any deleterious sub- 
stance entering into the product, while the ex- 
perience of years in the blending of winter and 
spring wheat flours makes possible the produc- 
tion of an article of food superior to the usual 
home baking. Distilled water only is used in 
the mixing and machinery takes the place of 
hands in the manipulation incident to the out- 
put of the finished product. That the greatest 
care is taken in respect to cleanliness is best 
illustrated by the fact all the horses employed 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



203 



in the delivery service of the company are 
cleaned by electricity, while compressed air is 
used in the cleaning of the work rooms. The 
company are manufacturers of bread and pies 
and do an exclusive wholesale business, cover- 
ing Detroit and southern Michigan and some 
of the smaller cities in the interior of the state. 
Aside from that of the regular dealers they 
enjoy a more extensive hotel, restaurant and 
steamboat trade than any other firm in their 
line in the state. 

Some idea of the relative importance of the 
enterprise to the city from a labor standpoint 
can be gained from the following statement : 
The company employ in the manufacturing de- 
partment forty-five persons, all skilled work- 
men, while thirty-six men are employed in the 
sales and delivery department. The office 
force numbers six and the barn force, which 
has charge of the forty horses used in the de- 
livery service, numbers five. The company 
are the only one in their line of manufacture 
who have installed an automobile-delivery 
service, and operate three machines. They dis- 
tribute annually in wages over sixty thousand 
dollars and their per capita wage will compare 
favorably with any enterprise in the city. In 
1903 the capital of the company was increased 
to seventy-five thousand dollars, which repre- 
sents only a portion of the value of the equip- 
ment, an earned surplus of fully a like amount 
having been put into the business. 

In 1907 the stockholders of the company 
organized the Morton Baking Company, Lim- 
ited, of Windsor, Ontario, and entered the 
Canadian field. In Windsor a model plant was 
erected at a cost of twenty thousand dollars 
and about twenty-five workmen are employed 
there. A successful business has been devel- 
oped and extends from Toronto westward in 
the province. Since the inception of the busi- 
ness the controlling spirit in the enterprise has 
been Robert Morton and to his knowledge of 
the art of baking, combined with executive and 
constructive ability, and the sturdy and inde- 
fatigable energy so characteristic of his na- 
tionality, the present business of the company 
is in a very great measure due. The officers 
of the company are as follows : Robert M. 



Morton, president; James C. McBriar, vice- 
president; and Edward W. Kreg, secretary 
and treasurer. Of the Morton Baking Com- 
pany, Limited, of Windsor, Robert Morton is 
president ; Gordon McGregor, vice-president ; 
and Robert M. Morton, treasurer and general 
manager. Personal mention of the founder, 
Robert Morton, and of Robert M. Morton is 
printed on other pages of this volume, and to 
these articles the reader is referred for sup- 
plemental information. 



THE WHITE STAR LINE. 

Through her natural advantages Detroit 
holds precedence as one of the most important 
points touched by the navigation system of the 
Great Lakes, and here are centered a large 
number of the most important concerns oper- 
ating in the lake-marine service. A leading 
and popular corporation of this order is that 
whose title initiates this article. 

The White Star Line was organized in 
1896, in which year it was incorporated under 
the laws of the state of Michigan, receiving 
charter in February of that year and basing its 
operations on a capital stock of eighty-five 
thousand dollars. In 1899 the capital was in- 
creased to two hundred thousand dollars, and 
the progressive policy and attendant success 
of the company was further shown in 1907, 
when the capital stock was further increased 
to seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
The representative citizens who effected the 
organization of the company and who still re- 
main its principal stockholders are : Aaron 
A. Parker, Byron W. Parker, John Pridgeon, 
Jr., L. C. Waldo and Charles F. Bielman. The 
executive officers are to be designated as fol- 
lows : A. A. Parker, president ; L. C. Waldo, 
vice-president; John Pridgeon, Jr., treasurer; 
C. F. Bielman, secretary and traffic manager; 
and B. W. Parker, general manager. (Since 
the preparing of this article has occurred the 
death of Aaron A. Parker, who passed away 
on November 13, 1908.) 

The White Star Line has a fine fleet of ves- 
sels engaged in the passenger and freight serv- 
ice, and the business shows a decisive expan- 



204 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



I 



sion each succeeding season. The first steamer 
put into commission by the company was the 
"City of Toledo," and in 1899 the "Grey- 
hound," No. I, was added to the Hne. In the 
following year the company built the steamer 
"Tashmoo," at a cost of three hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, and in 1903 was built 
the "Greyhound," No. 2, at a cost of three 
hundred thousand dollars. In 1904 was built 
and placed in commission the "Owana," which 
represents an expenditure of one hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars. The "Tashmoo" and 
the "City of Toledo" are in service between 
Detroit and Port Huron, and give special fa- 
cilities in the way of trips to and from the St. 
Clair Flats and Tashmoo park, which latter is 
owned and controlled by the company and 
which is one of the most attractive resorts 
tributary to Detroit. On the Detroit-Toledo 
route are operated the steamers "Greyhound" 
and "Owana," with special service to Sugar 
Island park, which likewise is owned by the 
White Star Line and which is a most popular 
down-river resort. 

The docks and general offices of the White 
Star Line in Detroit are located at the foot of 
Griswold street, where a river frontage of two 
hundred feet is controlled and where the wait- 
ing rooms and other facilities are of excellent 
order. The company owns its own docks at 
Detroit and Port Huron. An idea of the ex- 
tent of the business of this well known and 
popular line may be gained when it is stated 
that in the season of 1907 five hundred and 
eight thousand passengers were carried on its 
boats. 



DETROIT GRAPHITE COMPANY. 

In this compilation will be found a number 
of brief articles concerning commercial and 
industrial enterprises that have been of mate- 
rial assistance in the advancement of Detroit 
as a manufacturing and distributing center. 
In the growth and development of her com- 
merce the Detroit Graphite Company has been 
a factor of no inconsiderable value, the high 
standard of the products manufactured and the 
results obtained by their use adding in no small 



measure to the popularity and continued 
demand of Detroit-made goods. 

The Detroit Graphite Company are manu- 
facturers of ready-mixed paints for exterior 
and interior use in the protection of metal sur- 
faces from corrosion, and the company enjoy 
the distinction of having placed upon the mar- 
ket the first article that has withstood the se- 
vere exactions of a government test with 
credit. The company was organized in 1892 
and was incorporated with a capital of ten 
thousand dollars and the following officers : 
President, Hon. A. G. Boynton; vice-presi- 
dent, Ralzemond A. Parker; treasurer and 
general manager, Alexander A. Boutell ; sec- 
retary, William F. Monroe. The chief factor 
in its promotion and organization was Alex- 
ander A. Boutell, secretary of the Detroit 
Chamber of Commerce and treasurer of the 
Baraga Graphite Company, owners of valuable 
graphite deposits in the upper peninsula of 
Michigan. The company located its plant on 
Twelfth street near Fort street, and had a pre- 
carious existence for the first four years. In 
1896 its management succeeded in getting its 
products before the ordnance departments of 
the United States army and navy. Here their 
paints were subjected to most thorough and 
exhaustive tests, which resulted in their prov- 
ing all that was claimed for them, — the pre- 
vention of corrosion of metal by water, damp- 
ness or weather. The success attending these 
tests, in competition with the products of other 
manufacturers, resulted in their adoption by 
the United States government for the use of 
the army and navy. During and since the 
Cuban war all vessels belonging to the gov- 
ernment have been painted with their prepara- 
tions, which have conclusively proven their 
superiority over those of other manufacturers, 
by that best of all evidence, constantly increas- 
ing orders from the department. In 1907 the 
company was reorganized ; its capital increased 
to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and 
the following officers elected : Alexander A. 
Boutell, president and general manager ; Frank 
W. Davis, vice-president; and William F. 
Monroe, secretary and treasurer. Their pres- 
ent plant is an enlargement of their original 



I 






DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



205 



quarters and includes an equipment of the best 
machinery known to the paint-making trade. 
Their products have had a large sale through- 
out the United States and Canada and a con- 
siderable export business has been developed. 
In the exterior painting of buildings, in the 
covering of steel framework during construc- 
tion, in fact the use of their product in any 
way where protection to metal surfaces from 
dampness or the elements is demanded will 
prove a saving to the consumer. The company 
was the first to use graphite as a material in 
paint manufacture, and the process of its use 
is covered by patent. In the conducting of the 
business from the time of its organization Mr. 
Boutell has been the dominant spirit, and its 
growth and development are in great measure 
the result of his ceaseless efforts. The com- 
pany maintain a branch in London, England, 
and a sales agency in Seattle, Washington. 

The development of the business of the com- 
pany has been healthy, its products have been 
kept at a high standard, and its management 
has been clean. As a factor in the commerce 
of the city its influnece has been felt through 
its careful and judicious advertising of goods 
"Made in Detroit" and the marketing of them 
throughout a wide territory, the payment to 
wage earners of over fifty thousand dollars 
yearly, and the addition to its industries of a 
specialty manufacturing concern which in its 
line is the largest in the Union. Mr. Boutell, 
the executive head of the company, has had 
able assistance in the building up of this enter- 
prise and great credit is due to Mr. Davis, the 
vice-president, who has so successfully devel- 
oped the sales department and prepared a mar- 
ket for the output. In the important depart- 
ment of finance, Mr. Monroe, the secretary 
and treasurer, has proven himself a man of 
keen perception, far-sightedness and safe 
conservatism. 

DETROIT STEEL CASTINGS COMPANY. 

As a representative concern which is con- 
tributing its quota to the industrial pre-emi- 
nence of Detroit, this company is consistently 
given consideration within the pages of this 
publication. The company was organized in 



March, 1902, and succeeded to the business 
and plant of the Detroit Steel & Spring Com- 
pany. The new company was incorporated 
under the laws of the state, with a capital stock 
of two hundred thousand dollars, and in April, 
1905, to meet the exigencies of the greatly 
augmented business and widened operations of 
the concern, the capital stock was increased to 
six hundred thousand dollars, of which five 
hundred thousand dollars were paid in and the 
remaining one hundred thousand retained as a 
treasury reserve. The personnel of the of- 
ficial corps of this important corporation is as 
here noted : John S. Newberry, president and 
general manager; Allen W. Atterbury, treas- 
urer; Thomas F. Meek, secretary; and Fred- 
erick P. Smith, assistant secretary. 

The Detroit Steel Castings Company manu- 
facture a general line of steel castings for 
marine-dredging, car-machinery and diversified 
railway uses. The admirably equipped plant 
is located at the juncture of Michigan avenue 
and the tracks of the Michigan Central Rail- 
road, where is utilized a ground space eight 
hundred by four hundred feet in dimensions. 
In February, 1905, the old plant was destroyed 
by fire and within the same year was completed 
the present main building, which is one of the 
finest examples of modern factory construction 
to be found in Detroit and which is five hun- 
dred by one hundred and sixty-five feet in di- 
mensions. The plant also has a modern office 
building, attractive in design and accessories. 
Employment is given by the company to an 
average force of seven hundred and fifty men, 
of whom one-third are skilled mechanics, and 
the annual pay roll represents an expenditure 
of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
The original enterprise was founded by the 
late Hon. John S. Newberry, father of the 
present president of the concern, and it was 
one of the first of the large manufacturing 
plants which have brought about the great ad- 
vancement of Detroit along industrial and 
commercial lines. 

THE KELSEY-HERBERT COMPANY. 

One of the unique and important manufac- 
turing industries which add to the commercial 



206 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



prestige of Detroit is that conducted under the 
title which initiates this article. The enter- 
prise dates its inception back to the year 1898, 
when a stock company was formed and incor- 
porated with a capital of twenty-five thousand 
dollars. The original official corps was as fol- 
lows: John Kelsey, president; George Da- 
vidson, vice-president; and G. J. Vinton, sec- 
retary and treasurer. 

The title under which operations were first 
instituted was the Davidson Pipe & Novelty 
Company, and the original headquarters were 
in the Case building on Congress street. The 
establishment was burned out in 1899, and the 
headquarters were then established in a build- 
ing on Larned street, where the title of the 
concern was changed to the United States 
Chemico-Wood Company. The chief products 
of the manufactory at this time were umbrella 
handles. 

In 1902 a reorganization took place and the 
present Kelsey-Herbert Company was incor- 
porated. With amplified facilities the company 
began the manufacturing of various lines of 
toilet articles, brushes, combs, mirrors, etc., the 
articles turned out being made of metallic 
horn, resembling French stag, and manufac- 
tured from fiber. This is the only plant of the 
kind in the world and the composition used is 
protected by patents, being of most durable 
and attractive order. Mr. Davidson was the 
originator of the material utilized in the manu- 
facture of the goods, but Messrs. Kelsey and 
Herbert perfected the machines and the prod- 
uct, the latter gentleman having become one 
of the interested principals in the concern in 
1901. Upon the reorganization under the 
present title the capital stock of the company 
was increased to fifty thousand dollars, and so 
rapid was the growth and expansion of the 
business that it was later increased in turn to 
one hundred thousand and finally two hundred 
thousand dollars, at which latter figure as a 
basis, operations are now conducted. The 
present officers of the company are: Henry 
J. Herbert, president; James S. Stevenson, 
vice-president ; and John Kelsey, secretary and 
treasurer. In 1904 was erected the company's 
present well equipped and thoroughly modem 



plant, at 277-285 Monroe avenue. The 
building there utilized is four stories in height 
and of brick and stone construction. Besides 
this two branch places are maintained else- 
where in the city, and the aggregate floor space 
utilized is more than eighty-five thousand feet. 
The company now affords employment to 
three hundred operatives, many of them being 
skilled mechanics, and the annual pay roll 
shows an expenditure of more than one hun- 
dred thousand dollars. These facts indicate 
how great have been the energy, enterprise 
and ability which have been the potent factors 
in the upbuilding of the splendid business 
within comparatively so brief a period of time. 
The output of the factory is sold in all sections 
of the Union, as well as throughout Canada, 
and the foreign trade is showing an appre- 
ciable increase each successive year. The 
pyrography plant of the company is located at 
576 Kirby avenue and in the same is manu- 
factured the largest line of wood for pyrog- 
raphic purposes in this country. 



THE KEMIWELD CAN COMPANY. 

Another of the unique and successful indus- 
trial enterprises of the city of Detroit is that 
conducted by the company named above, the 
business having formerly been conducted under 
the title of Gem Fibre Package Company. The 
company are manufacturers of aseptic, mold- 
proof, moisture-proof and air-tight fibre cans 
and boxes, and the products have gained a 
most favorable reception by reason of mani- 
fest superiority. 

The Gem Fibre Package Company was in- 
corporated under the laws of the state in 1902, 
basing its operations upon a capital stock of 
ten thousand dollars. The expansion of the 
industry is shown adequately when it is stated 
that in 1906 it was found expedient to increase 
the capital to one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars and that in 1907 it was further raised, 
to the noteworthy figure of three hundred 
thousand dollars. All this implies a substan- 
tial growth and one of unusual rapidity. The 
original company had its organizers Messrs. 
H. Kirke White, Jr., Frank J. Hoag and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



207 



James Miller, and the officers of the company 
at the opening of the year 1908 are as here 
noted: H. Kirke White, Jr., president; Frank 
J. Hoag, of Toledo, Ohio, vice-president; 
Jervis R. Harbeck, treasurer; and Miron Neal, 
secretary. The fibre cans and boxes manufac- 
tured by the company are chemically welded, 
and this insures a thoroughly aseptic, odorless 
and tasteless container, the same being im- 
pervious to water, oils, grease, alkalis and light 
acids. The products have been found espe- 
cially desirable for the putting up of coffees, 
spices, baking powder, cleaning powder, dry 
chemicals, greases, paints, oils, syrups, candy, 
brines, butter, etc., and the demand on the 
part of the wholesale trade and certain manu- 
facturers has reached very extensive propor- 
tions, which show a constant tendency for still 
farther expansion. The fibre receptacles are 
manufactured under a secret and patented 
process controlled by the company, and much 
of the special machinery utilized in the manu- 
facture of the goods was designed by Mr. 
Harbeck, the treasurer of the company, these 
devices also being amply protected by patents. 

The trade of the concern extends through- 
out the United States and Canada, as well as 
into Mexico, Cuba, and the Orient, including 
the Philippine Islands. The plant of the com- 
pany is eligibly located at the corner of Clay 
and St. Aubin avenues, where about five acres 
of land are occupied. The plant represents a 
capitalistic investment of about five hundred 
thousand dollars, and employment is given to 
an average of three hundred and fifty persons. 
The president of the company exercises a gen- 
eral executive control and gives especial at- 
tention to the finances of the concern; Mr. 
Harbeck, the treasurer, is also the practical 
chemist and manufacturing expert of the com- 
pany, having as his assistant Thomas Neal 2d. 
The company maintains branch offices in New 
York city, Chicago, San Francisco and St. 
Louis, and has an agency in Denver. The 
fine products are rapidly displacing glass and 
tin, as well as wood in offering effective and 
superior facilities for the packing of in- 
numerable preparations, and the trade growth 



stands as ample voucher for the superiority of 
the goods produced in this fine industrial plant 
of Detroit. The fibre is chemically treated and 
the tops and ends of the various boxes and 
cans may likewise be of the fibre, or of any 
desired metal susceptible of adaptation to such 
uses. 



NELSON, BAKER & COMPANY. 

No city or locality in the world can legiti- 
mately claim precedence of Detroit in the mat- 
ter of the extent and importance of her posi- 
tion as headquarters for manufacturing chem- 
ists, for here are to be found some of the 
greatest pharmaceutical laboratories on the 
globe. Among the manufacturing concerns 
in this line that tend to give such priority to 
Detroit as a commercial center and which 
bring her name into recognition throughout 
the civilized world is that of Nelson, Baker & 
Company, which is an incorporated company, 
with a capital of three hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars. The officers of the company are 
as follows : E. H. Nelson, president and gen- 
eral manager; George Peck, vice-president; 
A. B. Lyons, M. D., secretary; and W. S. 
Baker, treasurer. In addition to these officials 
the directorate of the corporation includes Dr. 
F. A. McGraw, C. A. Black, and F. W. Eddy. 

The present president of the company was 
the founder of the business, which has grown 
to be one of broad scope and importance under 
his administration as chief executive. In 1893 
the company erected a laboratory on Lafayette 
avenue and the building has since been mate- 
rially enlarged. In the laboratory and offices 
are employed nearly four hundred persons, and 
the concern is represented in its trade territory 
by an average of seventy traveling salesmen. 
The company manufactures full and complete 
lines of pharmaceutical preparations and the 
products of the establishment are recognized 
by the trade and by the medical profession in 
general as being of a superior order. The 
concern merits consideration in this publica- 
tion as one of the many splendid industrial and 
commercial enterprises of Detroit and of the 
state. 



208 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



THE NATIONAL CAN COMPANY. 

In the multiplicity and variety of her manu- 
facturing interests Detroit is excelled by few, 
if any, cities of comparable size in the Union, 
and within the past decade she has made mar- 
velous and substantial strides along these lines, 
progressing steadily and bravely along her 
course to the goal of still greater prestige as 
one of the great manufacturing and industrial 
centers of the world. One of the prime func- 
tions of this publication is to give recognition, 
through brief mention, to those enterprises 
which are contributing each its quota to this 
magnificent advancement. 

The National Can Company was organized 
in 1901 and was duly incorporated with a capi- 
tal stock of one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars, which was increased to two hundred 
and fifty thousand in 1905, to meet the de- 
mands placed upon the institution by its rap- 
idly expanding business. The originators of 
the company were Messrs. Theodore D. Buhl, 
William H. Warren, Frederick T. Ducharme, 
Frank W. Eddy, David M. Ireland, Edwin H. 
Nelson, and Frederick E. Wadsworth. These 
are names of essentially representative capi- 
talists and business men of the Michigan me- 
tropolis, and thus the industry had its incep- 
tion under peculiarly favorable auspices. The 
company purchased the substantial factory of 
the Decoy Fly Paper Company, near the junc- 
tion of North Grand boulevard and the lines 
of the Grand Trunk Railway, and the plant was 
remodeled and enlarged, to make it thoroughly 
available for the purposes for which it was to 
be used. The main building is a brick and 
stone structure, three stories and basement, and 
two hundred and thirty by sixty-five feet in 
lateral dimensions. This is utilized as the gen- 
eral manufacturing department. The commo- 
dious warehouse, two stories in height, is sixty 
by one hundred and twenty feet in dimensions, 
and is utilized for the storage of both raw 
material and the finished products. The 
stamping room is forty by two hundred feet 
in dimensions, and a separate brick building 
accommodates the fine modern power plant. 
The products of the concern are tin cans and 
metal containers, besides sheet-metal work for 



general commercial purposes, and of the former 
an average of thirty-two millions are manufac- 
tured annually. Employment is given to three 
hundred hands, of whom about one-half are 
girls, expert artisans being employed on the 
machine and die work. The yearly pay roll 
represents an expenditure of about one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars, which indi- 
cates unequivocally the importance of the in- 
dustry as contributory to the civic and com- 
mercial prosperity of Detroit. The output of 
the concern finds sales in the most diverse sec- 
tions of the Union, and adds to the honors of 
the city through being "Made in Detroit." 

The officers of the National Can Company 
are as follows: Frank W. Eddy, president; 
David M. Ireland, vice-president; Frederick T. 
Ducharme, treasurer; and Neil McMillan, sec- 
retary and general manager. Bert Canby is 
the efficient and popular sales manager for the 
concern. In addition to the four executive 
officers mentioned, the directorate of the com- 
pany includes David C. Whitney, Willis E. 
Buhl, Alexander McPherson and Edwin H. 
Nelson. 



THE SEAMLESS STEEL BATH TUB COM- 
PANY. 

To note those enterprises which stand repre- 
sentative in their respective lines and have im- 
portant bearing upon the precedence and com- 
mercial activity of the city of Detroit and 
Wayne county, is the prime desideratum in this 
department of the publication here presented. 
From this viewpoint there is eminent consist- 
ency in entering a brief review of the unique 
and successful mdustry conducted under the 
title which initiates this article. 

The Seamless Steel Bath Tub Company was 
incorporated under the laws of the state of 
Michigan in 1904, with a capital stock of six 
hundred thousand dollars. Following is a list 
of the principals concerned in the organization 
and incorporation of the company, and it will 
be seen that enlisted in the enterprise are a 
number of the leading capitalists and influential 
citizens of Detroit, while from the original 
personnel two or more have been taken by ■ 
death since the corporation was formed: 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



209 



George H. Barbour, Henry B. Ledyard, Jo- 
seph Boyer, George H. Russel, Henry Russel, 
General Russell A. Alger, Franklin H. Walker, 
Theodore D. Buhl, Anton B. DuPont, Eugene 
H. Sloman, A. E. F. White, William P. Ste- 
vens, William C. McMillan, and Philip H. 
McMillan. The original executive corps was 
as here noted : A. B. DuPont, president ; E. 
H. Sloman, vice-president ; and George B. Rus- 
sel, secretary and treasurer. Mr. DuPont, the 
president, was general manager of the business 
from its inception until the autumn of 1906, 
when he retired and was succeeded by E. H. 
Sloman. E. L. Wayman is assistant manager 
at the present time, and has direct super- 
vision of the manufacturing and sales depart- 
ments. Antonio C. Pessano is now president 
of the company ; Joseph Boyer, vice-president ; 
and George B. Russel, secretary and treasurer. 
Walter Sturgis is superintendent of the plant. 
Soon after its organization this company 
purchased eight and one-half acres of ground 
on Mount Elliott avenue, near Harper avenue, 
and on this tract was erected the fine modern 
plant in which are manufactured the seamless 
steel bath tubs, whose superiority over all other 
types is uniformly conceded. From the cata- 
logue issued by the company are taken the fol- 
lowing pertinent statements: "The organiza- 
tion and successful launching of the Seamless 
Steel Bath Tub Company presents a new indus- 
try in steel working that revolutionizes the 
manufacture of bath tubs. For years it has 
been tried in various ways to construct an ar- 
ticle that would replace the cumbersome and 
unsightly cast-iron tubs that have been in use 
up to the present time, but it remained for 
this company to solve the problem successfully. 
Wood-rimmed steel bath tubs have been on the 
market for some time, but in such shape that 
they could be used only for the cheapest kind 
of installations, being made in three parts, 
which precluded porcelaining, and being most 
unsatisfactory in every respect. The tubs 
manufactured by this company under the Slo- 
man process, patented, are constructed from a 
single sheet of steel, embodying the advan- 
tages of durability, smooth surface on the out- 
side that admits of high decoration, light 



weight, taking the temperature of the water 
with little absorption of heat, the readiness 
with which it can be handled by the plumber, 
and the adaptability to a high Dresden finish 
in the porcelaining, also an economy in weight 
with reference to floor construction in apart- 
ment houses and hotels." The catalogue from 
which the foregoing extracts are made offers 
a full description of the methods of manufac- 
turing the superior products, and those inter- 
ested will, of course, gain desired information 
from this brochure of the company, as it is not 
consonant with the province of the publication 
at hand to enter into such details. The plant 
has a capacity for the output of one hundred 
and fifty tubs a day when running at normal 
capacity, and the processes of manufacture, as 
well as much of the special machinery, are 
protected by both domestic and foreign patents. 
The company claims, with all of consistency, 
to be the only one producing tubs porcelained 
on both sides, and a specialty is made of high- 
grade and artistic work. The company fur- 
nished to the magnificent new Hotel Pont- 
chartrain, in Detroit, one hundred and seventy 
of its highest grade of tubs. 

The trade of the company penetrates into the 
most diverse sections of the United States and 
Canada, and the export trade is rapidly in- 
creasing in scope and importance. In the plant 
employment is given to a force of one hundred 
and fifty workmen, the majority of whom are 
skilled artisans in the lines of work assigned 
to them, and the average annual expenditure 
in wages aggregates fully seventy-five thousand 
dollars. 



F. A. THOMPSON & COMPANY. 

The commercial prestige of the city of De- 
troit has been advanced through no one source 
so greatly as in the extent and high standard of 
its great institutions devoted to the manufac- 
turing of chemicals and general pharmaceutical 
preparations and specialties. One of the suc- 
cessful enterprises which has contributed to 
this noteworthy prestige is that conducted 
under the title designated in the caption of this 
article. 



210 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



The business dates its inception back to the 
year 1898, and the chief organizer of the cor- 
poration was the present treasurer and general 
manager of the company, Frank A. Thompson, 
whose efforts and enterprise are perpetuated in 
the name of the concern. The company was 
incorporated with a capital stock of seventy- 
five thousand dollars, and with official corps as 
follows : Edwin F. Conley, president ; Frank 
A. Thompson, treasurer and manager; John E. 
Clark, M. D., vice-president; and Frederick 
Guenther, secretary. Since the death of Mr. 
Conley, C. J. Reilly has been president, and the 
other officers remain the same, while John 
McFarlane is now superintendent of the tech- 
nical and manufacturing departments, being 
the subject of an individual sketch in this pub- 
lication. The concern manufactures a general 
line of pharmaceutical preparations, has well 
equipped laboratories and the best of other fa- 
cilities in its plant, which is located on 502-510 
Trombly avenue, and has built up a large and 
far-reaching business. A specialty is made of 
nicotine products from tobacco, and the same 
have gained a wide reputation and sale, being 
utilized for the destruction of plant insects and 
other vermin, including the various parasites 
which afflict animals and even human beings. 
The well arranged catalogues and other litera- 
ture of the company offer adequate description 
of the values and uses of the Thompson "Rose 
Nicotine," "Tobakine" sheep dip; liquid nico- 
tine preparations for the use of florists and 
home flower and plant grower. The concern 
is the only one in the north manufacturing 
products of this order, and the processes and 
certain of the machines used are the invention 
of Mr. Thompson. The company also manu- 
facture resinoids, alkaloids, medicinal extracts 
of all kinds, and other preparations sold to the 
manufacturing and wholesale trade. The trade 
of the company penetrates all sections of the 
United States and also extends into the various 
provinces of Canada and into European coun- 
tries. An agency is maintained in the city of 
London, England. In the various departments 
of the plant forty persons are employed, and 
the greater number are skilled in the technical 
lines which represent this peculiar branch of 



industrial enterprise. It is impossible in a pub- 
lication of this nature to enter manifold de- 
tails concerning the various business enter- 
prises represented, but even a brief review, 
such as the one at hand, aids in showing forth 
the multiplicity and variety of the commercial 
and industrial concerns which aid in maintain- 
ing Detroit in the front rank as one of the 
great distributing and manufacturing centers 
of the Union. 

C. D. WIDMAN & COMPANY. 

In the manufacturing of mirrors and hall 
furniture this well known Detroit corporation 
is recognized as one of the pioneer concerns of 
the kind in the west, and the ramifications of 
its business are now wide and important. The 
enterprise dates its inception back to the year 
1865, when Cosmos D. Widman and Mr. 
Aspinwall entered into partnership, under the 
present title of C. D. Widman & Company, 
and established a modest business place at the 
corner of Fort and Randolph streets. There 
the headquarters were maintained, with en- 
largement of facilities from time to time, until 
1885, when the present plant at Trombly and 
Milwaukee avenues and Orleans street, was se- 
cured by the firm, the same being adequate in 
all its mechanical equipment and needed ac- 
cessories. In 1884 the original title was con- 
tinued in the corporation which was then 
formed and of which the officers are as here 
noted: James W. Ailes, president; Sylvester 
L. Rich, vice-president and treasurer; and 
Albert U. Widman, secretary and general 
manager. 

Cosmos D. Widman, who died in 1883, was 
born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1846, and was 
a son of Christian Widman, who came with his 
family to America in 1861 and located in the 
city of Rochester, New York, where he passed 
the remainder of his life. Cosmos D. Wid- 
man secured his early education in the excel- 
lent schools of his fatherland and was about 
fifteen years of age at the time of the family 
immigration to the United States. He re- 
mained in Rochester until 1865, when he came 
to Detroit, where he soon afterward founded 
the business of C. D. Widman & Company, as 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



211 



is noted above. He ever showed himself a 
thoroughly upright and honorable business 
man and as a citizen was loyal to all civic du- 
ties and responsibilities. In politics he was a 
stalwart Republican, though he had never 
sought or desired the honors or emoluments 
of public office. He and his wife held mem- 
bership in the Emanuel church, Protestant 
Episcopal. 

Mr. Widman was united in marriage to 
Miss Isabelle Rich, daughter of the late George 
Rich, a representative citizen of Detroit and 
at one time incumbent of the office of city 
treasurer. Concerning the children of Mr. 
and Mrs. Widman the following brief data are 
entered : Clara E. is the wife of Frederick 
L. Andrews, who is connected with the great 
pharmaceutical concern of Parke, Davis & 
Company, of Detroit; Albert U. is individ- 
ually mentioned in this volume ; Adele R. is the 
wife of George Gnau, a well known insurance 
agent of Detroit, with offices in the Hammond 
building; and Florence J. is the wife of Don- 
ald Johnston, of Detroit, the Michigan general 
agent for the Union Central Life Insurance 
Company. 

THE HUGH WALLACE COMPANY. 

In the manufacturing of coats and robes this 
company controls a widely disseminated and 
important business, and the enterprise con- 
tributes materially to the industrial supremacy 
of the city of Detroit. The company was in- 
corporated in 1906, with a capital stock of four 
hundred thousand dollars, and the personnel 
of its official corps is as follows : Hugh Wal- 
lace, president; Lewis H. Ward, vice-presi- 
dent; Floyd G. Arms, secretary; Daniel 
McColl, treasurer. This company is the direct 
successor of the Western Robe Company, 
which was incorporated in 1904, prior to 
which time the business had been conducted 
under the same title but without incorporation. 
The business was founded in 1897, by Hugh 
Wallace, who has been at its head from the 
inception to the present time and to whose 
progressive ideas and wise administrative 
policy the expansion of the enterprise to its 
present large proportions is primarily due. A 



brief review of his career appears on other 
pages of this volume. 

Many of the products of this concern are 
unique, and the lines manufactured include 
astrakhan and buffalo fur cloths, which, in 
turn, are utilized in the making of robes, coats, 
Mackinac jackets, etc. The plant has a ca- 
pacity for the manufacturing of three thousand 
yards of cloth daily, and the Wallace astrakhan 
and buffalo cloths are the standard in America. 
The Wallace robes, of varied designs and ma- 
terials, find sale in every state in the Union, 
and through their wide introduction the name 
of the original company was given marked 
prestige throughout all sections of the country. 
Concerning another feature of the industry the 
following pertinent statements are made in one 
of the recently issued and especially attractive 
catalogues of the company : "The fur and fur- 
lined departments have grown more rapidly 
than any other branch of our business, which 
bespeaks the popularity of these goods. We 
have established the same high standard in 
these departments that we have always main- 
tained in our other lines. We now have our 
own tanning, dressing and dyeing plant, thus 
insuring the very best work." 

The Wallace cloak and overcoat cloths are 
manufactured on special knitting machines, and 
the factory in this department has the best of 
equipment throughout. It is run to its full 
capacity every day in the year, and more than 
one hundred hands are employed in this de- 
partment alone. One of the modern type of 
machines utilized will produce in the same 
length of time three times as much as the old- 
style weaving machines. The output of the 
knitting mill not only supplies the materials 
for the other manufacturing departments of the 
concern but is also sold to other coat and cloak 
manufacturers and to jobbers of cloths. The 
mill is two hundred and forty by one hundred 
feet in dimensions and three stories in height, 
being of substantial brick construction. The 
coat and robe manufactory occupies a building 
on the south side of Grand boulevard, and this 
plant was erected in 1906. Here employment 
is given to about three hundred persons, in- 
cluding twenty-five experts in the tanning, dye- 



212 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ing and dressing of furs. A branch establish- 
ment is maintained at 725 Broadway, New 
York, where a large stock is carried, and 
sample rooms and agencies are also established 
in St. Louis, Boston, San Francisco, and in 
Gloversville, New York. The robes and coats 
manufactured b}' the company control a large 
sale throughout all sections of the Union north 
established in Alaska. This concern is the 
of the Ohio river, and a large trade has been 
largest of its kind in the United States, is the 
pioneer in covering the manufacture of its 
products from the raw material to the finished 
garment, and is still the only company which 
compasses such operations. The Canadian 
market is controlled through a branch factory 
at Berlin, Ontario, and the same is under the 
management of W. J. Simeon, who had pre- 
viously been connected with the business of the 
home plant in Detroit. In the Canadian fac- 
tory employment is afforded to an average 
force of one hundred persons. In Detroit the 
company disburses one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars annually in wages to operatives, 
and this does not include the salaries of the 
office corps, of twelve persons, and the travel- 
ing representatives, numbering fourteen. In 
addition to the production of buffalo and as- 
trakhan and Persian lamb cloth garments, the 
company also manufactures duck coats and 
vests, women's coats, a wide variety of robes, 
and also gauntlet mittens and gloves. The 
enterprise is one of the strong and ably 
conducted industries of Detroit and is most 
consistently given representation in this 
publication. 

JEROME H. REMICK & COMPANY. 

In reviewing those enterprises which have 
been material factors in the advancement of 
Detroit to a position of importance among the 
leading industrial, financial and commercial 
centers of the United States, few instances of 
more rapid, substantial and satisfactory growth 
can be found than in that of the development 
of the extensive business of the corporation 
whose name initiates this article. 

Jerome H. Remick & Company are the 
world's largest publishers of sheet music, — a 



distinction rightfully theirs through the vol- 
ume of business transacted. They are also the 
most extensive retailers in their line in Amer- 
ica, the originators of the retail department in 
connection with the publishing business, and 
operate some thirty sales branches, in as many 
leading cities of the country. The foundation 
of the present business dates from the estab- 
lishment of the Whitney-Warner Publishing 
Company, of Detroit. Mr. Remick, the domi- 
nant factor in the enterprise of to-day, pur- 
chased a half interest in the original enterprise 
in 1898, and two years later became its sole 
owner, conducting it imder its original title 
until 1904. In January of that year the busi- 
ness was consolidated with that of a New York 
institution, and incorporated under the laws of 
the state of New York as Shapiro, Remick & 
Company, its executive officers being: Presi- 
dent, Maurice Shapiro; secretary, treasurer 
and general manager, Jerome H. Remick. A 
reorganization followed the retirement of Mr. 
Shapiro, in December of that year, and the 
business was re-incorporated under the laws of 
the state of New York, as Jerome H. Remick 
& Company, with an authorized capital of two 
hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Remick was 
elected president and general manager. 

The executive offices of the company are 
located at numbers 68-70 Farrar street, De- 
troit, and branch offices are maintained in New 
York city and Chicago. The company have 
developed an extensive foreign business, which 
is supplied through sales agencies in London, 
Paris and Berlin. In 1902, Mr. Remick orig- 
inated and established the first retail branch of 
the business, a sheet music department in one 
of the largest of Detroit's department stores. 
Its favorable reception by the music-purchasing 
public was instantaneous, and others were 
added as rapidly as possible. At the present 
writing, 1908, the company maintains thirty- 
five such departments, distributed among the 
leading department stores in the principal 
cities of the United States. 

In order to centralize and facilitate the oper- 
ation of the mechanical department of the bus- 
iness, there was organized and incoi-porated 
on January 10, 1907, the J. H. Remick Print- 






DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



213 



ing Company, a subsidiary corporation, with 
an authorized capital of twenty thousand dol- 
lars, and the following officers were elected : 
J. H. Remick, president ; John H. Engel, vice- 
president; Stephen Baldwin, treasurer; and 
Emil Voelker, secretary. As its title suggests, 
this company is engaged in printing the var- 
ious musical compositions emanating solely 
from the parent company. 

The building occupied jointly by these en- 
terprises, at numbers 68-70 Farrar street, was 
designed and erected for their use in 1907. It 
j is a three story and basement structure, having 
I an aggregate floor space of twenty thousand 
j square feet, and is divided in its occupancy as 
follows : First floor, basement and portion of 
! second floor by the printing company : their 
I equipment is of the latest and best known to the 
I printing trade and includes a battery of five 
i Miehle presses; Jerome H. Remick & Com- 
' pany occupy the remainder of the building. 
The second floor provides room for sumptuous 
offices, music rooms and the order department, 
and the third floor is used for storage pur- 
poses, stock room etc. The extent of the busi- 
ness conducted by the publishing house is best 
illustrated through the statement that the 
paper stock used in printing the compositions 
marketed during the year 1907 represented an 
outlay of over one hundred and twenty thou- 
sand dollars. There are few homes in Amer- 
ica in which could not be found one or more 
compositions bearing the imprint of Jerome 
H. Remick & Company, Detroit, and the re- 
flex value of the familiarizing throughout the 
country of the name Detroit is, from the 
standpoint of home advertising, of inestimable 
value. 

The development of the business has been a 
matter of about eight years, and when the re- 
sults accomplished are taken into considera- 
tion, one is forced to commend the remarkable 
energy, initiative and executive ability demon- 
strated in its administration by the manage- 
ment. 

The personnel of the executive corps of the 
company is as follows: Jerome H. Remick, 
president and general manager; William Gross- 
man, of New York city, vice-president; Ste- 



phen Baldwin, of Detroit, treasurer; and Fred 
E. Belcher, of New York city, secretary. An 
individual article concerning Mr. Remick ap- 
pears on other pages of this volume. In the 
organization, development and administration 
of the enterprise Mr. Remick has ever been the 
controlling spirit, and to his progressiveness, 
energy and resourcefulness the present com- 
manding position of the company is due. Its 
success has not been confined to volume of bus- 
iness alone and it is recognized as having pro- 
duced, during its career, more popular music 
successes than any house in the music publish- 
ing line in America. 



THE PENBERTHY INJECTOR COMPANY. 

The throbbing pulsations of the manufac- 
turing industries of Detroit are felt in all sec- 
tions of the world and the products of her 
magnificent institutions may be found in prac- 
tically every civilized clime. 

In insuring this prominence and pres- 
tige few concerns have contributed more con- 
spicuously and worthily than that whose title 
initiates this paragraph and whose enterprise 
is conceded to be the largest of the sort in ex- 
istence. The history of the company is a most 
interesting and significant one, involving, as it 
does, the record of the building up of a splen- 
did industry from a nucleus of most modest 
order and bearing evidence of the well directed 
energies of men of courage, progressive ideas 
and distinctive administrative ability. Wher- 
ever steam is generated for practical utiliza- 
tion there are the products of the Penberthy 
Injector Company known and applied, and 
thus it becomes a matter of special gratifica- 
tion to the publishers of this work to enter 
within its pages a resume of this representa- 
tive concern. 

The company was incorporated in 1886, 
with a capital stock of one hundred thousand 
dollars, and the personnel of its original execu- 
tive corps was as follows : Homer Pennock, 
president ; William Penberthy, vice-president ; 
and S. Olin Johnson, secretary and treasurer. 
The organization was effected for the purpose 
of manufacturing the improved steam injector 



214 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



invented by Mr. Penberthy, and the company 
assumed the ownership of the patents on the 
device. The original "plant" was a room about 
twenty feet square in the building occupied by 
the Detroit Knitting & Corset Works, of 
which Mr. Johnson, secretary and treasurer of 
the new corporation, was at the time manager. 
The mechanical equipment installed at the 
start consisted of one brass lathe and one tool 
lathe, and the operative force was limited to 
four men, all castings being made outside, un- 
der contract. Carefully and methodically was 
the work pushed forward and the products 
were introduced entirely upon their merits. 
The enterprise expanded rapidly but normally 
under these conditions, and in 1890 the orig- 
inal quarters were abandoned for a building 
of one story which had been erected in the rear 
of the knitting and corset factory and which 
was fifty by forty feet in dimensions. The de- 
velopment of the business continued and event- 
ually the entire building formerly occupied by 
the corset factory was devoted to the use of 
the injector company, while the corps of em- 
ployes was increased to one hundred and fifty 
persons. Under essentially these conditions 
the enterprise was successfully continued until 
November 21, 1901, when the plant and build- 
ing were completely wrecked by an explosion 
of the boilers, entailing virtually the entire 
loss of the equipment. A careful investigation 
of the cause of the accident was made and the 
matter was carried into the courts, where the 
jury emphatically placed the blame upon the 
manufacturers of the boilers, having unequiv- 
ocally pronounced the dictum that inferior 
material had been used in the construction of 
the same. 

Immediately following the wrecking of the 
plant, which had been located on Abbott street, 
the company purchased five and one-half acres 
of land with a frontage of three hundred feet 
on Greenwood avenue and five hundred feet 
on Holden avenue and the trackway of the 
Grand Trunk Railway. On this site on hun- 
dred and twenty-five thousand dollars were ex- 
pended in the erection of an essentially mod- 
em plant, with every possible accessory and 
device for facilitating operations and consei-v- 



ing time and economy in the same. In addi- 
tion to the sum noted about seventy-five thou- 
sand dollars were invested in the machinery 
installed. In 1907 was erected the office build- 
ing, one of the finest and most sumptuously 
appointed that can be found in connection with 
Detroit manufacturing concerns. In the mat- 
ter of lighting, convenience of arrangement, 
individual apparatus for protection from fire, 
excellence of shipping facilities and general 
equipment, this plant is recognized as one of 
the best in the country. Employment is now 
given to a force of about three hundred and 
fifty operatives, of whom fully sixty-five per 
cent, are skilled mechanicians. The average 
annual pay roll represents an expenditure of 
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The 
stock of the company is now virtually con- 
trolled by S. Olin Johnson, and the capital has 
been reduced to fifty thousand dollars, giving 
ample working basis and showing the conserv- 
ative methods on which the business is con- 
ducted. This reduction is significant in these 
days, when there is so great a tendency toward 
the overdue "watering" of the stock of cor- 
porations. The financial stability of the com- 
pany is further indicated in its notable surplus 
fund of three hundred thousand dollars, at the 
beginning of the year 1908. The officers of 
the company at the present time are as here 
noted: S. Olin Johnson, president and treas- 
urer; and Homer S. Johnson, secretary and 
general manager. 

The Penberthy injector is manufactured in 
two types, — the automatic injector and the 
auto-positive injector, — and there is not a sec- 
tion of the world in which steam is applied 
that the products of this i-iportant concern are 
not utilized and recognized for their superi- 
ority. This implies, as is the unmistakable 
fact, that there are in use to-day more of the 
Penberthy injectors than of any two other in- 
jector manufactories combined. The annual 
capacity of the plant is for the output of fifty 
thousand injectors, and the institution is nm 
to its maximum capacity at all times in order 
to meet the demands placed upon it. Since the 
organization of the company, in 1886, it has 
expended more than two hundred and fifty 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



215 



thousand dollars in advertising, and this pub- 
licity work has been handled with signal ability 
and judgment. The Penberthy injectors are 
the recognized standard of excellence, taking 
precedence of all others. In 1890 an auxilliary 
plant was erected in Windsor, Ontario, for the 
purpose of protecting the Canadian patents of 
the company and facilitating the large business 
controlled in that dominion. In 1902 Homer 
S. Johnson, son of the president of the com- 
pany, assumed the management of the Cana- 
dian field and under his effective direction the 
trade therein was rapidly and substantially de- 
veloped from the Windsor headquarters. 
Since 1905 this branch has been in charge of 
Seth J. North, a nephew of the president of 
the company, and he has proven a discriminat- 
ing and capable executive, having well demon- 
strated his ability for the handling of large 
and important business interests. Detroit has 
reason to find satisfaction in counting among 
her representative manufacturing industries 
that of the Penberthy Injector Company, for 
the products, "made in Detroit," have brought 
unmistakable prestige to the city wherever 
steam is applied to practical uses, — and that 
implies all sections of the world. As in a 
measure supplemental and complimentary to 
this brief descriptive article may be taken the 
sketch of the career of the president of the 
company, said article appearing on other pages 
of this volume. 



THE J. H. BISHOP COMPANY. 

An industry of importance and one which 
had a most modest inception is that conducted 
by the J. H. Bishop Company, whose extensive 
plant and business headquarters are located in 
the city of Wyandotte, where the concern rep- 
resents one of the pioneer manufacturing en- 
terprises of this thriving town. To the 
prescience and indefatigable energy of the 
founder, Jerome H. Bishop is due the upbuild- 
ing of this industry, the most important of the 
kind in the United States, and on other pages 
of this publication will be found a brief re- 
view of the career of Mr. Bishop, who is one 
of the most honored citizens and most pro- 



gressive and public-spirited business men of 
Wyandotte, where he has maintained his home 
for nearly forty years. 

The enterprise to which this article is de- 
voted had its inception in 1875, when Jerome 
H. Bishop, who had for the four preceding 
years been superintendent of the public schools 
of Wyandotte, began the manufacturing of fur 
coats and robes. He began operations upon a 
capitalistic basis of only fifty dollars and he 
individually constituted the entire executive 
and working force. The growth of the in- 
dustry to its present proportions stands in 
evidence of his unceasing application, wise 
policy and strong executive and initiative 
talent. 

The business was conducted under the title 
of J. H. Bishop until 1891, when articles of 
incorporation were filed. In February of that 
year was incorporated under the laws of the 
state the J. H. Bishop Company, with a capi- 
tal stock of five hundred thousand dollars. It 
is needless to remark that it is a "far cry" 
from the little shop established by Mr. Bishop 
and the institution which now bears his name. 
The company manufacture fur coats and robes 
of all descriptions and control a trade which 
ramifies throughout the United States and 
Canada. For the facile handling of the large 
trade in the Canadian provinces a branch plant 
is maintained at Sandwich, Ontario, and the 
same is in charge of William J. Burns, secre- 
tary of the company. The home plant of the 
company in Wyandotte occupies an entire 
block, bounded by Superior boulevard. Chest- 
nut and River streets and the Detroit river. 
Here have been erected fourteen substantial 
buildings and the same are equipped with the 
most modern mechanical devices and other 
accessories for facilitating the manufacturing 
of the standard products of the concern, while 
careful attention has been given to providing 
the best of sanitary conditions and affording 
ample protection from loss by fire. This is 
the only concern in the Union which manu- 
factures fur coats and robes directly from the 
raw material. That is, the plant is equipped 
for the tanning, dyeing and finishing of all 
hides and skins used, and thereafter every 



216 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



detail of the manufacturing is done in the 
establishment itself. In the plant may be found 
every kind of skin utilized for the manufac- 
turing of the products for which the company 
has gained so wide and splendid a reputation. 
In the purchasing of skins for use in the fac- 
tory recourse is had to the fur markets of the 
world. The annual business of the company 
shows transactions to the average aggregate of 
about six hundred thousand dollars, and one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars are 
expended each year in salaries and wages. 
The company gives employment to three 
hundred persons, a considerable proportion of 
whom are skilled artisans. A corps of ten 
traveling representatives are retained and the 
business is entirely of a wholesale order. The 
products are recognized as standard, and their 
superior excellence has been the agency 
through which the enterprise has expanded 
year after year. Branch offices are maintained 
in New York, Chicago and Boston. The of- 
ficers of the company are as here noted : Presi- 
dent and general manager, Jerome H. Bishop; 
vice-president, Jerome H. Bishop, Jr.; secre- 
tary, William J. Burns; and treasurer, J. H. 
Bishop. 

THE BUHL MALLEABLE COMPANY. 

Members of the Buhl family have long stood 
representative of the most progressive citizen- 
ship in Detroit, and the city owes to them no 
insignificant debt in connection with its in- 
dustrial and civic upbuilding and advancement. 
With many concerns of commercial impor- 
tance is the name identified, as the pages of this 
work will clearly show in greater or less de- 
tail, and among such enterprises is that con- 
ducted under the corporate name indicated 
above. 

Under the title of the Sprocket Chain Manu- 
facturing Company, the business had its in- 
ception on the nth of April, 1899, when the 
company was incorporated with a capital stock 
of twenty-five thousand dollars. The concern 
began the manufacturing of sprocket chains 
by effecting the purchase of the business of the 
Detroit Sprocket Chain Company, which had 
been manufacturing such products upon a 



modest scale. The Buhls assumed control of 
the business and on the 14th of August, 1899, 
it was incorporated under the laws of the state, 
as the Buhl Malleable Company, with a capital 
stock of fifty thousand dollars. The officers of 
the concern were as follows : Theodore D. 
Buhl, president; Alexander McPherson, vice- 
president ; Frederick T. DeLong, secretary and 
treasurer. In August, 1903, Charles A. Rath- 
bone was elected secretary and treasurer, and 
also a director of the company, and upon Mr. 
DeLong's leaving, he was made secretary, 
treasurer ' and manager. It will thus 
be seen that the interposition of other repre- 
sentative business men than those giving title 
to the concern was secured, so that the busi- 
ness started out under most favorable auspices 
in the matter of executive control. The suc- 
cess of the company has been pronounced in 
order, and the business has become one of the 
valuable acquisitions to the industrial enter- 
prises of the "Greater Detroit." In 1901 the 
capital stock was increased to one hundred 
thousand dollars, and September 30, 1907, was 
increased to one hundred and ten thousand 
dollars. The business since 1903 has been 
very successful, — adding new furnaces, in- 
creasing their output and doubling this busi- 
ness. Upon the death of Theodore D. Buhl, 
in April, 1907, his son, Arthur A. Buhl, suc- 
ceeded to the presidency, an office in which he 
is directing affairs with unqualified discrimina- 
tion, and his brother Willis E. Buhl, was 
elected director to fill the vacancy caused by 
the death of his father. 

The well equipped plant of the Buhl Mal- 
leable Company is, in the main, that formerly 
utilized by the Peninsular Car Company, on 
Adair street, but enlargements and other im- 
provements upon the buildings have been made 
from time to time, to meet the demands of the 
expanding business and to facilitate the work 
of manufacturing. Through the extension of 
the plant the company now utilize the large 
tract of land lying between Adair and Walker 
streets on Wight street and extending down 
to the Detroit river, where excellent dock fa- 
cilities are controlled. In the works are em- 
ployed six hundred and fifty operatives, of 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



217 



whom one hundred and fifty to one hundred 
and seventy-five are moulders, and the output 
of the plant not only includes the original line 
of sprocket chains, now a small feature of the 
enterprise, but also the highest grade of mal- 
leable-iron work, for agricultural plants, car 
work and general malleable work. The output 
reaches an annual aggregate of from eight 
thousand to ten thousand tons and the products 
are sold principally throughout the United 
States and Canada. 



THE AMERICAN HARROW COMPANY. 

The superior advantages offered by Detroit 
as a manufacturing and distributing center are 
becoming more thoroughly appreciated every 
succeeding year, and in witness of this fact 
the best evidence is that shown in the marvel- 
ous impetus which has of recent years been 
given to the city's industrial growth and ex- 
pansion. Among the many manufacturing 
enterprises which thus lend prestige to the 
city is numbered that conducted under the cor- 
porate title indicated at the head of this article. 
The American Harrow Company, repre- 
senting one of the newer and important in- 
dustries of the city, was incorporated in 1882, 
with a capital stock of one hundred thousand 
dollars, and with official corps as follows: D. 
M. Ferry, president, until his death; W. B. 
Moran originally vice-president; Sherman R. 
Miller, vice-president; and Wilham W. Col- 
lier, secretary and treasurer. In addi- 
tion to the present officers of the company 
several others of the stockholders are 
represented on the directorate. Shortly 
after incorporation the company instituted the 
erection of a suitable plant, securing an eligi- 
ble location on the corner of Milwaukee ave- 
nue and Hastings street, where they now have 
four acres of ground covered with buildings, 
and have a most complete and finely equipped 
modern plant. The products of the establish- 
ment include harrows, cultivators and manure- 
spreaders, all of special and effective design 
and all properly protected by patents, and the 
trade of the concern now permeates into all 
sections of the agricultural world. From the 



earnings of the concern the capital stock has 
now been increased to the noteworthy aggre- 
gate of two hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars. Though the major portion of the output 
is utilized in the United States and Canada, 
the company has already built up specially sub- 
stantial and appreciative trade in England, 
Australia and Holland. This concern repre- 
sents the largest manufactory of disk-harrows 
and manure-spreaders in the world. 

William W. Collier and the late Henry Gale, 
of Albion, Michigan, were the leading spirits 
in the promoting of this important and well 
ordered enterprise and to them is due the or- 
ganization of the company under so favorable 
auspices. Since the death of Mr. Gale the 
practical management of the business has de- 
volved largely upon Mr. Collier, in co-opera- 
tion with the executive committee. 

William W. Collier is a native of the 
Wolverine state, having been born in Battle 
Creek, Michigan, on the 19th of November, 
1850, and being a son of Victor P. Collier, 
who was long one of the prominent and in- 
fluential business men of that city. Mr. Col- 
lier was reared in Battle Creek, where he se- 
cured his preliminary educational training, 
which was supplemented by further study in 
Highland Military Academy. After leaving 
school Mr. Collier was associated with his 
father in the hardware business for some time, 
and the father later became president of the 
First National Bank of Battle Creek, also serv- 
ino; one term as state treasurer. 

In 1871, soon after attaining to his legal 
majority, William W. Collier came to Detroit, 
where he entered the employ of the hardware 
house of Ducharme, Fletcher & Company, with 
whom he remained four years, after which he 
was salesman for the Wyandotte Rolling Mill 
Company until 1902, when he became identi- 
fied with the organization of the American 
Harrow Company, as already described in this 
article. He is also vice-president of the Du- 
plex Printing Press Company, of Battle Creek. 
In the spring of 1908, the Detroit Driving 
Club was reorganized, with a capital stock of 
twenty-five thousand dollars, and Mr. Collier 
was chosen president. The company leased 



218 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the State Fair grounds and track for a period 

of ten years, and have greatly improved the 

same. 

In politics he is a Republican, and he is 

identified with various civic and social organi- 
zations. He and his wife hold membership in 
the Unitarian church. 

In 1891 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. 
Collier to Miss Virginia Wright, daughter of 
Philo Wright, a well known vessel-owner of 
Detroit, and prominently identified with navi- 
gation interests on the Great Lakes. Mr. and 
Mrs. Collier have three sons, — Wright, Ste- 
phen, and William. 



THE BUHL STAMPING COMPANY. 

As an important mechanic industry of De- 
troit that represented by the company whose 
name here appears, merits due consideration 
in this work, which has assigned as a promi- 
nent function in its province the recording of 
the histories of those enterprises which have 
tended to conserve the upbuilding of modern 
and greater industrial Detroit. 

The Buhl Stamping Company was founded 
in 1888, and the interested principals in the 
new corporation were junior partners in the 
wholesale hardware concern of Buhl Sons & 
Company. The first president of the company 
was Theodore D. Buhl, and Charles H. Jacobs 
was chosen vice-president; Dewitt E. Dela- 
mater, secretary; and Jefferson M. Thurber, 
treasurer. The capital stock represented in the 
incorporation was twenty-five thousand dol- 
lars, and the plant secured for the initiation 
of practical operations was that of the Buhl 
Iron Works, located on Third, Lamed and 
Congress streets, from Third to Fourth streets, 
in the western section of the city. The plant 
was extensively remodeled without interfering 
with the operation of the factory and the main 
building is now three hundred by two hundred 
and fifty feet in dimension, three stories in 
height. Of the force of five hundred opera- 
tives about forty per cent, is represented in 
skilled labor. The business had its inception 
through a realization on the part of Theodore 
D. Buhl of its practical necessity as an adjunct 



or complement to other lines of enterprise with 
which he was identified, and the products of 
the concern comprise a full line of milk cans, 
cream separators, lanterns, etc. During the 
first four years the enterprise was not a pay- 
ing venture, owing to ineffective management 
in the detail work of the various departments, 
but the business has shown a steady and sub- 
stantial growth and is now paying good re- 
turns on the investment made, besides beine 
a valuable acquisition to the industrial and 
commercial life of the city. The products now 
find sale in the most diverse sections of the 
United States, with a growing trade in Canada 
and Mexico. Since the death of Theodore 
D. Buhl, his son Willis E., has been presi- 
dent of the company. Jefferson M. Thurber 
is secretary; Dewitt C. Delamater, treasurer; 
and John B. Breen, general manager. 



THE AMERICAN RADIATOR COMPANY. 

Tn the sum total of the multifarious manu- 
facturing industries which contribute materi- 
ally to upholding the commercial precedence 
and prestige of the city of Detroit that con- 
ducted under the above title has no incon- 
spicuous place, the Michigan and Detroit plants 
of the company being large and finely equipped 
establishments and their products being of the 
highest order of excellence. Both plants are 
located in Detroit, 

This Michigan-plant branch of the enter- 
prise in Detroit, dates its foundation back to 
1888, and the original incorporation was made 
under title of the Michigan Radiator & Iron 
Manufacturing Company. The chief promoter 
was John B. Dyar, who had been for about a 
decade previously managing owner of the De- 
troit Metal & Heating Works. In the forming 
of the new company there were associated with 
him such representative business men of De- 
troit as Martin S. Smith, Clarence Carpenter, 
Clarence M. Woolley, James McMillan, E. W.' 
Meddaugh, and Ernest E. Mann. The per- 
sonnel of the original executive corps was as 
follows : John B. Dyar, president ; M. S. Smith, 
vice-president; Clarence Carpenter, treasurer; 
and C. M. Woolley, secretary. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



219 



The company purchased a tract of land on 
Trombly avenue, between Russell street and 
the tracks of the Grand Trunk Railway, se- 
curing about six acres and erecting thereon a 
foundry building eighty by three hundred feet 
in dimensions; a machine shop, forty by four 
hundred and thirty feet; a core room eighty 
feet square ; cleaning room, fifty by sixty feet ; 
power house, eighty by forty feet; warehouse 
four hundred and seventy-eight by one hun- 
dred and twenty-four feet ; and an adequate and 
appropriate office building. The company en- 
gaged in the manufacturing of cast-iron radi- 
ators for water and steam warming purposes, 
being the second concern to take up this line 
of industry in Detroit, where the Detroit Steam 
Radiator Company had previously been in the 
field for a period of about four years, having 
also the distinction of being one of the pioneer 
concerns in this branch of manufacture in the 
United States. 

In initiating practical operations the Michi- 
gan Radiator & Iron Manufacturing Company 
gave employment to about two hundred hands, 
and the business met with immediate success. 
In a few years about five hundred employes 
were represented on the pay roll of the com- 
pany and the enterprise had assumed very ex- 
tensive proportions, after having been in 
operation for but little more than a decade. 
In the year 1891 the American Radiator Com- 
pany was organized and incorporated and as- 
sumed possession and control of the business 
and plant of each the Michigan Radiator & 
Iron Manufacturing Company and the Detroit 
Radiator Company, of this city, as well as of 
the Pierce Steam Heating Company, of Buf- 
falo, New York. About this time the Michi- 
gan plant began the manufacturing of hot- 
water and steam warming apparatus in con- 
nection with its previous line of products, and 
in 1894 were manufactured in the plant its 
first boilers for house-warming purposes. The 
manufacturing of radiators was gradually dis- 
continued, being turned over to the Detroit 
plant, and the original plant of the Michigan 
Radiator & Iron Manufacturing Company is 
now devoted exclusively to the manufacturing 
of hot-water and steam-warming appliances. 



not including radiators. About one acre of 
additional ground has been added to the origi- 
nal tract and new buildings have been erected, 
to meet the demands of the constantly expand- 
ing business. Further amplification is required 
in this line at the present time, and arrange- 
ments are being made for the enlarging of the 
plant in the near future. The employes of the 
Michigan plant of this concern are now up- 
ward of seven hundred in number, and about 
one-half are skilled artisans. The office force 
numbers twenty persons, and the average an- 
nual outlay in salaries and wages aggregates 
five hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Clar- 
ence Carpenter is manager of the plant ; Henry 
J. Rente, assistant manager; and Roland H. 
Mann, assistant superintendent. 



THE POSSELIUS BROTHERS' FURNITURE 
MANUFACTURING COMPANY. 

An industry of considerable magnitude and 
one unique in special features of furniture 
manufacturing is that conducted under the 
title appearing above, and the extensive and 
finely equipped factory and warerooms of the 
company are eligibly located on Mount Elliott 
and Harper avenues. This business dates its 
foundation back to the year 1870, when it was 
established in a somewhat modest way by the 
late Adolph Posselius. Success attended the 
enterprise from the start and the advancement 
has been substantial and consecutive during 
the intervening years, the result being the 
building up of an industry of wide ramifica- 
tions and one that contributes materially to the 
commercial precedence of the city of Detroit. 
For a time the business was conducted under 
the title of Posselius Brothers and in 1890 the 
Posselius Brother Furniture Manufacturing 
Company was incorporated, with a capital 
stock of fifty thousand dollars. The officers of 
this company are as here noted : Charles W. 
Munz, president and general manager; John H. 
Knodell, vice-president; and Anthony Seeger, 
secretary and treasurer. The concern stands 
the largest exclusive manufacturers of dining- 
room extension tables in the world, and its 
specialty is the "Victor" tables, representing 
the improved inventions of Mr. Munz, the 



220 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



president of the company. The products of 
this institution find sale in the most diverse 
sections of the Union, and the volume of trade 
is very large, with a constantly cumulative 
tendency. A branch salesroom is maintained 
at 13 19 Michigan avenue, Chicago, in the Fur- 
niture Exposition building. 

The plant of the company utilizes six acres 
of ground at the location previously noted. 
The main building has a frontage of three 
hundred and sixty feet on Harper avenue, this 
section being sixty feet in width, and the 
Mount Elliott avenue frontage is one hundred 
and fifty feet, with a width of seventy-five 
feet. This building is four stories in height 
and is substantially constructed of brick, ac- 
cording to the most modern ideas for factory 
purposes. The power building is in the main 
one hundred by fifty feet in dimensions and 
has an annex twenty-five by forty feet. The 
shipping room is fifty-five by seventy-five feet 
in dimensions. The facilities throughout, in- 
cluding the mechanical equipment, are of the 
highest type and the plant was erected in 1901, 
in which year the business was removed from 
its former location on Gratiot avenue, between 
Russell and Riopelle streets. In the manufac- 
turing department of the enterprise employ- 
ment is afforded to a force of two hundred and 
thirty operatives, about half of whom are 
skilled mechanics, and fifteen men are em- 
ployed in representing the sales department 
throughout the extensive trade territory cov- 
ered by the company. The average annual 
expenditure in wages is one hundred thousand 
dollars. On other pages of this publication 
appear brief sketches of the careers of the 
president and the secretary and treasurer of 
the company. 



THE SULLIVAN PACKING COMPANY. 

Under the title here noted is conducted one 
of the important and successful business en- 
terprises of Detroit, and the interested princi- 
pals in the concern, which is a corporation, are 
James J. Sullivan, Frank J. Sullivan, Mark 
M. Fleischman, William Wreford and Alfred 
Roe. James J. Sullivan, founder of the enter- 



prise and president of the company, is one of 
the well known and essentially representative 
live-stock commission men of Detroit, and he 
is connected with the live-stock exchange of 
this city, as well as that of the city of Buffalo, 
New York. 

The prosperous industry here considered 
was founded in 1895, by James J. Sullivan, and 
at the start employment was given to only 
twelve persons. The cattle killed each week 
did not at that time aggregate more than sev- 
enty-five head. The company now employs a 
force of fifty men in the abattoir, and twelve 
men, utilizing an equal number of wagons, are 
employed in the delivering of products. 

The business was conducted as a copartner- 
ship, under the title of the Sullivan Beef Com- 
pany, until April 2, 1908, when it was incor- 
porated under the present title and with a cap- 
ital stock of two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars. The officers of the company are as 
here noted : James J. Sullivan, president ; Mark 
M. Fleischman, vice-president; William Wre- 
ford, second vice-president ; Frank J. Sullivan, 
secretary, treasurer and general manager; 
Alexander McFall, superintendent of the pack- 
ing plant ; and William Flanigan, superintend- 
ent of the abattoir. 

The abattoir, packing house and general of- 
fices of the Sullivan Packing Company are 
located at the juncture of Beecher avenue and 
the tracks of the Michigan Central Railroad. 
A frontage of five hundred and forty feet is 
owned on the avenue mentioned and the 
grounds utilized extend back therefrom a dis- 
tance of one hundred and seventy feet to a 
spur track of the Michigan Central, through 
which railroad the best of shipping facilities 
are controlled. The plant is the most modem 
of the kind in Michigan. The buildings are 
of brick, steel and concrete construction and 
were erected in 1906 and 1908. The machin- 
ery and other accessories are of the most 
modern type known to the business and thus 
insure perfection of output. The cold-storage 
rooms have a capacity for the housing of four 
hundred beeves, five hundred lambs and two 
hundred calves, and the capacity of the ice 
plant is sixty tons per day. The packing plant 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



221 



has facilities for the slaughtering and packing 
of three thousand hogs per week. All the 
hoisting and transferring machinery is oper- 
ated by electric power, and the sanitary equip- 
ment of the entire plant is as nearly perfect 
as scientific principles and scrupulous care can 
make it. The by-products of the abattoir and 
packing house are treated in sanitary, odorless 
rendering-tanks, and from this department of 
the enterprise are produced two grades of tal- 
low and a valuable dry fertilizer. The com- 
pany has its own power plant and generates its 
own electricity for mechanical and lighting 
purposes. The establishment as an entirety is 
a veritable model. The abattoir handles an 
average of three hundred and fifty head of 
cattle, four hundred lambs, one hundred and 
fifty calves, and from twenty-five hundred to 
three thousand hogs each week, and the annual 
transactions represent an average aggregate of 
fully two and one-half millions of dollars. 

Within the year 1908 the company has 
erected a packing plant, placed in operation in 
October of that year. The building is four 
stories in height, and its equipment through- 
out is the acme of perfection. There has been 
adopted a new system, by which the slaughter- 
ing is done on the top floor, from which the 
products are worked downward through the 
various processes. Improved facilities are to 
be noted on every side, including provisions 
for the scraping of the hogs by machinery. 
The latest improved sausage machinery has 
been installed, and the coolers are of the best 
type. Operations involve the slaughtering and 
handling of three thousand hogs a week, and 
the finest grades of ham. bacon, lard, sausage, 
etc., are turned out in this fine establishment. 
The output of the plant is utilized princi- 
pally in the retail markets of Detroit and the 
state, and the cattle and hogs are procured 
from the stockyards of Kansas City, Omaha, 
Chicago and Detroit. Particular discrimina- 
tion is brought to bear in the selection of stock. 
The company's plant has a storage capacity 
for the accommodation of fifteen thousand 
beef hides, five thousand calf skins and five 
thousand sheep pelts. All of these products 
must be rehandled and replied at least once 



in every thirty days, in order to prevent de- 
terioriation or spontaneous combustion. There 
is also storage capacity for one hundred casks 
of tallow. These brief statements indicate that 
the industry is one of no minor importance and 
no small scope, and it is ably managed in every 
department. 

WALKER & COMPANY. 

When one stops to consider the progressive- 
ness of Detroit's captains of industry and the 
many channels in which their energies are di- 
rected, it is not surprising that the city has 
forged to the front industrially and commer- 
cially. An idea of the diversity of interests 
represented is to be gleaned from a perusal 
of the various descriptive and biographical 
sketches appearing within the pages of this 
work, and in this connection the concern whose 
name introduces this article is well entitled to 
consideration. The company manufactures 
electric signs and a variety of other styles of 
commercial signs, figures as an effective dis- 
tributor of out-door advertising and is one of 
the leading bill-posting concerns of the United 
States. It controls a large business in its 
several departments. 

The enterprise dates its foundation from the 
year 1862, when William and John D. Walk- 
er, uncle and brother respectively of the pres- 
ent president of the company, established the 
business under the title at present maintained, 
though the original concern was a copartner- 
ship. Like many another Detroit concern 
with so long a history. Walker & Company 
began operations upon a very modest scale, 
though one adequate for the demands of lo- 
cality and period. At the inception a two- 
sheet poster was the largest display advertis- 
ing put forth by the firm. In 1872, the pres- 
ent president, Henry W. Walker, individually 
mentioned in this publication, became a mem- 
ber of the firm, whose business at that time had 
been extended in such a way as to effectively 
cover the cities of Detroit and Buffalo, and the 
executive force then comprised only two other 
men besides himself. Henry W. Walker re- 
mained actively identified with the firm for 
about a decade, and through his energy and 



222 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



progressive polic}' the business greatly ex- 
panded in scope. In 1881 he retired from the 
firm and resumed his connection with the lum- 
bering industry, with which he had previously 
been identified, but in 1883 he associated him- 
self with Charles Shaw, lessee of the Detroit 
opera house, and again engaged in the bill- 
posting business, under the original title of 
Walker & Company. In 1885 Mr. Walker pur- 
chased and assumed control of all bill boards 
utilized by the Detroit opera house and soon 
established the enterprise upon a most sub- 
stantial and metropolitan basis, the growth of 
the business being most satisfactory, while the 
best advertising sites, both as to location and 
number, were secured as rapidly as they be- 
came available. The firm maintained from 
the start a high reputation for honorable busi- 
ness methods, and the result has been that 
to-day the concern is recognized as one of the 
most popular, as well as one of the largest and 
most progressive, in the Union. No other in 
the growth of the business caused a removal 
the same province of enterprise has in its 
chosen domain so many eligible locations con- 
trolled for advertising purposes, has a superior 
order of equipments and facilities, or gives 
better service. Nearly all the bill boards used 
are constructed of sheet iron and the utmost 
care is given to affording attractive advertis- 
ing of the most advanced modern type. In 
1905 the firm began the manufacturing of 
electric signs, as a supplement to their regular 
commercial-sign department, and this feature 
of the enterprise has gained distinctive popu- 
lar approval and support, many of the most 
attractive electric signs in Detroit being pro- 
ducts of the manufactory of Walker & Com- 
pany. In March, 1906, the business was in- 
corporated under the laws of the state, with 
a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, 
and Henry W. Walker became president and 
general manager of the new corporation, 
while his son, Harry C. Walker, one of the 
alert and enterprising business men of the 
younger generation in Detroit, is the secretary 
and treasurer, proving an able coadjutor to his 
father. The company employ a force of sixty 
to eighty experts in the sign and bill-posting 



department, have four solicitors, and an office 
corps of nine persons. Their bill boards cover 
not only the city of Detroit, but also Wyan- 
dotte, Trenton, Monroe, Ecorse, Ypsilanti, 
and the St. Clair Flats, and the general dis- 
tributing business of the concern has reached 
gigantic proportions, the facilities controlled 
being such that the largest and best advertisers 
have recourse to the services of the company. 
Both of the executive officers of the company 
are members of the Associated Bill Posters 
and Distributers of the United States and 
Canada, and Harry C. Walker is a director of 
this organization, while Henry W. was one of 
the organizers and original directors. The ad- 
vertisers of Detroit may well find satisfaction 
in the facilities offered by this concern, whose 
plant is uniformly recognized as being one of 
the best equipped in the country, while the re- 
liability of the service is of the highest. 

Their being members of the National As- 
sociation enables them to get absolutely relia- 
ble service in every city of two thousand in- 
habitants or over in the United States, Canada, 
Mexico and Cuba. This organization is one 
of the most complete, reliable and important 
ever organized in America, each member 
having a complete list of all other members' 
boards, capacity, prices and scope. 



THE HOLLIDAY BOX COMPANY. 

In the matter of industrial development De- 
troit in the past decade has attracted the at- 
tention of the citizens of the country at large, 
her growth in this particular being greater 
than that of any city of her population in 
America. A careful analysis of that growth 
will show that in the matter of specialty man- 
ufacturers, whose individual plants are the 
most important in their respective lines, this 
city is without a rival. Among her larger in- 
dustries in the specialty field, that of the Hol- 
liday Box Company is one of the most import- 
ant. This business was founded in 1878 by 
Mr. William P. Holliday, who for about six 
years previously had been in charge of the 
plant of D. M. Richardson, manufacturer of 
matches — now the Detroit plant of the Dia- 
mond Match Company. His first factory was 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



223 



located at 157 Jefferson avenue, and his oper- 
ating force did not exceed ten employes. His 
output consisted of all classes of paper boxes 
and his trade was confined to the local markets. 
His venture vi^as successful from the start and 
and the Michigan Central belt line tracks, in 
to larger quarters, 55 Jefferson avenue. A 
second removal, to the Bagley building on 
Bates street, soon follovi^ed. The continued 
growth of the enterprise resulted in the pur- 
chase, in 1890, of the lot at the corner of Fort 
and Brush streets, one hundred and thirty- 
eight by one hundred and thirty-eight feet. A 
six-story and basement factory building, 
equipped with the most modern machinery to 
be had, was erected and occupied in 1891. 
Built of brick and provided with the most 
modern safeguards against fire, having a floor 
space of one hundred and thirty thousand 
square feet, it offers employment to four 
hundred operatives, two-thirds of whom are 
girls, trained in the making of the company's 
products and working under sanitary condi- 
tions as perfect as modern factory construc- 
tion will permit. 

This company manufacture fancy confec- 
tionery boxes, made from silks, satins and im- 
ported papers. Only the best grades are pro- 
duced, their line being the most expensive 
made in America, and their output equalling in 
quantity all of the other makers of this special- 
ty in the United States. Their product is 
sold through a traveling force and is marketed 
in every town of twenty thousand population 
and over in the United States and Canada. 
In addition to this they export annually large 
quantities of goods to many of the larger 
cities. The importance of the industry to the 
city is best illustrated through its wage scale, 
— more than one hundred thousand dollars 
being distributed each year in return for labor. 
The company was incorporated on April 
12, 1903, with a capital stock of two hundred 
thousand dollars, and succeeded to the business 
of W. P. Holliday. Its officers are : President, 
William P. Holliday; secretary and treasurer, 
Robert W. Stewart; superintendent, George 
B. Streit. Personal mention of Mr. Holliday 
appears on other pages of this work. 



THE DETROIT STEEL COOPERAGE COM- 
PANY. 

In reviewing the industrial concerns of De- 
troit, and especially those which have most 
rapidly attained to a commanding place in 
their respective lines of manufacture, the De- 
troit Steel Cooperage Company commends it- 
self to the publishers of this volume. The 
spring of 1908 completes the fifth year since 
its products were first placed upon the market 
and the incidental record shows that in the 
closing of this period the only market in the 
known world in which its products had not 
been sold, that of China, receives a shipment 
of thirty car loads. 

The company was organized in 1902 to 
manufacture glass enameled steel tanks, the 
process of making being the successful result 
of about two years of experimenting by Mr. 
Henry C. Wiedeman, at that time the general 
manager of the Huetteman & Cramer Com- 
pany, of Detroit. In perfecting the tank made 
by this process, two advantages were gained to 
the brewery and distillery interests of the 
world, the most perfect sanitation possible 
from the use of this character of equipment 
in their plants and a commercial saving in the 
manufacture of products and upkeep of 
tankage. 

Associated with Mr. Wiedeman in the pro- 
motion of the company, were Mr. Otto Rein^ 
valdt and Mr. Elias Aberle. Incorporation of 
the enterprise occurred in 1902. The capital 
stock of the company was one hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and the first officers were : Presi- 
dent. Conrad Pfeiffer; vice-president, Paul 
Weidner; secretary. Otto Reinvaldt; treas- 
urer and general manager, Henry C. Weide- 
man. A site was purchased at Sylvester street 
the heart of Detroit's most desirable manu- 
facturing district. A factory building one 
hundred and fifty by one hundred and five feet, 
constructed of steel, concrete and brick,, was 
built and the equipment necessary for manu- 
facture installed. A large percentage of the 
machines needed were built especially for the 
purpose and patented by the company. 

The summer of 1903 saw the first tanks 
placed upon the market. They were received 



224 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



with marked approval, and, although an un- 
tried and unproven feature of brewery equip- 
ment, a business totaling eighty thousand dol- 
lars was secured the first twelve months from 
the time their first order was secured. One of 
their first customers, the Anheuser-Busch 
Brewing Association, of St. Louis, the world's 
largest brewers, placed an order for thirty-two 
of the largest storage tanks ever constructed, 
viz : ten feet in diameter by sixty-eight feet in 
length, each having a capacity of one thousand 
one hundred and forty barrels. Each suc- 
ceeding year had brought an order for more 
equipment from this company, which is con- 
clusive evidence not only of the practical value 
of this class of tank, but also of the high 
standard of quality of the product. 

Financial demands of a business that had 
grown beyond the expectations of its owners 
made a reorganization necessary; and in 1905 
a number of Detroit's well known business men 
of wealth were interested in the enterprise. 
Complete reorganization resulted and the offi- 
cers of the practically new concern are as fol- 
lows : President, Colonel Frank H. Blackman ; 
vice-president, Hon. Hoyt Post; secretary^ 
DeWitt H. Taylor; assistant secretary, Otto 
Reinvaldt; treasurer, William Harry; assist- 
ant treasurer, H. C. Wiedeman. The controll- 
ing spirit in the enterprise, Henry C. Wiede- 
man, to whose indefatigable energy and well 
directed business efforts the success of the 
company is mainly due, has since its start sat- 
isfactorily filled the position of general man- 
ager. He is in control of the sales, finance 
and general business departments of the com- 
pany. Mr. Otto Reinvaldt, his associate in 
the formation of the company, is in charge of 
the purchasing and manufacturing depart- 
ments. 

The company maintain branch offices in 
New York, Chicago and Seattle, and a foreign 
office in London, England. An average force 
of one hundred and fifty men is employed, 
sixty-five per cent, of whom are skilled me- 
chanics, and the company distributes annually 
in wages one hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars. The growth of this enterprise is best 
illustrated by a comparison of the business 



THE NEWTON BEEF COMPANY. 

Occupying a position of marked relative im- 
portance in comparison with the representative 
concerns of the sort in Detroit, this company 
is clearly entitled to consideration in this pub- 
lication, one of whose chief functions is the 
entering of a general review of the leading in- 
dustrial enterprises which are contributing to 
the upbuilding of the "Greater Detroit." 

The controlling stock in the Newton Beef 
Company is owned by its founder, Thomas E. 
Newton, who is president, treasurer and gen- 
eral manager of the company, which was in- 
corporated under the laws of the state in 1901. 
The other members of the executive corps are 
as follows: William J. Streit, vice-president 
and manager of the retail store; William Cal- 
lan, secretary and office manager. The finely 
equipped abattoir of the company is located on 
Fourteenth street at the junction of the same 
with the tracks of the Michigan Central Rail- 
road, so that the best of transportation facili- 
ties are controlled. The annual business of the 
concern has already reached the noteworthy 
aggregate of one million dollars, representing 
the handling within that period of an average 
of twenty-five thousand head of cattle, twelve 
thousand lambs, and seven thousand calves. 



done in 1903, its first year, and that of 1907, 
its fifth. That of 1903 totaled eighty thousand 
dollars; that of 1907 reached the pleasing ag- 
gregate of six hundred thousand dollars. Ad- 
ditions to the original building have from time 
to time been built, until in 1908, the factory ' 
stretches on Beaufait avenue northward seven 
hundred feet from Sylvester street, and has a ' 
width of one hundred and five feet, this being 
the largest single structure devoted to indus- | 
trial use in the city. The reputation of its 
products and the magic of the words "made 
in Detroit''' are necessarily of much value to 
the city, while the money disbursed in wages 
is an important item in a commercial way. 
The financial strength of those in control and 
the business acumen displayed by those in 
charge of the company presage a successful 
future and expansion. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



225 



In by-products the output includes an average 
of fifty thousand pounds of tallow and seventy- 
five thousand pounds of fertilizer each month. 
The business of the company is largely directed 
in supplying the hotel, restaurant and steam- 
boat trade of Detroit and the local retail meat 
markets, and in addition to this the company 
holds contracts for supplying meats to the gar- 
rison at Fort Wayne and the state prison, at 
Jackson. In the abattoir and delivery service 
thirty-five employes are retained, and an aver- 
age of thirty thousand dollars annually is rep- 
resented in the company's pay roll. The sales 
of hides reach an average of one hundred thou- 
sand dollars annually, and every department 
of the enterprise is conducted with utmost care 
in the conservation of sanitary conditions, thus 
insuring an output which defies criticism and 
constitutes its own advertising. The ice plant 
has a capacity of twenty-five tons daily, and 
the storage rooms afford accommodation for 
five hundred head of dressed cattle, three 
hundred sheep and two hundred calves. In 
1907 a department for the handling of pork 
products was added to the plant, and this fea- 
ture of the enterprise is proving most success- 
ful in operation. The wholesale headquarters 
of the company are maintained at 41 Cadillac 
Square, and the retail store is located at Stall 
4, Central Market. A sketch of the career of 
the president and also one of the secretary of 
the company appear elsewhere in this volume. 



Newberry, president ; C. E. Petrak, vice-presi- 
dent; and Mrs. A. Newberry secretary and 
treasurer. A sketch of the career of the presi- 
dent and founder of the business appears on 
other pages of this work. The plant of the 
company is located at the corner of Fourteenth 
and McGraw avenues, where the building oc- 
cupied is one hundred and fourteen by one 
hundred and forty-six feet in dimension, and 
two stories in height. The company has also 
erected an addition to the main building, and 
this is sixty feet square. The equipment of 
the plant throughout is of the highest modem 
type, and the sanitary provisions are perfect in 
every possible detail. The ovens have a capa- 
city for the output of fifteen thousand two- 
pound loaves of bread a day, and the factory 
is given over exclusively to the manufacturing 
of bread, which is sold at wholesale only. The 
trade of the company extends throughout De- 
troit and its suburbs. Seven delivery wagons 
are in service, and in the factory of the con- 
cern is employed a force of twenty men, en- 
tailing the expenditure of about twenty thou- 
sand dollars annually in wages. The man- 
agement of the business is distinctively pro- 
gressive and aggressive, and the result has been 
an exceptionally rapid growth in the A>olume of 
trade controlled. The interested principals are 
men of established business reputation and pro- 
gressive ideas, and the success of the enter- 
prise represents a natural sequel. 



THE NEWBERRY BAKING COMPANY. 

The enterprise conducted under the above 
title is of more recent establishing than certain 
others of the kind in the city of Detroit, but its 
precedence is acknowledged and the business 
already ranks among the first of the order in 
the Michigan metropolis. 

The Newberry Baking Company was organ- 
ized in 1906, in May of which year it was in- 
corporated under the laws of the state, with a 
capital stock of ten thousand dollars. The 
principals interested in the incorporation were 
Lewis Newberry, Charles E. Petrak, and Mrs. 
A. Newberry, and the officers of the company 
at the present time are as here noted: Lewis 



W. M. FINCK & COMPANY. 

An industrial concern of importance and one 
that has contributed materially toward the 
commercial prestige of Detroit is that whose 
title initiates this paragraph. The enterprise is 
one of the largest of its kind in the Union, and 
the products of the establishment include over- 
alls, special lines of service coats, trousers, etc. 
The company was incorporated in 1902, with a 
capital stock of sixty thousand dollars, and the 
ofiicers of the same are: William M. Finck, 
president and secretary, and James L. Lee, 
vice-president and treasurer. Mr. Finck has 
the personal supervision of the manufacturing 
department of the business, in which he has 



226 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



had long and intimate experience, and Mr. Lee 
has charge of the sales, credit and finance de- 
partments and also of the buying of material 
used in the manufactory. The large and finely 
equipped plant of the company is located at 
1 156 Gratiot avenue, and the main building is 
seventy by one hundred feet in dimensions, is 
constructed of brick and is three stories in 
height. The factory building, at the rear of 
the structure just mentioned, is seventy by one 
hundred and fifty feet in dimensions and 
is two stories in height. In the factory 
employment is given to a force of eight 
hundred operatives, and the output is known 
for its superiority in every respect. It 
has been stated with much of consistency 
that Mr. Finck, president of the company, 
is the man who has made Detroit famous 
for union-made overalls. The enterprise was 
established by him in 1890, and from a modest 
inception has been built up a business that in 
its line stands second to none in the Union. 
Growth, progress and success have been the 
concomitants of the industry and the advanced 
policy and absolute reliability of products in- 
sures a consecutive expansion in the business 
each successive year, as the goods turned out 
constitute their best advertising. From a 
brochure issued by the company are taken the 
following pertinent statements: "Our success 
has been phenomenal, and our many friends at- 
tribute it to the superiority and merit of our 
productions. We are constantly on the alert 
for articles of superiority, having realized the 
importance of manufacturing the best article in 
the country, thus establishing a foundation for 
permanency which tends to steady growth and 
expansion." All styles of overalls are manu- 
factured, as well as coats of denim, corduroy, 
cottonade, canvas, etc. Particular study has 
been given to securing economy in production 
and in conserving the highest possible quality 
in the output. The company has established a 
reputation for fair and honorable dealings, and 
the reliability of all products is assured. As 
showing the progressive ideas of the concern 
it may be stated that the factory utilizes forty- 
two yards of cloth in the manufacturing of a 
dozen of average size, while the record of com- 



petitors in the same production is for the use 
of only thirty-five yards. The excess allows 
for shrinkage and greatly improves the wear- 
ing quality of the garments. Thus the highest 
grade of products is turned out at a price that 
meets all competition. All garments of this 
factory are union made. The goods of the ■ 
company are sold in all sections of the United 
States and Canada, and they are placed largely 
in a direct way, through advertising sent out 
from the headquarters. This method in itself 
conserves economy and enables the company 
to give its customers the advantage of superior 
goods at the price of those of inferior quality 
and workmanship. It is gratifying to note the 
upbuilding of so prosperous an industry, — 
one founded on honor and conducted on the 
plan of giving full value received in every 
transaction. The average annual expenditure 
of the company in wages and salaries is fully 
two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, 
and this statement is significant when we revert 
to the fact that in 1902, when the company was 
organized, its total force of employes numbered 
only seventy persons, including the ofiice corps. 
Other data of interest in this connection may be 
found in the sketch of the career of Mr. Finck, 
president of the company. 



THE STERLING & SKINNER MANUFAC- 
TURING COMPANY. 

In the manufacturing of steam, water and 
gas fixtures and appliances of brass this com- 
pany has built up a large and thriving business 
and gained precedence as one of the leading 
concerns of the kind in the Michigan metropo-. 
lis. The company was incorporated in 1902, 
and its operations are based on a capital stock 
of thirty-five thousand dollars. The following 
officers, each peculiarly well fortified for the 
executive duties devolving upon him, control 
the affairs of the company : Ruluff R. Steriing, 
president; Edward J. Roney, vice-president; 
Frederick G. Skinner, secretary and treasurer; 
and George W. Bowe, superintendent. The 
president of the company has charge of the 
sales of the concern in all territory west of 
Detroit; Mr. Roney is superintendent of the 
foundry and the manufacturing of the rough 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



227 



products ; Mr. Skinner has charge of the office 
and finances of the company and also of the 
sales in the eastern territory; and Mr. Bowe 
is the general superintendent of the factory and 
gives special supervision to the finishing de- 
partment. 

The factory of the company is located at the 
comer of Russell street and North Grand boul- 
evard and the plant occupies an acre of ground. 
The main building was erected in 1902, is three 
stories in height, substantially constructed of 
brick, and has an aggregate floor space of 
twenty thousand square feet. The foundi-y 
building is one story in height and fifty by one 
hundred feet in dimensions. The mechanical 
equipment and all other facilities are of the best 
modern type, making possible the rapid turning 
out of work of the highest grade. The trade 
of the company extends throughout the United 
States and Canada and also into the principal 
European countries. Of the one hundred and 
fifty employes full seventy-five per cent, are 
skilled artisans, and the average annual pay 
roll represents an expenditure of about seventy- 
five thousand dollars. The company insistent- 
ly maintains all of its products at the highest 
standard of excellence, and its reputation in 
this regard results in the trade of the concern 
showing a constantly expanding tendency. 



THE CLAYTON & LAMBERT MANU- 
FACTURING COMPANY. 

Under the above title is conducted another of 
those manufacturing industries to which the 
Michigan metropolis lends her hearty support, 
conducive, as it is, to the general and commer- 
cial prosperity of the community and enlisting 
in its prosecution both ample capital and skilled 
labor. The company are manufacturers of 
gasoline torches and furnaces for electric, steam 
and gas fitters and tin and sheet-iron workers, 
and the enterprise is one of the largest of the 
kind in the west. 

The original location of the Clayton & Lam- 
bert Manufacturing Company was in the city 
of Ypsilanti, Michigan, and it was organized in 
1888, when it was incorporated under the laws 
of the state, with a capital stock of ten thou- 



sand dollars. The interested principals in the 
concern at the time of incorporation were Nel- 
son J. Clayton, Joshua Lambert, and the lat- 
ter's three sons, — John E., Charles R. and 
Bert. The company retained its headquarters 
in Ypsilanti until 1899, when the business was 
removed to Detroit, the factory being estab- 
lished at Milwaukee Junction until 1902, when 
the present premises were purchased, having a 
frontage of three hundred feet on Beaubien 
street and two hundred and seventeen feet on 
Trombly avenue. On this land was erected in 
the same year a general factory building of two 
stories, one hundred and seventeen by one 
hundred and twenty feet in lateral dimensions, 
and the building affords ample accommodations 
for the various departments, including the of- 
fices, shipping room, ware rooms, etc. The 
main foundry building is two stories in height 
and sixty by two hundred and seventeen feet 
dimensions; a portion of this structure is one 
story in height. The business has been built 
up from a modest inception to its present large 
proportions, and in the special line of produc- 
tion the concern manufactures fully eighty per 
cent, of all such devices utilized in the United 
States and Canada, while the articles manufac- 
tured are amply protected by letters patent. 
The company control also an excellent export 
trade, which is done through the interposition 
of jobbers in New York city, Boston, Phila- 
delphia, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and 
Los Angeles. Of the average force of em- 
ployes seventy-five per cent, are skilled artisans 
in their respective lines, — including moulders, 
buffers, polishers, machinists, tool-makers, pat- 
tern-makers, monitor hands, platers, sheet- 
metal workers, press men, etc. Charles R. 
Lambert has charge of the manufacturing de- 
partment ; John E. Lambert is sales promoter, 
and Bert Lambert has the supervision of the 
general accounting department. 

In 1902 the capital stock of the company was 
increased to fifty thousand dollars, and in 1904 
it was raised to its present figure, — two hun- 
dred thousand dollars. Mr. Clayton has been 
president of the company from the time of its 
incorporation, and the other officers are as fol- 
lows : Charles R. Lambert, vice-president ; John 



228 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



E. Lambert, secretary; and Bert Lambert, 
treasurer. 

Joshua Lambert, the father, was one of 
the founders of the enterprise, as has already 
been stated. He was bom in 1837 and his 
death occurred in 1902. He was a son of Sol- 
omon Lambert, who was one of the pioneers of 
Wayne county, Michigan, where he took up a 
tract of government land, about four and one- 
half miles distant from the present village of 
Farmington. Solomon Lambert was a native 
of the state of New York and practically his 
entire life was devoted to agricultural pursuits. 
He continued to reside on the old homestead 
until his death, at the patriarchal age of ninety 
years. 

Joshua Lambert was born on the homestead 
mentioned and his early educational privileges 
were limited to the primitive district schools of 
the locality and period. He learned the trade 
of blacksmith when a youth, and followed the 
same in Charlotte and later in Ypsilanti, Mich- 
igan. In the latter place he became associated 
in business with Nelson J. Clayton, under the 
firm name of Clayton & Lambert, and from 
their modest little establishment was built up 
the fine manufacturing institution through 
which their names are perpetuated. Mr. Lam- 
bert took up his residence in Detroit in 1899, 
and here passed the residue of his life, whose 
entire course was marked by impregnable in- 
tegrity and honor. He was a Democrat in 
politics and was a consistent member of the 
Congregational church. His wife, whose 
maiden name was Maria Griffith, was born and 
reared in Michigan and is now deceased. 

Bert Lambert, treasurer of the Clayton & 
Lambert Manufacturing Company, was born at 
the family homestead, at Livonia, Wayne 
county, Michigan, on the loth of September, 
1865, and he was affored the advantages of the 
public schools of the city of Charlotte, after 
which he completed a course in the Cleary 
Business College, at Ypsilanti, in which he was 
graduated as a member of the class of 1883. 
After leaving school he became a clerk in a 
grocery in Ypsilanti, and later he entered the 
employ of the firm of Clayton & Lambert. 
When the same was succeeded by the Clayton 



& Lambert Manufacturing Company, he be- 
came one of the incorporators of the latter, for 
which he was traveling salesman for some time 
and of which he has been treasurer since 1896. 
He is a Republican in his political allegiance, is 
a member of the Detroit Golf Club, and both 
he and his wife are communicants of St. Paul's 
church, Protestant Episcopal. 

On the 6th of September, 1893, was solem- 
nized the marriage of Bert Lambert to Miss 
Ina F. Hay, daughter of William Hay, foun- 
der, president and manager of the Hay & Todd 
Manufactuting Company, of Ypsilanti, and the 
children of this union are William Hay Lam- 
bert and Bert Lambert, Jr. 



THE C. PFEIFFER BREWING COMPANY. 

To note those enterprises which stand as 
representative in their respective lines of in- 
dustry as bearing upon the precedence and com- 
mercial activity of the city of Detroit, is one of 
the prime desiderata in the compilation of this 
work, and under these conditions the company 
named above demands particular recognition, 
being one of the important concerns of the sort 
in the city and being conducted upon the prin- 
ciples of strict commercial integrity. 

The C. Pfeiffer Brewing Company, which 
succeeded to the brewing business established 
by Conrad Pfeiffer in 1898, was organized and 
incorporated as a stock company on the 2d of 
March, 1902, with a capital of one hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars. The growth of the 
enterprise had been such as to demand this 
process of amplification and extension of com- 
mercial latitude. The well equipped plant, 
modern in every detail, is located at Nos. 908 
to 940 Beaufait avenue, on which thoroughfare 
the company has a frontage of four hundred 
feet, while the premises extend back a distance 
of one hundred and five feet to the Michigan 
Central Railroad. Tlie new brew house, a 
substantial brick structure three stories in 
height and with a floor space of nine thousand 
square feet, was erected in 1907, at a cost of 
twenty-five thousand dollars, and is a model in 
every particular, its facilities being unexcelled 
by those of any brewery in the city. The ice 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



229 



plant has a capacity of ninety tons a day 
and in the prosecution of the flourishing busi- 
ness this capacity is fully utilized. The out- 
put of the brewery for the year 1907 was 
thirty-five thousand barrels, of which about 
fifteen per cent, was bottled. The company's 
products are utilized principally by the trade 
in the city of Detroit, and so secure is the de- 
mand of this local trade that no special effort 
has been made to extend the same into ex- 
traneous territory. The business gives em- 
ployment to a force of forty men, — in the 
manufacturing, distributing and office depart- 
ments, — and the amount represented on the 
annual pay roll, aside from the salaries of the 
officers of the company, is fully thirty thou- 
sand dollars. The concern pays to the city 
in water tax seven hundred dollars annually. 
Under the new regime the business of the 
company has rapidly and substantially ex- 
panded, and the very popularity of the product 
is the best attest of its superiority and of the 
correct business methods brought to bear in 
the prosecution of the enterprise. 

The personnel of the official corps of the C. 
Pfeiffer Brewing Company is as here desig- 
nated : Conrad Pfeiffer, president ; Martin 
Breitmeyer, vice-president and treasurer; and 
Henry C. Deitz, secretary. The executive du- 
ties assigned to these officials are as follows: 
The president has charge of the manufactur- 
ing and of the sales and purchasing depart- 
ments; the finances of the company are, of 
course, in charge of the treasurer, who is also 
vice-president; and the secretary has the su- 
pervision of the accounting department and 
general detail work of the office. Individual 
mention of these three representative business 
men is made in this volume. 



THE DETROIT STEEL PULLEY COMPANY. 

Another of the unique industrial enterprises 
which add to the extent and variety of the 
manufactured products which bear the prestige 
of the city afar, as being "made in Detroit," is 
that represented by the Detroit Steel Pulley 
Company, which was organized and incorpo- 



rated in the fall of 1905, with a capital stock 
of fifty thousand dollars, and with interested 
principals as here noted : Daniel T. McNiel, 
Paul C. McNiel, Walter C. McNiel, John M. 
Parker, Charles R. Dennen, and Arthur W. 
Johnston. The personnel of the first execu- 
tive corps was as follows : Daniel T. McNiel, 
president ; John M. Parker, vice-president ; 
and Paul C. McNiel, secretary and treasurer. 
No change has been made in the executive 
force since the incorporation of the company. 
The well equipped plant of the company is lo- 
cated at the corner of Bellevue avenue and 
Warren avenue east, and the main factory 
building is a brick structure, ninety by one 
hundred and sixty-eight feet in dimension. 
Operations were instituted with a force of only 
four employes, but such has been the growth 
of the enterprise that at the present time the 
services of twenty skilled artisans are required 
and also a number of unskilled workmen are 
retained on the pay roll, which represents an 
average expenditure of about fifteen thousand 
dollars. The company confines itself to the 
manufacturing of split-steel belt pulleys, the 
patents on which are owned by the corpora- 
tion, whose president, Daniel T. McNiel, is the 
patentee. The pulleys turned out by this com- 
pany have met with most favorable reception 
and having proven to have all the good quali- 
ties to be claimed for wooden pulleys, besides 
many points which render them unmistakably 
superior in insuring effective operation and 
also economy and safety. The practically in- 
destructible nature of the devise, of course, im- 
plies economy wherever it is used. The output 
of the concern is sold principally to the job- 
bing trade, and the pulleys are now in use in 
the most diverse sections of the United States. 
Their introduction constitutes their best ad- 
vertising, and the business of the company is 
rapidly expanding, so that an enlargement of 
its plant will be necessitated in the near future. 
On other pages of this work is entered a 
brief review of the career of Daniel T. McNiel, 
president of the company, and in the same will 
also be found specific mention of his sons, both 
of whom are stockholders in the same company. 



230 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



THE CAILLE BROTHERS COMPANY. 

One of the notable industrial enterprises 
of Detroit which have given the city a 
place among the leading manufacturing cen- 
ters of the world is that conducted by 
the corporation whose title initiates this 
paragraph. The company are the largest 
manufacturers of coin slot apparatus in the 
world, and the Detroit plant of the concern, 
at 1 300- 1 340 Second avenue, is likewise the 
largest of all factories devoted to this line of 
manufacture. The gigantic enterprise is fur- 
ther conspicuous from the fact that it repre- 
sents the concrete results of the technical skill, 
progressive ideas and energy of business men 
of the younger generation, — men whose fine 
initiative talent has enabled them to build up a 
magnificent industry within the space of com- 
paratively few years. The enormous sales of 
the coin slot machines of the Caille Brothers 
Company testify to the distinctive merits of the 
products and to the popular appreciation of the 
manifold devices of this line sent out by the 
concern into all sections of the civilized worid. 
The Caille Brothers Company was incor- 
porated under the laws of the state of Michi- 
gan in 1901, and its operations are based on a 
capital stock of three hundred thousand dol- 
lars. Coin-controlling machines of fully eighty 
dififerent types are manufactured and each is of 
the best mechanical construction, backed by the 
positive guaranty of the company. The an- 
nual output of the plant has now reached the 
enormous average of fully twelve thousand 
machines, all of which are protected by patents 
issued to the Caille brothers, who are the in- 
ventors of the various mechanical devices em- 
ployed. The business had its inception in 1893, 
when the Caille Company was organized and 
began operations on a modest scale in the city 
of Saginaw, Michigan, where the headquar- 
ters were maintained until 1896, when A. 
Arthur Caille and Adolph A. Caille, the two in- 
terested principals, came to Detroit and here 
laid the foundation for the present enterprise 
controlled by their company. Both brothers 
are practical mechanics and specially skilled as 
artisans, and both have shown distinctive ability 
in the invention of mechanical devices. The 



original factory in Detroit was one of modest 
order and was located at the corner of Wood- 
ward and Baltimore avenues, from which lo- 
cation the removal was made to the corner of 
Second and Amsterdam avenues in 1904. At 
the latter and eligible location was erected the 
fine, modern plant utilized by the company at 
the present time. The large buildings are sub- 
stantially constructed of brick and stone, and 
the main building, one hundred and twenty by 
three hundred and fifty feet in dimensions, is 
three stories in height, not including the base- 
ment. The, factory proper lies at the rear of 
the main building and is one story in height. 
In the prosecution of the various details of 
manufacture employment is given to an aver- 
age force of three hundred persons, of whom 
fully seventy-five per cent, are skilled me- 
chanics, and the average annual expenditure in 
wages and salaries aggregates two hundred and 
twenty-five thousand dollars. In capacity, out- 
put and extent of business controlled, the con- 
cern outranks all others of the kind in the 
worid, and its value to Detroit is large, both 
in a direct and collateral way. It is not within 
the province of this article to enter into details 
concerning the products of this great indus- 
trial institution, but the literature issued by 
the company gives all information that can be 
asked in this regard. Agencies are maintained 
by the company in the leading cities of the 
United States, as well as in those of European 
countries and other foreign lands. The stock 
of the company is virtually controlled by the 
Caille brothers, of whom A. Arthur Caille is 
president and general manager, and Adolph A., 
vice-president and secretary. The former has 
the general supervision of the finance and sales 
departments of the business, and the latter has 
charge of the manufacturing and the directing 
of the general accounting and office affairs. 
Personal mention of the brothers is made on 
other pages of this volume. 



THE NATIONAL TWIST DRILL & TOOL 
COMPANY. 

Contributing its quota to the industrial pres- 
tige and commercial importance of Detroit is 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



231 



the company to a description of whose rise 
and splendid progress this article is devoted. 
The company was organized primarily through 
the efforts of P. J. Hoenscheid, the present 
manager, and it was duly incorporated under 
the laws of the state November 3, 1903, basing 
its operations upon a capital stock of seventy- 
five thousand dollars. Mr. Hoenscheid has 
been identified with this line of enterprise for 
more than a quarter of a century, having been 
for many years connected with the various 
twist-drill companies and being recognized as 
an expert mechanic and as one well fortified in 
technical and practical knowledge. He has 
been manager of the manufacturing depart- 
ment of the National Twist Drill & Tool Com- 
pany from the time of its inception and of him 
individual mention is made on other pages of 
this publication. The officers of the company 
are as follows : William H. McGregor, presi- 
dent ; Jonathan O. Whitaker, of Chicago, vice- 
president; Otto Reinhardt, treasurer; and 
George Mead, secretary. The concern has a 
fine, modern plant, located at Brush street and 
Grand boulevard east, and the output of the 
same is of the highest grade. All kinds of 
twist drills are manufactured, together with a 
multiplicity of designs in the way of small 
machine-tools. Special attention is given to the 
manufacture of tools made from high-speed 
steel. The trade of the company extends into 
the most diverse sections of the United States, 
and an excellent export business is also con- 
trolled by the company, whose affairs have 
been administered with distinctive ability and 
discrimination. The present plant of the com- 
pany was erected in 1907, on Brush street, 
near Grand boulevard, and the buildings, 
which are mainly of reinforced concrete, were 
constructed by the Detroit Concrete Stone 
Company. The main building is three stories 
in height and forty by one hundred and forty 
feet in dimensions, affording twenty thousand 
square feet of floor space. The average corps 
of employes numbers one hundred and twenty- 
five men, and of this number fully eighty-five 
per cent, are skilled artisans. 



THE DETROIT TOOL COMPANY. 

Under the above title is conducted one of 
the successful industrial enterprises of Detroit, 
and the products of the establishment are sold 
throughout the civilized world, — a fact which 
attests the value of the machines manufactured 
by the company. 

The Detroit Tool Company was organized 
and incorporated in 1905, with a capital stock 
of five thousand dollars, and those interested in 
the organization were William L. Holmes, 
Dr. J. W. Morrison, H. T. Harding and 
Harold W. Holmes. The officers of the com- 
pany are as follows: William L. Holmes, 
president; J. W. Morrison, vice-president; M. 
E. Glenn, treasurer. 

The plant of this corporation is located on 
Rivard street and is admirably equipped for 
the production of the Detroit combination tool, 
which is the name of the unique machine which 
constitutes the specific output of the factory. 
The Detroit combination tool is composed of 
six high-grade, scientifically designed tools, 
every one of which is of the highest practical 
use and indispensable to everyone who has use 
for tools. From a circular issued by the com- 
pany the following pertinent statements in re- 
gard to the unique device are taken : "It is 
useful to the engineer for making repairs about 
the steam plant, and in the engine room of a 
steamboat, where the question of space is so 
important, the value of this tool can be in- 
stantly appreciated. This tool may also be 
used to advantage by the repair crews of water 
works, gas systems and railroads, as it over- 
comes the necessity of having to return to the 
shop in case they want to do any drilling, 
forging or grinding. The automobile owner 
realizes that the greatest inconvenience and 
expense in connection with his automobile is 
the time that is consumed by sending the ma- 
chine to the shop to have even the simplest 
repairs made. Many times these repairs could 
be made by the owner or chauffeur if they had 
the proper tools to work with. The Detroit 
combination tool affords a full equipment for 
making all these repairs. The farmer and 
householder will find the Detroit combination 



232 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



tool a complete workshop for the many repairs 
which they find necessary to make." 

The Detroit combination tool represents the 
highest grade of material and the most perfect 
type of workmanship, thus insuring durability 
and effective service in each of its several func- 
tions. Its versatility of application is its chief 
point of appeal to all who have use for me- 
chanical devices. In the one machine are em- 
braced a forge, with a geared rotary blower, 
and the forge is easily and quickly adjusted to 
or removed from the bed piece ; an anvil, made 
of the highest grade chilled manganese iron; 
a vise, with four-inch jaws of tempered tool 
steel, opening ten inches, and operated by a 
screw made of cold rolled steel and fitted with 
a hand wheel which has a drop-forged steel 
handle ; a pipe vise, operated by the same heavy 
screw as the vise, and capable of handling any 
pipe from one-eighth inch to three inches, in 
vertical or horizontal position ; an emery wheel, 
ten inches in diameter and made of the best 
material; a drill-press, geared two to one, giv- 
ing great power and speed, and fitted with a 
Barber adjustable chuck; transmission gears 
are cut, the large wheels running into phos- 
phor-bronze pinions, thus making as strong, 
durable and noiseless gears as can be made; 
the anvil hardy is m.ade of the best tempered 
tool steel; and a crucible holder, consisting of 
an iron frame that rests on the forge over the 
fire, and used for heating crucible, glue pot or 
soldering iron. The machine is made in two 
models, and the same are adequately described 
in the literature issued by the company and 
sent to all who make application for the same. 
The Detroit combination tool is the joint pro- 
duction of Dr. J. W. Morrison and Harold 
W. Holmes, of Detroit. 

THE HARGREAVES MANUFACTURING 
COMPANY. 

Under this title is conducted one of the 
unique and important industrial enterprises of 
the Michigan metropolis, one whose trade 
ramifications are widely extended and one 
which contributes its quota to the commercial 
prestige of the city. In its functions the con- 
cern is one of the largest of its kind in the 



world. The company was incorporated under 
the laws of the state in the year 1872, with a 
capital stock of one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars. Its organizers were George and 
Samuel Hargreaves, who secured the capi- 
talistic support of the following named repre- 
sentative citizens of Detroit : William B. Wes- 
son, George Hendrie, William J. Chittenden, 
Ashley Pond, Thomas Ferguson, Sidney D. 
Miller and Hon. George V. N. Lothrop. The 
company purchased the block of land bounded 
by Lafayette avenue and Howard, Seventeenth 
and Eighteenth streets, and there erected a 
substantial factory building of brick, the struc- 
ture being three stories in height and having 
an aggregate floor space of one hundred thou- 
sand square feet. The facilities of the plant 
have been kept up to the highest standard at 
all times and the output is enormous each 
year. The company manufacture picture 
mouldings, frames and framed pictures of 
every description, including productions in oils, 
water colors, pastels, etchings, photogravures, 
chromos, etc., and their trade extends into the 
most diverse sections of the United States and 
Canada, and also penetrates definitely into 
England and Australia. They have resident 
agents in the city of London, England, and in 
Sydney, Australia, and their export business 
is large and substantial, showing a constantly 
cumulative tendency. In the various depart- 
ments of the home establishment employment 
is given to a force of about four hundred per- 
sons, and the annual pay roll represents an 
average expenditure of two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. The officers of the company 
are as follows: William J. Chittenden, presi- 
dent; Thomas E. Reeder, vice-president and 
general manager; Walter N. Baker, treasurer; 
and Charles F. Mellish, secretary and assistant 
manager. 

The general management of the business is 
reposed in the able hands of Mr. Reeder, a 
sketch of whose career appears elsewhere in 
this volume; the sales department is under the 
superintendency of Mr. Mellish; and Mr. 
Baker has charge of the correspondence. The 
latter two officials are likewise individually 
mentioned in this publication. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



233 



THE DETROIT CARRIAGE COMPANY. 

It is well within the province of this pub- 
lication to make specific mention of those in- 
dustrial enterprises through which is upheld 
the high commercial prestige of the city of 
Detroit, and as contributory in this respect 
the industry conducted under the above title is 
one of no little importance. The business is 
the outgrowth of that established under the 
name of the Detroit Carriage Manufacturing 
Company, in 1898, when the company was in- 
corporated with a capital stock of fifty thou- 
sand dollars and with officers as follows: 
Herman Roehm, president; Daniel S. Giles, 
vice-president and manager; and George E. 
Moody, secretary and treasurer. The com- 
pany engaged in the manufacturing of high- 
grade carriages, establishing a well equipped 
plant in a building leased from the Rumsey 
Manufacturing Company and giving employ- 
ment to a force of seventy-five men. Within 
the first year twenty thousand dollars were ex- 
pended in the erection of a large addition to 
the original building, and since that time still 
other additions have been made, together with 
many incidental improvements in the equip- 
ment of the plant, which is now owned by the 
Detroit Carriage Company, which succeeded 
the original company. 

The Detroit Carriage Company was incor- 
porated in 1903, and the officers of the same 
are as follows: Henry W. Paton, secretary; 
Albert H. Roehm, treasurer. The operative 
force now includes one hundred and twenty- 
five men, the majority of whom are skilled 
mechanics. The average annual outlay in 
wages reaches an aggregate of fully sixty-five 
thousand dollars. The company now manu- 
factures fine automobile bodies, giving this 
branch of the enterprise precedence over the 
making of other vehicles, and the output is 
recognized for invariable superiority, — a fact 
which has brought the products of the factory 
into demand wherever automobiles are manu- 
factured within the United States, though the 
greater part of the output is utilized in Detroit, 
which is the recognized hub of the automobile 
industrv. 



The nucleus of the business of the Detroit 
Carriage Company was that started by the 
Rumsey Manufacturing Company, in 1886, 
and of this company Herman Roehm was 
president; Henry H. Brown, secretary; and 
Charles Kellogg, treasurer. William D. Rum- 
sey was likewise one of the interested princi- 
pals in the company, which engaged in the 
manufacturing of carriage and buggy bodies 
and other parts in the white, — that is, to be 
finished by other manufacturers. The factory 
was located on Clay avenue, in juxtaposition 
to the tracks of the Grand Trunk Railroad, 
and employment was originally given to thirty 
workmen. The plant was partially destroyed 
by fire in October, 1889, and in March of the 
following year the new plant was completed. 
In 1898 the plant and business passed into the 
control of the Detroit Carriage Manufacturing 
Company, as noted in the opening paragraph 
of this article. The business of the Detroit 
Carriage Company has grown to large and 
substantial proportions and the enterprise is 
one which has enlisted the energies and man- 
agement of business men of marked aggres- 
siveness and of distinctive energy and pro- 
sressiveness. 



THE AMERICAN BREWING COMPANY. 

Continued success is the ultimate criterion 
of merit and reliability in the industrial world, 
and the distinctive priority maintained by the 
American Brewing Company thus stands in 
evidence of its well authorized claims as one 
of the leading concerns of the sort in the state 
of Michigan. 

This company was organized in 1890, in 
August of which year it was duly incorporated 
under the laws of the state, with a capital stock 
of fifty thousand dollars. The most patent 
voucher of the success of the enterprise is that 
aft'orded in the fact that in 1906 it was found 
expedient, in order to meet the demands placed 
u'^on the institution, to increase the capital 
stock to two hundred thousand dollars. The 
conpany succeeded to the business of the Ex- 
position Brewin; Company, which was organ- 
ized in 1890, ar.d under the new regime the 



234 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



interested principals were Edward Stange, 
Louis Schmit, Gustav Fetters, George Sexauer, 
Conrad Clippert, William Zimmermann, Fred- 
erick Kraft, and Anthony and Charles 
Schmidt. 

Immediately after its organization the 
American Brewing Company purchased four 
lots at the corner of Medina and Boyer streets, 
the tract running back a distance of two hun- 
dred feet, to the Detroit river. On this prop- 
erty was erected a fine, modern plant, with a 
capacity for the annual output of fifteen thou- 
sand barrels, and in 1904 the capacity was in- 
creased to tjiirty thousand barrels. The trade 
of the company now taxes this concern to 
practically its full capacity, and the business is 
principally confined to Detroit and its environs. 
The company does no bottling, selling its en- 
tire product in the keg and barrel. Employ- 
ment is given to a force of about forty men, 
and the average annual outlay in wages ag- 
gregates about thirty-five thousand dollars. 
The executive head and general superintendent 
and manager of the business is Edward Stange, 
of whom individual mention is made elsewhere 
in this volume; the sales department is in 
charge of Adolph Beckmann ; the finances and 
correspondence are handled under the direction 
of Arthur S. Fetters; and Oscar Lamsens is 
brewmaster. The plant is equipped with the 
most modern apparatus, machinery and acces- 
sories devised for the business, and this, with 
the employment of thoroughly trained and 
skilled workmen, with perspicacious knowledge 
of all details, insures the finest quality and 
grade of production, the beer from the com- 
pany's establishment being recognized for its 
absolute purity and general excellence. The 
plant is in every respect a model one. The 
sanitary provisions are unexcelled, and abso- 
lute cleanliness is maintained in every "depart- 
ment. The ice manufacturing plant, where 
ice is made from distilled water only, was 
added in 1906. This is conceded to be one of 
the best in the city, and this fact has gained 
recognition in a most conspicuous sense, as the 
company has furnished the distilled water ice 
used in 1907 by the Detroit board of health. 



the municipal building and the Bagley foun- 
tain, on the Campus Martins. 

In 1902 a reorganization of the company 
was effected, and the ofiicers and board of di- 
rectors since that time have been as follows : 
Edward Stange, president; William Zimmer- 
man, vice-president; Leo Taube, treasurer; 
Arthur S. Fetters, secretary; and Oscar 
Lamsens, brewmaster. 



THE DETROIT MOTOR CASTINGS COM- 
PANY. 

Under the above title is conducted a pros- 
perous enterprise which adds not only to the 
industrial prestige of the city of Detroit but 
also to her marked distinction as the "hub" 
of automobile manufacturing in the United 
States, as the products of the concern are to a 
very large extent utilized in connection with 
the last mentioned industry. 

The Detroit Motor Castings Company was 
organized in 1906 and was duly incorporated 
under the laws of the state, with a capital 
stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. The 
officers of the company are as follows : Ed- 
ward J. Roney, president; F. G. Skinner, vice- 
president ; and Jacob C. Danziger, manager. 
The other interested principals, w'ho were like- 
wise organizers of the company, are : John J. 
Roney and R. R. Sterling. 

The well equipped plant of the concern is 
devoted to the manufacturing of brass, bronze 
and aluminum castings for automobile and 
power-boat use, and the special products are 
finished parts for gasoline engines and auto- 
mobile bodies. The business is largely con- 
tract work for the larger concerns in the auto- 
mobile and power-boat manufacturing, and 
the enterprise has been successful from the 
time of its initiation. 



THE PENINSULAR MILLED SCREW COM- 
PANY. 

The rapid industrial growth of Detroit 
within the past few years has been a subject 
of much comment and a matter of great sat- 
isfaction to the city. Men already prominent 
in local business affairs have conserved this 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



235 



progress by giving their capitalistic and ex- 
ecutive support to new enterprises, and among 
the successful industries thus fostered is that 
represented by the company whose name 
initiates this paragraph. 

The Peninsular Milled Screw Company was 
organized in 1902, being duly incorporated 
under the laws of the state, with a capital 
stock of thirty-four thousand dollars and with 
the following named stockholders and or- 
ganizers : Herbert J. Conn, Thornton A. Tay- 
lor, William L. Caswell, William E. Currie, 
John A. Mercier, Ralph B. Wilkinson, Lyle G. 
Younglove, George Groul, Charles B. Kidder, 
and August Guerold. Of these Messrs. Tay- 
lor and Caswell were men of practical expe- 
rience in the line of business for the prosecu- 
tion of which the company was organized. 
The personnel of the original official corps was 
as here noted : William E. Currie, president ; 
Ralph B. Wilkinson, vice-president ; Herbert 
J. Conn, secretary; John A. Mercier, treasurer; 
and Thornton A. Taylor, general managen 
In 1903 Messrs. Taylor, Conn and Caswell 
purchased the interests of the other members 
of the company, and in the reorganization the 
following executive offices were assigned : 
Herbert J. Conn, president; William L. Cas- 
well, vice-president ; and Thornton A. Taylor, 
secretary and treasurer. Under the direction 
of these officers the enterprise has since been 
successfully continued. Mr. Conn has the su- 
perintendence of the financial affairs of the 
company; Mr. Caswell is in charge of the 
manufacturing department; and Mr. Taylor, 
besides supervising the general office and fiscal 
affairs of the business, has charge of the pur- 
chasing department and is associated with the 
president of the company in the supervision of 
the sales department. 

The present substantial and modern plant 
of the company was erected in 1904, and the 
main building is forty by one hundred and 
sixty-three feet in dimensions, two stories in 
height, with a one-story "L," forty by forty- 
five feet. In 1906 was constructed an addi- 
tion of one story, forty by one hundred and 
twenty feet in dimensions. In 1907 was com- 
pleted a large warehouse. The business at the 



start was conducted with headquarters in the 
old Wilson foundry building, 613 Fort street 
west, and the present plant is located at 751- 
755 Bellevue avenue. The buildings are of 
fire-proof construction, and the interior pro- 
visions in this line were installed by the Ameri- 
can Fi reproofing Company. 

The company began operations on a modest 
scale, at first giving employment to a force of 
only ten men, and at the present time about 
one hundred men are employed, about one- 
half of the number being skilled artisans. The 
first year's business aggregated only fifteen 
thousand dollars, and the rapid expansion of 
the industry is shown in the fact that in 1907 
the transactions of the company represented an 
aggregate of fully two hundred thousand dol- 
lars. Ninety per cent, of the products of the 
factory is sold from the general offices of the 
company, and the goods are also handled by 
commission men in various sections. The 
company manufacture a staple line known as 
standard set and cap screw studs, nuts, etc., 
which are carried in stock, also many special- 
ties, embracing all screw-machine products, 
such as automobile parts, spark-plug shells, 
universal joints, washers, rollers, clevises, 
cones, turnbuckles, steel taper pins and planer 
bolts, milled coupling bolts, malleable-iron 
thumb nuts and screws, finished and case-hard- 
ened nuts, ice calks, etc. All kinds of case- 
hardening work are turned out in the well 
equipped factoiy, and also every description of 
work turned from solid bars. The trade of 
the concern is principally in Michigan, Ohio 
and Indiana, and its business is constantly 
expanding in scope and in extent of territory. 



THE DETROIT STOKER & FOUNDRY COM- 
PANY. 

In the line of manufacturing industries it 
has been repeatedly observed that Detroit 
bears aloft a high standard and has acknowl- 
edged leadership, and on the long list of sub- 
stantial industrial enterprises which conserve 
her prestige that conducted by the above named 
corporation contributes its quota. 

This industrial concern was organized and 
incorporated in November, 1901, under the 



236 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



name of the Detroit Foundry & Manufactur- 
ing Company, with a capital stock of ten thou- 
sand dollars and with official corps as follows : 
President and treasurer, Frank L. Bromley; 
vice-president, Frank H. Sears; secretary, 
Alvah H. Leavitt. At that time the company 
was engaged in the jobbing foundry business, 
on Atwater street east, between Antoine and 
Hastings streets. The plant was a small one, 
with a maximum capacity of from four to five 
tons of finished castings per day. During 
1902 the business was carried on successfully 
in this small foundry, but the business was 
necessarily limited, on account of the size of 
the plant. In 1903 the officers of the com- 
pany were changed, as follows : President and 
manager, Frank L. Bromley; vice-president, 
J. W. Thompson; secretary and treasurer, 
Charles F. Lawson. The capital was increased 
from ten thousand to sixty-five thousand dol- 
lars and a plat of land fronting on the Grand 
boulevard, between Russell and Dequindre 
streets, was purchased. A large and modern 
foundry building, one hundred by one hundred 
and eighty-five feet in dimensions, was erected 
on this land early in 1903, and in this plant the 
business was carried forward in much greater 
volume. During the same year the company 
built a machine shop seventy by one hundred 
and ninety feet in dimensions, which building 
was leased to the Detroit Automatic Stoker 
Company, a concern which contracted for all 
its grey-iron castings from the Detroit Foun- 
dry & Manufacturing Company. This ar- 
rangement continued until February, 1905, 
when the Detroit Automatic Stoker Company 
sold its entire business to the Detroit Foun- 
dry & Manufacturing Company. After the 
transfers were made the name of the company 
was changed to that of the Detroit Stoker & 
Foundry Company and the capital was in- 
creased to one hundred and ten thousand dol- 
lars. During 1906 Mr. C. F. Lawson re- 
signed his position as secretary and treasurer, 
and the corps of officers was changed as fol- 
lows : President and treasurer, Frank L. 
Bromley; vice-president, J. W. Thompson; 
secretary, William H. Rea. The manufacture 
and sale of the Detroit Automatic stoker were 



pushed with such success that in 1907 the capi- 
tal of the company was increased to one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars, and the "De- 
troit Stoker" became favorably known amongst 
engineers and owners of power plants through- 
out the entire country. 

The Detroit automatic stoker is a patented 
device, known as a smokeless furnace. It is 
used in power plants for the purpose of burn- 
ing the lower grades of bituminous coal under 
boilers without smoke. The furnace is sold 
under guarantees as to economy and smoke 
prevention, 'and it has proven so satisfactory 
that the business has almost doubled each year 
since it was turned over to the present 
company. 

The Detroit Stoker & Foundry Company 
gives employment to over two hundred and 
fifty men and fully sixty-five per cent, is rep- 
resented in skilled labor, while the average 
annual pay roll shows an expenditure of one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It has 
been necessary to build two new additions to 
the plant during the last two years, in order 
to take care of the increasing business. The 
company appreciates the value of the name 
"Detroit" and is doing everything in its power 
to make the Detroit Stoker & Foundry Com- 
pany and the "Detroit Stoker" a credit to the 
city which has helped so materially in its 
success. 



THE COWLES & DANZIGER COMPANY. 

It is a fact uniformly conceded that few 
cities in the Union offer to manufacturing en- 
terprises so desirable facilities, ready capi- 
talistic support and general fostering care as 
does Detroit, and within her hospitable walls 
no legitimate vindertaking need lack for appre- 
ciative support. One of the later and im- 
portant manufacturing enterprises established 
in this city is that conducted by the company 
whose name introduces this brief sketch. 

The company was organized and incorpo- 
rated in 1901, with a capital of fifteen thousand 
dollars and with the following named business 
men as the interested principals : R. R. Ster- 
ling. F. G. Skinner, A. A. Cowles, and Jacob 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



237 



C. Danziger. The original official corps com- 
prised the following: R. R. Sterling, presi- 
dent; F. G. Skinner, vice-president; A. A. 
Cowles, secretary and treasurer ; and J. C. Dan- 
ziger, manager. The executive officers have 
since remained as above, save that Mr. Cowles 
served only during 1901 as secretary and treas- 
urer, being then succeeded by J. C. Danziger, 
the present incumbent, who also continues as 
general manager of the business. The com- 
pany manufacture steel barrels for the use of 
the gasoline and oil trade, have built up a large 
and substantial business, and the trade extends 
throughout the United States and into diverse 
sections of the dominion of Canada and re- 
public of Mexico. The annual business shows 
an average aggregate of fully fifteen thousand 
dollars, and the factory, which is essentially 
modern in its equipment and facilities, is lo- 
cated on Beaufait avenue. The work in the 
factory is done principally by compressed-air 
tools and the products are recognized for their 
superiority in every practical and technical 
detail. 



THE GORDON-PAGEL BREAD COMPANY. 

In every populous community one of the 
very important lines of industrial enterprise 
is that which has to do with the production of 
foodstuffs, and in this branch of manufactur- 
ing Detroit is signally favored. Here are to 
be found concerns whose every effort has been 
to produce for the use of the consuming pub- 
lic a grade of food requisites of the highest 
possible standard and prepared under the most 
perfect sanitary conditions. As standing in 
exemplification of the truth of the above state- 
ments it is but necessary to refer to the es- 
tablishment of the company whose title initi- 
ates this paragraph. An inspection of the plant 
of the Gordon-Pagel Bread Company, the most 
modern in the city, can not but compel the ob- 
server to recognize that baker's bread may be 
made thoroughly wholesome and more palat- 
able than is the average domestic product. The 
absolute cleanliness of the establishment in 
every department and the strict regard to mod- 
ern sanitary precautions and provisions, to- 
gether with the scientific methods employed in 



the treatment of the materials used, proves a 
revelation to one who has not previously 
familiarized himself with the workings of 
baking establishments of the highest type. 

In 1900 James C. Gordon and William M. 
Pagel entered into partnership, under the title 
of Gordon & Pagel, and forthwith established 
the business which has already grown to be 
one of the most successful of the kind in the 
city of Detroit. Mr. Gordon had previously 
passed about twelve years in the employ of the 
Morton Baking Company, of this city, and 
brought to bear in the new enterprise a most 
thorough experience of a technical order, and 
Mr. Pagel had conducted a successful retail 
grocery business for about a decade prior to 
entering into partnership with Mr. Gordon. 
The original plant of the firm occupied a small 
section of the present ample quarters, at the 
corner of Chene and Hendricks streets, and at 
the start only two men were employed in the 
baking department. The members of the firm 
officiated as their own salesmen and drove 
their own wagons, realizing that personal ap- 
plication and consecutive industry constitute 
the basis of success, and hiving no false ideas 
as to business dignity when they thus gave 
themselves to the work in hand. The growth 
of the enterprise has been most gratifying and 
has shown the wisdom of their initial and 
retained policy of operations. Each year has 
seen the completion of an addition to the plant 
and the augmenting of its facilities, and at the 
present time the company occupy premises with 
a frontage of two hundred and ten feet on 
Chene street and running back one hundred 
feet on Hendricks street to the alley. On the 
southeast corner of the same streets they 
erected in 1907 a modern stable building, one 
hundred by sixty feet in dimensions, and this 
is utilized for the accommodation of their fifty 
or more horses used in connection with the 
delivery department of the business. The at- 
tractive wagons used in this department number 
about thirty at the time of this writing. 

A brief description of the modus operandi 
of a modern baking plant can not be malapro- 
pos in this connection. The first operation is 
the sifting of the flour, followed by the blend- 



238 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ing of the winter and spring wheat varieties; 
next the flour, weighed to exact proportions, 
is placed in a mixer, with an equally definite 
amount of sterilized water, which is heated to 
the proper temperature indicated by science 
and experience, which also determine the blend- 
ing of the two varieties of flour. After the 
dough is thus prepared in the mixer it is placed 
in large wooden troughs, scrupulously clean, 
and later into a machine which weighs with 
exactitude the amount to be placed in each 
loaf. This small portion is then run through 
a kneading machine and shaped for the baking 
pans, which are then sent to the proving room. 
The scientific appliances and facilities of this 
room afford means of obtaining results not 
possible in the home, and the even tempera- 
ture maintained insures uniform size and also 
symmetry in the loaves of bread. From the 
proving room the waiting loaves are taken to 
the baking oven, whence is finally turned out 
the completed product, ready for the consumer 
and far superior to that secured by old-time 
methods, according to which chance, unequal 
temperature, unproven and unequalized grades 
of flour and inexact proportions gave ever 
varying results. 

The rapid growth of the business of the 
firm of Gordon & Pagel finally made the in- 
corporation of the concern expedient, and on 
the 1 6th of July. 1907, the Gordon-Pagel 
Bread Company was organized, with a capital 
stock of seventy-five thousand dollars. Mr. 
Gordon is president of the company ; John W. 
Zimmerling, vice-president; and William M. 
Pagel, secretary and treasurer. Brief reviews 
of the careers of Messrs. Gordon and Pagel 
appear on other pages of this publication. The 
equipment of the plant embodies the most mod- 
ern and perfect appliances pertaining to the 
manufacture of bread. The buildings are mod- 
els of sanitary construction, and every pos- 
sible care is given to delivering to the trade a 
product perfect in every particular. In main- 
taining the perfect sanitation of the plant a 
compressed-air system is employed, in addi- 
tion to the practically constant application of 
soap and water, and two men give their entire 
time and attention to this work. The oven 



capacity makes possible the baking of fifty 
thousand two-pound loaves of bread in a 
single day; employment is given to a force of 
about one hundred men; and the annual out- 
lay in wages reaches the notable aggregate of 
sixty thousand dollars. The output of the es- 
tablishment is sold entirely at wholesale, and 
the trade territory is confined to Detroit and its 
suburban districts. 



PHILIP KLING BREWING COMPANY. 

The successful enterprise conducted under 
the above title has been in existence for more 
than half a century and stands among the lead- 
ing industries of the sort in the state of Michi- 
gan, while its facilities are unexcelled by those 
of any other of similar order in the city of 
Detroit. 

The business was founded in the year 1856, 
by Philip Kling. who was one of the pioneers 
in this field of industry in the city of Detroit, 
where he still maintains his home, and here he 
has the distinction of being at the present time 
the oldest citizen of the Michigan metropolis 
who has been identified with brewing interests. 
His reputation and that of the establishment 
of which he was the founder have alike re- 
mained unassailable, and through well directed 
effort he built up the splendid enterprise whose 
title perpetuates his name. 

The original brewery was located on the site 
of the present fine plant, and was one of modest 
order but one which turned out a product of so 
superior quality as to early gain to it an ap- 
preciative and substantial patronage. The 
standard has never been lowered but rather 
has been raised by every possible means, so that 
the business has shown from the start a steady 
and normal expansion, until it is now one of 
the largest and most important of the sort in 
the state, throughout the most diverse sections 
of which the trade extends. The brewery, 
which is of the most modern type in all equip- 
ments and accessories, is located on Jefferson 
avenue near Grand boulevard, with a frontage 
of two hundred feet on the avenue mentioned, 
and extending back to the Detroit river, by 
means of which, as well as through railway 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



239 



connections, the shipping facilities are of the 
best. The buildings of the plant are substan- 
tial brick structures, and in every department 
the utmost care is given to the maintaining of 
the most perfect sanitary conditions and to 
insuring absolute purity of prodvict, so that the 
output is of a sort that in itself gains and re- 
tains trade. The company gives employment 
to an average force of seventy-five hands. The 
honored founder of the business, now vener- 
able in years, is living practically retired, and 
is one of the sterling pioneer business men of 
Detroit, where he holds a secure place in the 
confidence and esteem of all who know him. 
A brief sketch of his life appears elsewhere in 
this volume. 

The Philip Kling Brewing Company was 
incorporated in 1887, the business having pre- 
viously been conducted as an individual or 
partnership enterprise. The personnel of the 
official and executive corps of the company at 
the present time is as follows : Josephine 
Kling, president ; August Kling, vice-president 
and general manager; and Kurt Kling, secre- 
tary and treasurer. 



THE GIES GEAR COMPANY. 

The manufacturing of reversing gears for 
marine engines of the explosive type has 
brought this company into wide repute and 
its products, recognized for simplicity, effi- 
ciency and general superiority, are now uti- 
lized in all parts of the world where such types 
of marine engines are in commission. Letters 
of commendation have been received from 
leading manufacturers and users of such ma- 
rine engines to which the Gies reverse device 
has been applied, and the record of satisfactory 
service of the gear is practically unparalleled. 
The Gies Gear Company was organized in 
September, 1906, when it was incorporated 
under the laws of the state of Michigan, with 
a capital stock of seventy-five thousand dol- 
lars. 

Those interested in the organization of the 
company were Howard E. Putnam, Bruce H. 
Wark. Frank G. Gies, Clarence J. Gies, A. F. 
Gies, and Harry D. Morton. The officers of 



the concern are as here noted : H. E. Put- 
nam, president; B. H. Wark, vice-president; 
C. J. Gies, secretary; and H. D. Morton, 
treasurer and general manager. The well 
equipped plant is located at 345-7 Bellevue 
avenue, where the main building is eighty by 
one hundred and forty feet in dimensions, one 
story in height. The foundry building is 
thirty by fifty feet in dimensions. Of the fifty 
employes in the establishment fully ninety per 
cent, are skilled mechanics, and the average 
outlay in wages each year is thirty-five thou- 
sand dollars. The products of the institution 
find sale throughout the United States and 
Canada, and the demand extends to Europe, 
Asia, Africa, South America and every other 
part of the world where the motor boat is 
known. The European trade is covered 
through the agency of The Fairbanks Com- 
pany, of London. At the headquarters of the 
company in Detroit the president, Mr. Put- 
nam, has general supervision of the auditing 
department; Mr. Morton has the management 
of the purchasing department and general su- 
pervision of the business. Within the first ten 
months after beginning active operations the 
company turned out three thousand of its pat- 
ented reversing gears, and the business is con- 
stantly expanding in scope and importance. 
Full information in regard to the products of 
the establishment may be had by applying to 
the company's general offices, in Detroit. 



THE DETROIT REGALIA COMPANY. 

In extent of business controlled and in out- 
put capacity this concern ranks third of its 
kind in the Union, on which score it will readily 
be understood that it adds its quota to the 
commercial prestige of Detroit, where its 
manufactory and general headquarters are 
maintained. 

The enterprise dates its inception back to 
the year 1891, when operations were instituted 
by a copartnership, in which the interested 
principals were James G. Morgan, Emil Puhl, 
and C. V. Morris. The original firm name 
was Morgan, Puhl & Morris, and in 1894, so 
marked had been the expansion of the business 



240 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



of the firm that it was considered expedient to 
organize a stocic company. This was duly ac- 
complished, and the Morgan, Puhl & Morris 
Company was incorporated with a capital stock 
of twenty-five thousand dollars. Under this 
title the business was successfully continued 
until 1904, when the company was succeeded 
by the Detroit Regalia Company, which was 
incorporated with a capital of fifty thousand 
dollars, its officers being as follows : Philip 
Breitmeyer, president; Leon C. Finck, vice- 
president ; and John Gillespie, general man- 
ager. The company, with unrivaled facilities, 
manufactures all kinds of uniforms, regalia 
and lodge supplies, and its headquarters are 
maintained in the Palms building, 45-49 Grand 
River avenue, where five stories are utilized, 
each fifty by seventy feet in dimensions. In 
the factory and general sales and office depart- 
ments employment is given to an average of 
seventy persons, at an annual expenditure in 
salaries and wages of fully thirty-five thousand 
dollars, besides which a corps of able traveling 
representatives is retained and much employ- 
ment given in the placing of piece work out- 
side the factory. The company has agencies 
in all leading cities in the United States and 
Canada, throughout which its trade extends, 
and it also has a substantial demand for its 
products in foreign countries. The company 
has secured many prizes for its regalia and 
other insignia, and its products have met with 
special commendation in the elaborate re- 
galia of the Masonic and other fraternal 
organizations. 



THE KOPPITZ-MELCHERS BREWING 
COMPANY. 

The brewing industry in Detroit is repre- 
sented most effectively by the finely equipped 
plant, excellent product and substantial busi- 
ness of the Koppitz-Melchers Brewing Com- 
pany, which was organized and incorporated 
in 1890, with a capital stock of one hundred 
thousand dollars. Those concerned in the or- 
ganization of the new company were Messrs. 
Konrad E. Koppitz, Arthur C. Melchers, Her- 
man C. Sachse, and Charles F. Zielke, the first 



two mentioned having previously been identi- 
fied with the Stroh Brewing Company, of this 
city. Mr. Melchers was elected the first presi- 
dent; Mr. Koppitz, vice-president; and Mr. 
Zielke, secretary and treasurer. In 1907 Mr. 
Koppitz became president of the company, suc- 
ceeding John A. Preston, who died in April of 
that year, having been president from 1903 
and prior to that year having served as treas- 
urer of the company. Ferdinand P. Goettman 
succeeded Mr. Zielke in the management of the 
accounting department in 1894, was elected 
secretary in 1899, and since 1904 has served 
as both secretary and treasurer. Practically 
from the inception of the business Mr. Kop- 
pitz has had charge of the manufacturing or 
general brewing department. 

The large and distinctively modern plant of 
the company is located at the corner of Gratiot 
avenue and Superior street, and the equipment 
in every department is of the best type. The 
main brewery building is one hundred and 
forty feet square, and the building devoted to 
the bottling department is one hundred feet 
square. The average annual output is sixty 
thousand barrels, and the product is sold largely 
in Detroit and its environs, where the demand 
for the same is steady and cumulative. The 
concern pays out annually in wages about 
sixty-five thousand dollars and employment is 
given to an average of seventy men. With 
ample capital and the best of management the 
company has handled its business with due 
conservatism and has at all times placed its 
product at a trade premium in demand, by rea- 
son of the fact that absolute purity and proper 
handling have been demanded in every phase 
of the work, both mechanical and chemical. 
The concern has gained a high reputation and 
controls a large and substantial business. 



THE MANUFACTURERS' POWER BUILD- 
ING COMPANY. 

This company was organized in 1906, in 
March of which year it was incorporated with 
a capital stock of twelve thousand dollars, and 
the personnel of its official corps is as follows : 
F. G. Skinner, president; Edward J. Roney, 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



241 



vice-president ; and Jacob C. Danziger, sec- 
retary and treasurer. The company was 
formed for the purpose of owning and oper- 
ating building used by the Detroit Motor Cast- 
ings Company, the Cowles & Danziger Com- 
pany, and the Smith Chandelier Company, to 
which concerns it is practically an auxiliary, 
its interested principals being connected with 
one or more of the companies mentioned. 
Thus the concern exercises important func- 
tions and it is a distinct acquisition to the city 
of Detroit as an industrial and manufacturing 
center. The allied companies are elsewhere 
mentioned in this work, in which also appear 
sketches of the officers noted above. 



THE WHITEHEAD & KALES IRON WOEKS. 

Contributing its quota to the industrial pre- 
eminence of Detroit and controlling a large 
and substantial business in its prescribed line 
of manufacturing, this well known company 
dates its inception from the year 1899, when 
the firm of Whitehead & Kales was formed. 
The firm instituted practical operations in a 
building at the corner of Randolph and Frank- 
lin streets, and from a modest beginning, in- 
volving the employment of only twenty-five 
men, the business has grown year by year until 
it is now recognized as one of the representa- 
tive industries of the metropolies of Michigan, 
having unexcelled facilities and resting on most 
secure financial and technical foundations. 
The original firm title was retained until 1905, 
when the business was incorporated under the 
laws of the state, as the Whitehead & Kales 
Iron Works. The capital stock of the com- 
pany is one hundred thousand dollars and the 
personnel of the official corps of the institution 
is as here noted : James T. Whitehead, presi- 
dent and treasurer; William R. Kales, vice- 
president and designing engineer; and James 
T. Warner, secretary. The office and plant of 
the company are located at the juncture of 
Beecher avenue and the Michigan Central 
Railroad. Here an ample tract of ground 
is owned and here are established the substan- 
tial and finely equipped modem buildings 
which constitute the company's plant. The 



main building is four hundred and fifty by one 
hundred and fifty-five feet in dimensions, and 
the other buildings, including storehouses, are 
in harmony with the main structure. The best 
of transportation facilities are afforded by the 
proximity of the Michigan Central Railroad, 
with whose lines are connected the four side- 
tracks constructed on the grounds of the iron 
works. The company now gives employment 
to an average force of two hundred persons. 
The annual pay roll represents an expenditure 
of about sixty-five thousand dollars, and the 
trade of the concern now extends throughout 
the middle west and the Pacific coast sections. 
Careful management, progressive policies and 
able technical supervision have made the 
growth of the enterprise especially rapid and 
substantial, and its continued expansion along 
normal channels is assured. The company are 
builders of structures in steel, including 
bridges, jails and prisons, and manufacture 
architectural and ornamental iron work, trav- 
eling, gantry and jib cranes, turntables, indus- 
trial railways, cars, trolleys, etc., coal-handling 
plants, iron-ore buckets, tanks, smokestacks 
and breechings, and turn out all kinds of heavy 
and light sheet-iron work. Individual mention 
of the officers of the company is made elsewhere 
in this volume. 



0. WARDELL & SONS. 

In the middle '70s Detroit was a city of 
about one hundred and fifty thousand popula- 
tion and here has been vouchsafed within the 
intervening years a substantial and normal ad- 
vancement along material and civic lines, so 
that at the opening of the year 1908 the city 
stands as an industrial and commercial center 
of nearly an half million population. This 
growth has implied the expansion of the terri- 
tory of the city to a notable extent, that due 
provision might be made for the many manu- 
facturing plants and the houses demanded for 
the accommodation of the greatly augmented 
number of inhabitants. In this connection a 
work of great magnitude has been done by the 
reliable and enterprising real-estate dealers of 
the city, and through their discriminating ef- 



242 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



forts marked impetus has been given to this 
march of progress and industrial development. 
One of the oldest and best know^n of the real- 
estate firms of Detroit is that whose title initi- 
ates this paragraph, and as real-estate dealers 
and auctioneers no concern in the city can claim 
greater prestige and popularity. The reputa- 
tion of the concern rests upon the solid foun- 
dation of more than thirty-five years of fair 
and honorable dealings, and the founder of the 
firm still remains its executive head. 

In 1873 Orrin Wardell established himself 
in Detroit as a dealer in and auctioneer of real 
estate, and he has since been continuously and 
prominently identified with this important de- 
partment of business enterprise. He conducted 
the business individually until 1882, when his 
elder son, Charles R. Wardell, was admitted 
to partnership, under the firm name of O. War- 
dell & Son. This title obtained until 1887, 
when the younger son, Fred, was admitted to 
partnership and the present firm name adopted. 
The offices of the business were established in 
vhe Walker block from the time that the 
founder entered this field of enterprise in De- 
troit up to a few months ago, when they re- 
moved to 1223 Majestic building. Individual 
mention of the three members of the firm is 
made on other pages of this volume. 

The priority of the firm of O. Wardell & 
Sons in the especial function of real-estate 
auctioneering is best illustrated by the volume 
of business transacted. Fully seventy-five per 
cent, of all the real estate sold at auction in 
Detroit and its environs has been handled by 
this firm, and among the most important sales 
may be noted the following: The Eureka 
Iron Works, at Wyandotte, involving an ag- 
gregate of one hundred and forty thousand 
dollars; the Trumbull avenue holdings of 
Waldo A. Avery and Michael J. Murphy, two 
hundred thousand dollars; and the sale of the 
property of the City Savings Bank for its 
trustee, the Union Trust Company. The firm 
also conducted the sale of the furnishings of 
the Griswold House in 1893, disposing of about 
sixteen hundred articles within a period of 
twelve hours, and in 1905 were sold by the 



firm the furnishings of two hundred rooms of 
the old Russell House. 

O. Wardell & Sons have made a specialty of 
the sale of subdivision property, and in this 
field have done a large and successful business. 
Their operations have extended into the most 
diverse sections of the state of Michigan and 
they are at the present time handling in this 
line a large business in the city of Cleveland, 
Ohio. They are members of the Detroit Board 
of Commerce and the Detroit Real Estate 
Board, and the interested principals are num- 
bered among the honored and representative 
business men of the city. The firm has been 
conspicuously identified with the development 
and upbuilding of Mount View Park, located 
at Waterford, Michigan, where about fifteen 
cottages have been erected and where the col- 
ony is also provided with a first-class cafe 
service by the authorities in control of the 
resort. Among the representative citizens of 
Detroit who have erected cottages in this 
beautiful park may be mentioned Dr. C. C. 
Miller, H. F. James, George Hammond, 
Charles Burton, W. C. Dailey, O. Wardell, and 
Charles R. Wardell. 



THE EKHARDT & BECKER BREWING 
COMPANY. 

A concern of magnitude and with the best of 
facilities for the prosecution of its special line 
of industry, this company ranks as one of the 
leading manufacturers of high-grade beer in 
Detroit. The company was incorporated in 
189 1, with a capital stock of one hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, and it succeeded to the 
business of the firm of Ekhardt & Becker, 
which was formed in September, 1873, and 
which was in turn the successor of John 
Koch, who established the Michigan brewery 
at 244 Russell street. The original plant had 
a capacity for the output of about ten thousand 
barrels annually, and the incorporation of the 
present stock company was brought about to 
meet the exigencies of the large and constantly 
increasing business which had been built up 
by honorable methods and superior product. 
At the time of the organization of the com- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



243 



pany a tract of land was purchased at the cor- 
ner of Orleans and Winder streets. On the 
former street the frontage is two hundred feet 
and on the latter three hundred and fifty feet, 
so that ample accommodations were afforded 
for the erection of the fine new plant. The 
buildings are of substantial brick and stone 
construction and the plant now has a capacity 
for the output of fifty thousand barrels a year, 
— a capacity that is fully tested by the trade 
demands placed upon the institution. The 
bottling department is modern in every re- 
spect, and the ice plant has a capacity of one 
hundred and thirty-five tons a day. The prod- 
uct of this establishment is admitted to be of 
the highest standard of excellence, and the 
popular appreciation of this fact is shown in 
the substantial trade controlled. The company 
gives employment to a force of about fifty men, 
exclusive of office assistants, and the average 
annual expenditure in wages is thirty-five 
thousand dollars. The company is rapidly in- 
creasing its scope of operations and its execu- 
tive and technical principals are men of marked 
business ability and thorough experience. The 
brewmaster of the plant, August H. Ekhardt, 
is one of the youngest in the state and is con- 
sidered one of the most successful. All de- 
partments are in charge of men who have be- 
come most favorably known to the trade, and 
every care is taken to insure absolute perfec- 
tion of sanitary provisions and purity and 
evenness of product. 

The personnel of the executive corps of the 
Ekhardt & Becker Brewing Company is as 
here indicated: August Ekhardt, president; 
August Voss, vice-president; and William H. 
Becker, secretary and treasurer. August Ek- 
hardt, William H. Becker and Louis Becker 
are the managing directors. 



THE DETROIT HOIST & MACHINE COM- 
PANY. 

This company controls one of the unique 
industrial enterprises of Detroit and one which 
has, through its successful operation, con- 
tributed in both a direct and collateral way to 
the prestige of the city as a manufacturing and 



distributing center. The company was organ- 
ized in 1905, as the Pilling Air Engine Com- 
pany, and the title was later changed to the 
present form, — the Detroit Hoist & Machine 
Company. The business was duly incorporated 
under the laws of the state, with a capital stock 
of twenty thousand dollars, which was in- 
creased to thirty-five thousand dollars in the 
following year, to meet the demands of the 
expanding business. The interested principals 
in the organization of the company were Jo- 
siah C. Fleming, of Chicago, who became 
president of the corporation, and Frank L. 
Bromley, who became secretary and treas- 
urer. The concern leased a portion of 
the plant of the Detroit Stoker & Foun- 
dry Company, and utilized the same until 
1907, when the present finely equipped plant 
was erected, near Clay avenue, at the crossing 
of the Grand Trunk Railway, where the com- 
pany had purchased three acres of ground for 
the purpose. The company manufacture pneu- 
matic hoists, pneumatic motors for use in con- 
nection with the operation of railway cranes, 
and also other specialties of kindred order. 
The trade of the concern extends throughout 
the United States and Canada and the prod- 
ucts are of recognized superiority, thus con- 
stituting their own advertisement and insur- 
ing the continuous growth and the definite 
solidity of the industry. Employment is given 
to twenty-five skilled artisans, and the force is 
certain to be increased from time to time, as 
the expansion of the business requires. The 
original officers of the company still retain 
their respective executive positions, and J. Wil- 
fred Thompson has been added to the list, in 
the office of vice-president. 



THE KOLB-GOTFREDSON HORSE COM- 
PANY. 

With Detroit headquarters at 1093 to 11 13 
Gratiot avenue, this concern transacts a large 
and important business as dealers in and com- 
mission salesmen of horses and also as dealers 
in carriages, buggies, wagons, harness, etc. 
At the establishment of the company auction 
sales of draft, driving, saddle and farm horses 



244 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



are held every Thursday and Saturday, at ten 
o'clock A. M., and private sales are held daily. 
In the carriage and harness department are 
handled all kinds of carriages and buggies of 
the light driving order, and a specialty is made 
of harness equipment of all kinds, saddlery, 
and turf supplies, as well as delivery wagons 
and lumber and dump wagons. The company 
was incorporated under the laws of the state 
in August, 1905, with a capital stock of sixty 
thousand dollars, and it succeeded to the busi- 
ness founded by Jacob Kolb in 1878. Thus the 
enterprise under the corporate regime was in- 
stituted with ample capitalistic reinforcement 
and a high and well established reputation for 
fair and honorable dealings. In January, 1908, 
the business was incorporated, with capital 
stock of $150,000. The officers of the company 
are as here noted : Jacob Kolb, Sr., president; 
William D. Fox, vice-president; and Benjamin 
Gotfredson, secretary and treasurer. All of 
the interested principals are thoroughly expe- 
rienced in their line of business, being authori- 
tative judges of the values of horses, and the 
company is the largest concern of the kind in 
the middle west. In 1907 twelve thousand 
horses were sold through its agency, and an 
average of fully thirty-six thousand dollars is 
paid out annually in wages to employes. In 
the carriage and harness department an exten- 
sive trade also is controlled. The company 
owns the building occupied, and the same is 
substantially constructed of brick, is eighty- 
four by two hundred and twenty feet in di- 
mensions, three stores in height and represents 
the expenditure of thirty thousand dollars. 
This fine, modern building, which has the best 
of equipment throughout, was erected in 1905. 
The company has an accumulated surplus of 
forty thousand dollars, and this reserve is be- 
ing used with due care and conservatism in 
the expansion of the business. A review of 
the career of the president of the company 
appears on other pages of this publication. 



THE ENTERPRISE FOUNDRY COMPANY. 

Under the above title is conducted one of 
the thriving and well ordered industrial en- 



terprises which contribute to the sum total of 
the great commercial prestige of the city of 
Detroit. The business, like many others of 
this city, was initiated on a small scale, and it 
has been expanded to an enterprise of large 
scope and importance, through the ability of 
the interested principals and through the su- 
periority of the products. The company manu- 
factures gray-iron, brass and aluminum cast- 
ings, and also does a general jobbing business 
along the line of its manufactured products, 
making a specialty of light castings. The in- 
dustry is the outgrowth of the labors and ener- 
gies of men practical in the business, and the 
success which has attended the same is grati- 
fying to note in connection with that of other 
enterprises which are likewise contributing 
their quota to the upbuilding of the greater 
Detroit. 

The Enterprise Foundry Company, which 
well merits its title, was organized in 1896 and 
was incorporated under the laws of the state, 
with a capital stock of five thousand dollars. 
Those concerned in the establishing of the busi- 
ness under these circumstances were George S. 
Cuddy, Charles W. Carolin and John Goschen- 
hofer, all of whom are practical moulders and 
foundry men and all of whom had previously 
been skilled employes at their trade. Relying 
upon their technical knowledge and their com- 
mon interest in inaugurating independent busi- 
ness careers, they established the new enter- 
prise, though their capitalistic reinforcement 
was but limited. The original plant covered 
three lots, at the junction of Warren avenue 
and the lines of the Michigan Central Rail- 
road, and operations were started with a force 
of but eight men. The present plant, located 
on Warren avenue and the Belt Line, is essen- 
tially modern in its equipment and appurte- 
nances, so that the business suffers no handicap 
in the matter of facilities for the expeditious 
and effective handling of all work undertaken. 
The company's buildings now occupy two acres 
of ground and were erected in 1905-6. They 
are of reinforced concrete construction, and 
the pattern building is thoroughly fire-proof. 
Employment is given to a force of one hun- 
dred and fifteen persons, of whom seventy-five 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



245 



are skilled mechanics, and the aggregate of 
wages paid out by the concern for the year 
1907 is represented in the sum of eighty-two 
thousand dollars. The output is sold princi- 
pally in Detroit and a large portion of the work 
of this finely equipped foundry is turned out 
on contract. The trade is secure and substan- 
tial and is constantly expanding, thus showing 
that the company's reputation for reliability 
and high-grade- work is amply justified. The 
capital stock is now thirty thousand dollars, 
and the personnel of the executive corps is as 
follows : Frank Smith, president ; Emil Van 
Wanseelee, vice-president; George S. Cuddy, 
treasurer; and Charles W. Carolin, general 
manager and sales agent. The president, Mr. 
Smith, who is a representative real-estate 
dealer of Detroit, has been identified with the 
company since 1898, and the vice-president, 
who is also the mechanical engineer of the con- 
cern, became a stockholder and executive of- 
ficer in 1899. Mr. Cuddy, the treasurer, also 
has charge of the experimental department, 
and John Goschenhofer, Jr., is superintendent 
of the foundry department. The technical 
ability of the officers of the company, together 
with their distinctive community of interests, 
insures continuous success to the enterprise, 
which is well entitled to representation in this 
publication. 



THE TIVOLI BREWING COMPANY. 

In manifold lines of industrial activity has 
Detroit gained a position of pre-eminence, and 
here are found represented practically all lines 
of legitimate business enterprise which any 
other metropolitan centers can claim. The 
brewing interests of the Michigan metropolis 
find a progressive and effective exemplifica- 
tion in the enterprise conducted under the title 
which initiates this article, and the energized 
ability brought to bear in an executive way is 
equalled by the superiority of the product of 
the concern. 

The Tivoli Brewing Company was organ- 
ized in 1898 and was incorporated under the 
laws of the state, with a capital stock of one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, so 



that it is amply fortified in both financial and 
administrative agencies. The able triumvirate 
which effected the incorporation was Messrs. 
Bernhard Verstine, Louis W. Schimmel and 
Franz Brogniez. The first named is president 
of the company, but takes no active part in the 
management of the business, and the other of- 
ficers of the company at the present time are as 
here noted : A. James Singelyn, vice-president 
and treasurer; and Louis W. Schimmel, secre- 
tary and general manager. 

The plant of the company is one of model 
type in every detail and is eligibly located on 
Mack avenue at the corner of Hurlbut street, 
where two and one-half acres of ground are 
owned and utilized. The capacity of the in- 
stitution at the inception of its operations was 
forty thousand barrels per annum, and the ef- 
fective generalship of the officers of the con- 
cern made the industry distinctively successful 
from the start, for in no respect is the pro- 
duct permitted to go forth to the trade until the 
ultimate of excellence has been attained. The 
result is that the Tivoli beer has been its own 
advertiser, justifying the old English adage 
that "Good wine needs no bush," the old cus- 
tom having been for the English public wine 
houses to place over the door a bush from some 
tree as the designating advertisement. Exten- 
sive improvements were made at the plant in 
1907, including the erection of a new office 
building, the providing of fine storage cellars 
and wash house, and the installation of an ice 
plant of one hundred tons capacity. The build- 
ings are all of fire-proof construction and the 
plant stands as a veritable model. The output 
for 1907 was sixty-five thousand barrels, and 
the product finds its largest demand in the city 
of Detroit, while the outside trade is increasing 
with such rapidity as to test the capacity of the 
institution. Employment is given to an ade- 
quate force in each of the various departments. 
The concern utilizes thirty horses in the work 
of its delivery department, and the animals are 
of the best type and kept with utmost care. 
Thus the teams and wagons of the company at- 
tract attention by reason of their superiority. 
The company also operates one automobile 
truck, being one of two breweries in the city 



246 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



to adopt this modem accessory. The institu- 
tion has forged rapidly to the front within the 
decade of its existence and its products are 
recognized as being unexcelled by those of 
any other local brewery. The officers in charge 
are each specially well equipped for the han- 
dling of assigned work, and are known as pro- 
gressive and reliable business men. The vice- 
president and treasurer, Mr. Singelyn, has 
supervision of the financial and sales depart- 
ments of the business; the secretary and gen- 
eral manager, Mr. Schimmel, has charge of the 
details of manufacture and of the accounting 
and correspondence department; and Adolph 
Wandrie, a thoroughly skilled and practical 
operative, is brewmaster of the concern. 

THE INDEPENDENT BREWING COM- 
PANY. 

An effective representative of the brewing 



interests in the state of Michigan is the com- 
pany whose name initiates this paragraph and 
whose business has reached large and substan- 
tial proportions. The company was incorpor- 
ated under the laws of Michigan in 1906, with 
a capital stock of seventy-five thousand dollars 
and with the following named organizers: 
John Coll, William F. Zoeller, William Unruh, 
George H. Schmitt, August Graunau, Robert 
Kunze, and Frederick Wentzel. The company 
forthwith effected the purchase of one acre of 
ground at the juncture of Springwells avenue 
and the tracks of the Michigan Central Rail- 
road, and upon this site was erected in the 
same year the present modern and finely 
equipped plant, which has a capacity for the 
output of thirty-five thousand barrels of beer 
per annum. The most scrupulous care is given 
to every detail of manufacture, thus insuring a 
product of maximum excellence. 



I 



Department of 
Biography 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



249 



ALEXANDER LEWIS. 

A publication of this nature exercises its 
most important function when it takes cog- 
nizance, through proper memorial tribute, of 
the life and labors of so distinguished a citizen 
as the late Alexander Lewis, who became a 
resident of Detroit in the year which marked 
the admission of Michigan to the Union and 
who rose to prominence and prosperity through 
his own well directed efforts. He served as 
mayor of Detroit in the centennial year of our 
national independence, he ever stood exponent 
of the most leal and loyal citizenship, and was 
a gracious, noble personality whose memory 
will be long cherished and venerated in the 
beautiful city in which he continued to make 
his home until his death, which occurred on 
the morning of Saturday, April i8, 1908. At 
the time of his demise he was one of the most 
venerable and most honored pioneer residents 
of the fair "City of the Straits." 

Alexander Lewis was born in Sandwich, 
province of Ontario, Canada, on the 24th of 
October, 1822, and was a son of Thomas and 
Jeanette (Velaire) Lewis, the former of whom 
was born at Three Rivers, Canada, and the lat- 
ter in the locality formerly known as Ottawa, 
part of which is now the city of Windsor, 
Ontario. In the agnatic line the ancestry is 
traced to pure Welsh stock, and the maternal 
ancestry was of high-class French derivation. 
The paternal grandfather of the subject of this 
memoir immigrated from Wales to America 
about the year 1760, and settled at Three 
Rivers, Canada, where he passed the residue of 
his life. Thomas Lewis took up his residence 
in Sandwich, Ontario, when a young man and 
there he became a large landholder and an ex- 
tensive farmer. He was held in unequivocal 
esteem in the community and exerted much in- 
fluence in local affairs. He and his wife con- 
tinued to reside in Sandwich until they were 
called to the life eternal, and both were devout 
communicants of the Catholic church. They 
became the parents of four sons and four 
daughters, of whom only one is now living, 
Charlotte P., who is the widow of Henry P. 
Bridge, of Detroit, where she still maintains 



her home. The father was for a time in serv- 
ice as a soldier in the war of 1812. 

Alexander Lewis was reared to the age of 
fourteen years at Sandwich, where his early 
educational training was secured under the able 
tutorship of Rev. William Johnson, who was 
a graduate of one of the colleges in Dublin, 
Ireland, and who was at the time rector of the 
Sandwich parish of the Church of England. 
On the ist of May, 1837, when about fifteen 
years of age, Mr. Lewis came to Detroit and 
secured employment in the general store of 
E. W. Cole & Company, at the corner of 
Woodward avenue and Atwater street, in 
which connection he received in compensation 
for his services four dollars a month and his 
board. He remained with this concern about 
two years, and for the ensuing two years he 
was in the employ of G. & J. G. Hill, drug- 
gists, on Jefferson avenue. At the expiration 
of the time noted, in 1841, he removed to 
Pontiac, where he was employed as clerk in 
a mercantile establishment until 1843, when 
he returned to Detroit, where he ever after- 
ward continued to make his home. Here he 
entered the forwarding and commission ware- 
house of Gray & Lewis, the junior member of 
which firm was his elder brother, Samuel 
Lewis. In 1845 he engaged in the same line of 
enterprise independently, by associating him- 
self with the late Henry P. Bridge, under the 
firm name of Bridge & Lewis. Their original 
headquarters were at the foot of Bates street, 
whence they later removed to the foot of 
Randolph street. This firm continued opera- 
tions for nearly thirty years, and in the mean- 
while, in 1862, Mr. Lewis established himself 
in the flour and grain business, on West Wood- 
bridge street, where he continued in active 
business until 1884. He built up one of the 
largest enterprises of the sort in the city and 
in the meantime made judicious capitalistic in- 
vestments in other lines, so that when, in 1884, 
he finally retired from the commission trade 
he found ample demand upon his time and at- 
tertion in the supervision of his other large 
and varied inter. 'Sts, though he lived virtually 
retired after the year noted. He was in his 



250 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



offices daily until within a very short time 
before his death, and he kept in close touch 
with the advances of the day, retaining a vital 
interest in men and affairs. 

Mr. Lewis was a stockholder, and the oldest 
director at time of death, in the Old Detroit 
National Bank, one of the strongest in the mid- 
dle west, and was at one time a stockholder in 
the Detroit Savings Bank. He was long a 
valued member of the board of trade, of which 
he was president for some time. He was a 
member of the directorate of the Detroit Fire 
& Marine Insurance Company, was a stock- 
holder of the Detroit Trust Company, and for 
fifteen years he was president of the Detroit 
Gas Company. He was the owner of much 
valuable real estate in the city and was one of 
Detroit's substantial capitalists. 

In politics Mr. Lewis was ever arrayed as 
a stanch supporter of the cause of the Demo- 
cratic party, and he rendered effective and val- 
uable service in various offices of local trust. 
He was a member of the board of police com- 
missioners from 1865 to 1875, and from 1881 
to 1887 Wfas a member of the board of com- 
missioners of the public library of Detroit. In 
1876-7 he was mayor of the city, and no in- 
cumbent of this chief executive office has ever 
given a more loyal and careful administration. 
He was a man of distinctive independence and 
his opinions were always well fortified, as were 
his convictions invariably based on conscien- 
tious motives. Of his service as mayor the 
following pertinent statement has been pre- 
viously published : "Mr. Lewis was elected 
mayor of the city under circumstances of the 
highest possible honor. The distinct issue in 
the election was as to whether the laws should 
be observed, and especially whether the law 
providing for the proper observance of the 
Sabbath should be enforced. Mr. Lewis, as the 
candidate of those who favored law and order, 
was supported almost unanimously by the re- 
ligious and moral elements of the community, 
was triumphantly elected, and fully, squarely 
and repeatedly opposed the violation of law, 
successfully carrying out the ideas of those 
who elected him." 

Mr. Lewis was a communicant of the Cath- 



olic church, in whose faith he was reared, and 
the other members of his family are identified 
with the Protestant Episcopal church. When 
he was summoned to the life eternal there came 
from every side marks of appreciation and sor- 
row, but even to those nearest and dearest to 
him in his ideal domestic relations there must 
remain a large and perpetual measure of com- 
pensation and reconciliation in having so 
closely touched his beautiful and useful life, 
which was prolonged far beyond the span al- 
lotted by the psalmist. The following editorial 
appeared in the Detroit Free Press at the time 
of his death, and is but one of many similar 
utterances of appreciation : "The meager num- 
ber of Detroit ex-mayors is diminshed by one 
in the death, full of years, of Alexander Lewis. 
There was nothing in his entire career out of 
harmony with what one might expect in a man 
who had been elevated by his fellow citizens 
to the position of the first gentleman of the 
community. In varied activities he had 
touched success at many points, and this gen- 
eration knew him as one whose life exempli- 
fied a beautiful content with the many honors 
fate had bestowed upon him and whose char- 
acter exemplified a symmetrical development, 
in which culture and polish had not weakened 
qualities of strength and force. The social 
side of Mayor Lewis was unusually attractive. 
A natural graciousness in manner and mind 
marked his intercourse with his associates. 
The affection entertained for him was of 
marked warmth and sincerity. The public 
spirit that caused his designation for many of 
the highest municipal responsibilities showed 
slight diminution with length of years. What 
type can inspire a higher incentive for imita- 
tion in those of younger years than the success- 
ful, public-spirited, admirable, unusual type to 
which this excellent and universally respected 
old gentleman belonged?" 

On the loth of June, 1850, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Lewis to Miss Elizabeth 
J. Ingersoll, who was born in the state of New 
York, whence she came to Detroit with her 
father, Justus Ingersoll, who became one of 
the influential business men of this city. Mrs. 
Lewis died on the 4th of January, 1894. She 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



251 



was a woman of gentle and gracious attributes 
and was beloved by all who came within the 
sphere of her influence. Of the thirteen child- 
ren of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, seven are living. 
Edgar L. is now engaged in business in the 
city of Boston; Josephine is the wife of Clar- 
ence Carpenter and they reside at Colorado 
Springs, Colorado ; Harriet I. is the wife of 
Cameron Currie, of Detroit; Henry B. is a 
representative business man of Detroit, and is 
individually mentioned on other pages of this 
publication; Julia Velaire is the wife of Spen- 
cer Penrose, of Colorado Springs; Marion 
Marie is the wife of W. Howie Muir, of De- 
troit; and Alexander I. is secretary and treas- 
urer of the Newland Hat Company, of De- 
troit. 



THE LEDYARD FAMILY. 

The Ledyard family, which has had dis- 
tinguished representation and recognition in 
Detroit, is one of distinctively patrician lin- 
eage, both direct and collateral, and the name 
is one which has been prominent and honored 
in the annals of the nation. 

Henry Ledyard, the first to become a cit- 
izen of Detroit, of which city he was one 
of the early mayors, was born in the city of 
New York, on the 5th of March, 18 12, and 
was a son of Benjamin and Susan French 
(Livingston) Ledyard. His grandfather, who 
likewise bore the name of Benjamin Ledyard, 
was major of a New York infantry regiment 
in the war of the Revolution, in which he 
rendered yeoman service, and after the close 
of the great struggle for independence, he 
became one of the organizers of the New 
York body of the historic Society of the Cin- 
cinnati, composed of those who had served 
as officers in the Continental armies. His 
cousin. Colonel William Ledyard, likewise was 
a valiant soldier of the Revolution and was in 
command of Fort Griswold, at Groton, Con- 
necticut, at the time of the memorable mas- 
sacre of the garrison by the British, in 1781. 
There he met his death through the treachery 
of an English officer. 

Benjamin Ledyard (2d), father of Henry 
Ledyard, was a representative lawyer and in- 



fluential citizen of New York city, where he 
continued to reside until his death, as did 
also his wife, who was a daughter of Brock- 
hoist Livingston, a member of the distinguished 
New York family of that name. Brockholst 
Livingston was graduated in Princeton Col- 
lege in 1774, served as aide-de-camp to Cen- 
tral Schuyler and General Alexander Ham- 
Iton, and in 1778 was commissioned lieutenant- 
colonel. After the close of the Revolution he 
was engaged in the practice of law in New 
York city until 1802, when he became one of 
the associate judges of the supreme court of 
the state. Of this office he remained incum- 
bent until 1807, when he was appointed an 
associate justice of the supreme court of the 
United States, and he remained a member of 
this distinguished tribunal until his death, in 
1823. He was a son of William Livingston, 
third son of Philip Livingston, who was the 
second lord of the historic manor of Livings- 
ton and whose eldest son was the third and 
last lord of this manor, in the state of New 
York; the second son, Philip, was one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence. 
William Livingston was graduated in Yale 
College in 1741, became a member of the Mid- 
dle Temple, London, England, in the following 
year; in 1759 he was representative of the 
Livingston manor in the colonial assembly of 
New York; in 1772 he removed to New Jer- 
sey, which he represented in the colonial con- 
gress in 1774-5, being recalled from that 
body on June 5th of the latter year to take 
command of the New Jersey forces, as brig- 
adier-general. In 1776 he was made governor 
of New Jersey, and he retained this dignified 
incumbency with high honor and ability until 
his death, in 1790. 

Henry Ledyard was afforded the best of 
educational advantages of a preliminary order 
and in 1830 was graduated in Columbia Col- 
lege, New York city. He soon afterward 
entered upon the practice of law in the national 
metropolis, and he continued in the work of 
his profession until General Lewis Cass, second 
governor of Michigan, was appointed minister 
to France, whither Mr. Ledyard accompanied 
him, as an attache of the legation. The cul- 
ture and genius of Mr. Ledyard made him 



252 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



specially eligible for diplomaUc preferment, 
and in 1839 he became secretary of the lega- 
tion. In 1842 he was made incumbent of the 
office of charge d' affaires of the same lega- 
tion, and of this position he continued incum- 
bent for two years. On the 19th of September, 
1839, was solemnized his marriage to Matilda 
Frances, daughter of General Cass. 

In 1844 Mr. Ledyard returned to the United 
States and took up his residence in Detroit, 
where he continued to make his home for 
nearly a score of years and where he was a 
distinguished figure in civic and social affairs 
and public life. He was one of the founders 
of the State Bank, in 1845, ^"^ >" the follow- 
ing year he became one of the promoters and 
first trustees of Elmwood cemetery, of whose 
governing body he was secretary for many 
years. In 1846-7 he was a member of the board 
of education, in which connection he ren- 
dered noteworthy service in improving the 
public-school system of the city. In 1848 he 
became one of the promoters and incorporators 
of the first plank-road company organized in 
the state, and for many years afterward he 
was a director of various corporations of kin- 
dred order, — all of which were effective agen- 
cies in providing better means of communica- 
tion between Detroit and the interior sections 
of the state. In 1849-50 he was a member of 
the board of aldermen, and he became a mem- 
ber of the first board of water commissioners, 
on which he served from 1853 to 1859. In 
1855 his fellow citizens in Detroit gave him 
the highest honor offered by the municipal gov- 
ernment, since he was then elected mayor of 
the city, by a gratifying majority. In 1857 
he was elected a member of the state senate. 
This position he resigned soon afterward for 
the purpose of accompanying General Cass to 
Washington, the latter having been appointed 
secretary of state under the administration of 
President Buchanan. Mr. Ledyard remained 
in the national capital until 1861, when he 
removed to Newport, Rhode Island, which con- 
tinued to be his home until his death. In 1880 
he made a visit to Europe, where he remained 
for but a short time, as his death occurred, in 
the city of London, on the 7th of June, 1880. 
Mr. Ledyard was a man of distinguished and 



courtly presence, representing well the gracious 
old regime, and his ideals in all lines were of 
the most exalted order. He was the friend of 
humanity and did much to relieve distress and 
suffering and to support worthy objects of char- 
itable and benevolent order. In Newport, 
Rhode Island, he continued to give potent 
manifestation of the generous attributes of his 
character, and it was chiefly through his ef- 
forts that the fund was raised for the estab- 
lishment and maintenance of the Newport 
hospital. In a sketch of his career appearing 
in Farmei^'s History of Detroit and Mich- 
igan, a concluding paragraph offers the follow- 
ing pertinent statements: "Although a great 
sufferer during the later years of his life, his 
zeal for the welfare of others showed no abate- 
ment. No considerations of personal discom- 
fort or inconvenience deterred him from his 
active efforts of benevolence. He was a daily 
visitor at the hospital which he had established, 
and many a sufferer within its walls gained re- 
newed hope and life from his tender sympathy 
and cheerful words of encouragement. It was 
said of him that his presence in the hospital 
was felt as a benediction. A great lover of 
books and possessed of a fine and critical lit- 
erary taste, he was an earnest advocate of the 
usefulness of public libraries as a means of edu- 
cation for the people, and for many years 
he took an active interest in the management 
of that venerable institution in Newport, the 
Redwood library, of which he was at one time 
president. In works such as these the last 
twenty years of his life were passed." 

Henry and Matilda Frances (Cass) Ledyard 
were the parents of five children, of whom 
four are living: Elizabeth Cass Ledyard was 
born in Paris, October i, 1840, was married at 
Newport, Rhode Island, April 9, 1862, to 
Francis Wayland Goddard. The latter died, 
in Boston, May 16, 1889. Mrs. Goddard is 
now living in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 
Henry B. Ledyard, was born in Paris, Febru- 
ary 20, 1844. Susan Livingston Ledyard, 
born in Paris, February 20, 1844, was married 
August 20, 1872. to Hamilton Tompkins, of 
Newport, Rhode Island; she died in 1873. 
Lewis Cass Ledyard, of New York, senior 
member of the legal firm of Carter, Ledyard 



1 



DETROIT AKD WAYNE COUNTY 



253 



& Milburn, was born in Detroit, April 4, 1850. 
He married Gertrude Prince, of Boston, April 
II, 1878. Mrs. Ledyard died in 1905, and 
in 1906 Mr. L. C. Ledyard was married the 
second time, to Isabelle Henning Morris. 
Matilda Spencer Ledyard, born May 2"], i860, 
in Washington, is now living in London. Mrs. 
Ledyard died in London on the i6th of Novem- 
ber, 1898. Both she and her husband were 
zealous communicants of the Presybterian 
church. 

Henry Brockholst Ledyard, who has 
maintained his home in Detroit since 1872 and 
who has well upheld the prestige of the hon- 
ored name which he bears, was the second in 
order of birth of the children of Henry and 
Matilda Frances (Cass) Ledyard. Few names 
in the United States have been more conspic- 
uously and potently identified with the history 
of railroad building and operation than has 
that of Henry B. Ledyard, who retained the 
presidency of the Michigan Central Railroad 
Company for the long period of twenty-two 
years and who is now chairman of its board of 
directors. 

Henry B. Ledyard was born in the city of 
Paris, France, on the 20th of February, 1844, 
at which time his father was secretary of the 
United States legation in the French capital. 
A few months after his birth his father re- 
turned to America and took up his abode 
in Detroit, where the son was reared to years 
of maturity, so that he naturally retains a deep 
affection for the fair city in which many years 
of his life have been passed. Here he was 
afforded the advantages of the excellent pre- 
paratory school of which the late Washington 
A. Bacon was the head, and in 1859 he was 
matriculated in Columbian College, Washing- 
ton, D. C, where he remained a student for 
two years, at the expiration of which he en- 
tered the United States Military Academy, at 
West Point, to which he had been appointed 
as a cadet at large, by President Buchanan. 
He entered the institution on the ist of July, 
1 86 1, and was graduated on the 23d of June, 
1865, having thus been in this institution dur- 
ing practically the entire period of the civil 
war. On the day of his graduation, by two dif- 
ferent commissions, he was appointed second 



and then first lieutenant in the Nineteenth 
United States Infantry. His first assignment 
was to Fort Wayne, near Detroit, and thence 
he accompanied his regiment to Augusta, 
Georgia, with recruits. During October and 
November, 1865, he was in service at Newport 
Barracks, Kentucky. From November 20, 

1865, to September 6th of the following year, 
he was quartermaster of his regiment, and he 
thereafter held the same office with the Third 
Battalion until the 2d of November. In March, 

1866, he accompanied his command from Ken- 
tucky to Little Rock, Arkansas, where the 
regiment was engaged in frontier service until 
the following September, though in the mean- 
while he had been assigned to duty in charge 
of Confederate prisoners at Columbus, Ohio, 
from June 15th to July lOth. He then returned 
to Little Rock, and for a time he served as 
chief commissary of the Department of the 
Arkansas. From October, 1866, until the fol- 
lowing February he was at Fort Leavenworth, 
Kansas, having been transferred to the Thirty- 
ninth Infantry, of which he served as 
quartermaster. February 25, 1867, he was 
transferred to the Fourth Artillery, and in this 
connection he served on General Hancock's 
staff, as acting chief commissary of subsistence 
of the Department of the Missouri, being ac- 
tively identified with an expedition against 
hostile Indians. In October, 1867, Mr. Led- 
yard was ordered to West Point as assistant 
professor of French, and in the following year 
he rejoined his battery, at Fort McHenry, 
Maryland. 

When, in 1870, a reorganization of the army 
was made, he secured a six months' leave 
of absence, under the advice of General Sher- 
man, and then entered the engineering depart- 
ment of the Northern Pacific Railroad, which 
was then under construction. This change, 
prompted hy the belief that his chances for 
promoti<',n in the army were at that time very 
u^.certain, — in which belief he was upheld by 
his former superior officers, General Reynolds 
and General Hancock, — led him into the field 
in which he has attained so much of prominence 
and success. James F. Joy, of Detroit, an 
old-time friend of his father, was at 
that time one of the foremost figures 



254 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



in the railroad world, being president of 
the Michigan Central, the Chicago, Burling- 
ton & Quincy, and several other railroads in 
the central and western states. To Mr. Joy 
Mr. Ledyard made application for a position, 
and he was given a subordinate position as one 
of the lower clerks in the office of the division 
superintendent of the Chicago, Burlington & 
Quincy Railroad, in Chicago, whose service 
he entered in July, 1870. In the following 
November he resigned his commission in the 
army and received his honorable discharge. In 
1872 he was appointed assistant superintendent 
of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, 
and in the following year he became division 
superintendent of its Eastern division, with 
headquarters at Chicago. In October, 1874, 
at the request of Mr. W. B. Strong, who was 
then appointed general superintendent of the 
Michigan Central, Mr. Ledyard came to De- 
troit as assistant general superintendent of the 
Michigan Central, with headquarters in Detroit, 
and in the following spring assumed in addi- 
tion the duties of chief engineer. In 1876, upon 
Mr. Strong's resignation, he succeeded to the 
position of general superintendent, through the 
kindly appreciation of Mr. Joy, to whom he has 
ever ascribed much of his success and ad- 
vancement in his chosen field of endeavor. In 
1877 Mr. Ledyard was made general man- 
ager of the Michigan Central, and in 1883, 
upon the retirement of William H. Vander- 
bilt, he was elected to the presidency of that 
great corporation. This office he retained con- 
tinuously until January, 1905, when, in view 
of the consolidation of the Michigan Central 
with other lines in what is known as the 
New York Central System, he felt justified in 
tendering his resignation, which was accepted, 
but the directors of the company were un- 
willing to give up his services and unanimously 
requested that he take the position of chairman 
of the company's board of directors, which he 
consented to do, and which position he still 
holds. The great system of the Michigan Cen- 
tral, a model in its facilities and ser\'ice, owes 
its upbuildmg to its present high efficiency to 
no one man in so great a degree as to Henry 
B. Ledyard, whose technical and administra- 
tive abilities were given to its work with un- 



abating zeal and prolific energy. His record 
is a virtual history of the road during his con- 
nection therewith, and it is, as a matter of 
course, impossible to enter into details within 
the compass of a sketch of this province. In- 
cidentally, however, it should be stated that his 
efforts in this connection have had a great and 
significant influence in furthering the indus- 
trial and civic advancement of Detroit, which 
city owes to him a debt of perpetual gratitude 
and honor, though his own instinctive reserve 
and modesty would never claim aught in this 
direction. This personal reserve, a sign of 
distinctive power in his case, has not been such 
as to create antagonisms among his associates 
and subordinates in the operations of the great 
railway system of which he was so long the 
head. His loyalty has begotten the same, and 
stockholders, officials and employes of the 
Michigan Central have the warmest and most 
appreciative regard for the man as well as the 
executive. 

Mr. Ledyard is also a member of the board 
of directors of the Pere Marquette Railroad, 
a director of The Peoples State Bank, of 
Detroit, and chairman of the board of direc- 
tors and of the executive committee of the 
Union Trust Company of Detroit, an office 
which he assumed in the spring of 1908, not- 
withstanding the exactions of his other heavy 
executive duties; he is also one of the trus- 
tees of Elmwood cemetery, an office held by 
his father over fifty years ago. In politics he 
is a supporter of the old Democratic party, 
and he is a communicant of the Episcopal 
church, being one of the wardens and also 
chairman of the finance committee of Christ 
church. A man of spotless business and per- 
sonal reputation, a loyal and public-spirited 
citizen, he is honored and admired in the city 
in which he has so long made his home. 

On the 15th of October, 1867, he was mar- 
ried to Mary L'Hommedieu, of Cincinnati, 
daughter of the late Stephen L'Hommedieu, 
who for more than a quarter of a century was 
president of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Day- 
ton Railway, of which he was the projector. 
Mrs. Ledyard died in Detroit, March 30, 1895, 
leaving four children surviving her : Matilda 
Cass Ledyard was married in 1897 to Baron 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



255 



von Ketteler, of Berlin, Germany, at that time 
the German minister to Mexico, and afterwards 
minister to China, where he was murdered in 
the Boxer uprising, in Pekin, in 1900; Henry 
is a lawyer of Detroit; Augustus Canfield, the 
second son, was killed in action in the Philip- 
pines, as first lieutenant of the Sixth United 
States Infantry, on the 6th of December, 1899 ; 
and Hugh is a recent graduate of Yale 
University. 

GEORGE PECK. 

More than half a century ago George Peck 
established himself in the dry-goods business in 
Detroit, and for many years he was num- 
bered among the leading merchants of the 
city, even as he remains to-day one of its 
representative citizens and honored pioneers. 
His capitalistic interests are wide and varied 
and as a man he is broad-minded, liberal and 
public-spirited. Self aggrandizement has not 
hedged him in and his name is known in the 
wide realm of practical philanthropy and ju- 
dicious charity. His influence has definitely 
permeated the civic and business life of the 
fair "City of the Straits," and it is in justice 
due that recognition be accorded him in a pub- 
lication of the province assigned to the one at 
hand. 

The name borne by the subject of this sketch 
has been indissolubly linked with the annals 
of American history from the early colonial 
epoch to the present, and the family was 
founded in New England, where was cradled 
so much of the history of our great republic. 
The original American progenitor was Will- 
iam Peck, who had been a resident of London, 
England, and whose religious views had gained 
to him enmity and persecution, so that he 
sought the boon of liberty by immigrating to 
America, where he made his advent in the year 
1638. In the following year he became one 
of the founders of the colony of New Haven, 
Connecticut, being associated with Governor 
Eaton, Thomas Buckingham, Rev. John Dav- 
enport, and other sterling characters in estab- 
lishing the new colony, in which he became a 
prominent and influential citizen. From this 
worthy ancestor George Peck is a direct descen- 
dant in the eighth generation. 



George Peck was born on the paternal farm- 
stead in the town of Lyne, New London 
county, Connecticut, on the 5th of November, 
1834, and is a son of George R. and Eliza- 
beth (Lee) Peck, both of whom were likewise 
natives of the state of Connecticut, where they 
passed their entire lives. The father was a 
farmer by vocation and grappled vigorously 
with the rocky and rebellious soil so typical of 
the farms of that section of New England. He 
provided well for his family, but was not able 
to accumulate more than a nominal competency. 
The subject of this review was reared to the 
sturdy discipline of the farm, to whose work 
he early began to contribute his quota, and his 
rudimentary education was secured in the dis- 
trict school, after which he continued his 
studies in Essex Academy, at Essex, Connecti- 
cut. Through an accident he partially lost the 
use of his left arm and was thus compelled to 
seek other employment than that in connec- 
tion with farming. On the 23d of August, 1850, 
when but fifteen years of age, he secured a 
position in the dry-goods store of John B. 
Wells, of Utica, New York, beginning at the 
foot of the ladder and gradually winning pro- 
motion, through fidelity and careful attention 
to business. He was finally offered an inter- 
est in the business but in the winter of 1856-7 
his health became so impaired as to necessitate 
the resignation of his position. This contin- 
gency led to his coming to the west, and he 
passed some time in traveling in Illinois, Wis- 
consin, Minnesota and Iowa, for the purpose 
of recruiting his physical energies. He re- 
turned to Utica, New York, and there entered 
into a partnership with James W. Frisbie, 
with whom he was associated in the opening 
of a retail dry-goods store at 167 Jefferson 
avenue, Detroit. The firm successfully weath- 
ered the great financial storm which swept the 
country in that year, leaving a trail of busi- 
ness disaster, and Messrs. Peck and Frisbie 
continued to be associated in the enterprise 
noted for a period of three years, at the expira- 
tion of which the partnership was dissolved. 

Mr. Peck forthwith established himself in- 
dividually in the same line of business, open- 
ing, on the 1st of November, i860, a well 
equipped dry-goods store at 137 Woodward 



256 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



avenue. He thus initiated operations at a cli- 
macteric period in the history of the nation, as 
the war of the Rebellion was soon precipitated 
on a divided country, causing great financial 
unrest and irregularities. With courage and 
conservatism Mr. Peck carefully continued his 
business, and after the era of high prices in- 
cidental to the war, was ushered in, his suc- 
cess became assured, and he became one of the 
most substantial merchants of the city, build- 
ing up a large and prosperous business, in 
which he continued until February, 1887. when 
he retired, on account of failing health. In 
October, 1871, he removed to large and attrac- 
tive new quarters at 155-7 Woodward avenue, 
and there his establishment gained great pop- 
ularity and favor as one of the leading dry- 
goods houses of the state. Its patronage was 
of distinctively representative character and 
its reputation was ever of the highest. 

Having acquired a competency through his 
well directed efforts, Mr. Peck made judicious 
investment of his capital after his retirement 
from the dry-goods trade, and for many years 
he has been a prominent and influential figure 
in the banking business of the Michigon Met- 
ropolis. He has been president of the Mich- 
igan Savings Bank since 1880, and his execu- 
tive policy has made this one of the strong 
financial institutions of the state. He is presi- 
dent of the Edison Illuminating Company, and 
is a member of the directorate of the Detroit 
Fire & Marine Insurance Company and also 
that of the Detroit Trust Company, and the 
Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company. 

In politics Mr. Peck has always given a 
stalwart allegiance to the Republican party, and 
while he has shown a deep interest in public 
affairs, especially of a local order, he has never 
had aught of inclination for official preferment 
and has never permitted his name to be used 
in connection with candidacy for public office, 
or any other office. He is numbered among the 
prominent members of the First Presbyterian 
church, and he was one of its trustees for 
twenty-one years. In the field of philanthropy 
and practical charity Mr. Peck has exerted a 
most beneficent influence, and one of his dom- 
inating interests is in connection with the 
maintenance of the Protestant Orphans' Home, 



one of Detroit's most noble eleemosynary in- 
stitutions. He is financial 'agent of the same 1 
and in addition to making most liberal contribu- ^ 
tions in its support he is active in the adminis- 
tration of its affairs and keeps in close touch 
with its little wards, to whom he accords a deep , 
affection, which is fully reciprocated. 

On the 28th of October, 1858, was solem- ' 
nized the marriage of Mr. Peck to Miss Sarah 
F. Butler, daughter of Samuel F. Butler, who | 
was for many years one of the representative 
citizerts of Grand Rapids, Michigan, of which 
city he was an honored pioneer. Mrs. Peck 
was summoned to the life eternal on the 14th 
of February, 1872, and is survived by three 
children, — Julia E., Minnie F., and Barton L. 

In studying a clean-cut, sane, distinct char- 
acter like that of Mr. Peck interpretation fol- 
lows fact in a straight line of derivation. There 
is small use for indirection or puzzling. His 
character was moulded through struggle and is 
the positive expression of a strong nature. He 
has made his life count for good in all its rela- 
tions and his name merits an enduring place 
on the roster of the honored pioneers of Detroit 
and the state of Michigan, both of which he 
has dignified by his life and services. 



JOHN J. BAGLEY. 

Graven deeply and with marked distinction 
on the history of the state of Michigan are 
the name and works of John J. Bagley, of 
Detroit. He stood as an honored member of a 
striking group of men whose influence in the 
social and economic life of the nation was of 
most beneficent order. It is easy to attribute 
the elements of greatness to any man who has 
been in the least conspicuous in public affairs, 
but in the perspective of years each present- 
ment assumes its true value and an unequivocal 
verdict may be rendered. The fair fame of 
Governor Bagley rest on the firm basis of work 
accomplished and honors worthily won, and 
in studying his clear-cut, sane, distinct char- 
■ acter, interpretation follows fact in a straight 
line of derivation. His character was the posi- 
tive expression of a strong and loyal nature, 
and the laurels of high personal accomplish- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



257 



ment were his, as well as the honors of a 
worthy ancestry. 

John Judson Bagley was born at Medina, 
Orleans county, New York, on the 24th of 
July, 1832, a son of John and Mary M. 
(Smith) Bagley, the former a native of Dur- 
ham, Greene county, New York, and the latter 
of Connecticut. His grandfather, who like- 
wise bore the name of John, was bom in Can- 
dia. New Hampshire, a scion of the Bagley 
family who came from England to America 
early in the seventeenth century. The maiden 
name of the paternal grandmother of the sub- 
ject of this memoir was Olive Judson, and she 
was a daughter of Captain Timothy Judson, a 
patriot soldier in the war of the Revolution 
and a descendant of William Judson, who im- 
migrated from Yorkshire, England, in 1634, 
and lived at Concord, Massachusetts, for a few 
years; thence he removed to Stratford, Con- 
necticut, becoming one of the first settlers of 
that town. Soon after the close of the Revolu- 
tion Captain John Bagley, in company with 
his young wife, removed to Durham, New 
York, where he purchased land on the eastern 
slope of the Catskills. From that locality his 
son John, father of John J., removed to Me- 
dina, New York, and finally he located in 
Lockport, where he gained recognition as one 
of the wealthiest and most influential men in 
the central part of the old Empire state. His 
home was one of refinement and his devoted 
wife, who was a woman of more than average 
attainments, reared her children with great dis- 
crimination and care. The Bagleys were al- 
ways active communicants of the Protestant 
Episcopal church, and it was the wish of his 
mother than John J. should enter the ministry. 
The Governor later in life became a Unitarian, 
and was a member of that church when he 
died. Business reverses, resulting from no 
fault of his own, wrecked the fortunes of the 
father, and he decided to move westward, 
where he hoped measurably to retrieve his 
losses. When the future governor of Michi- 
gan was but six years of age the family came 
to this state, and after a few months they set- 
tled at Constantine, where the father continued 
in the tanning business, with which he had 



been identified in Lockport. The family were 
now in moderate circumstances and thus the 
subject of this sketch early began to assist in 
the support of himself and the other members 
of the family circle. His first employment was 
in a country store in St. Joseph county, and 
thereafter he lived for a time in the home of 
Dr. J. B. Barnes, of Owosso, where he was 
enabled to attend school. His parents also re- 
moved to Owosso a short time afterward. 
When fourteen years of age John J. Bagley 
left the store in which he had been employed 
in Owosso and came to Detroit, in search of a 
business engagement. He secured a situation 
with Isaac S. Miller, a tobacconist, with whom 
he remained until he was twenty-one years of 
age, when he was enabled to engage in busi- 
ness for himself, by starting a manufactory of 
tobacco on Woodward avenue, below Jefferson 
avenue. This venture proved eminently suc- 
cessful, and the growth of the enterprise was 
most rapid, necessitating the securing of more 
ample quarters from time to time. In 1867 
it controlled a vast volume of trade and Mr. 
Bagley was still the dominating force in its 
management and control. 

Prior to the civil war Mr. Bagley had fore- 
seen the coming inflation of prices and he made 
the heaviest possible investments in tobacco, 
so that when the prices finally advanced by 
leaps and bounds, he realized large profits on 
his wise investments. With the accumulation 
of wealth he did not, however, rest satisfied 
with the single, though extensive industry in 
which he was concerned. His enterprising 
nature urged him into scores of ventures, all 
of which, with a few minor exceptions, proved 
profitable. He was one of the original stock- 
holders and president of the Detroit Safe Com- 
pany, a stockholder in the Detroit Novelty 
Works, an incorporator of the Wayne County 
Savings Bank, a stockholder in the Wetherbee 
Wooden Ware Company, a partner in the Per- 
kins tobacco factory, in Boston, and interested 
in various other industrial concerns. He was 
vice-president of the American National Bank 
of Detroit, and was for some time president 
of the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Com- 
pany. 



258 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



By very nature Mr. Bagley was destined to 
become a leader in public thought and action. 
His father was a Democrat, but his own inde- 
pendence of thought prevented him from 
gaining his opinions by inheritance. He was 
a Whig from the beginning and identified him- 
self with the Republican party at the time of 
its organization. Shortly after he engaged in 
independent business in Detroit he was elected 
a member of the board of education. After the 
completion of his term he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the city council, and here also he became 
a distinct power for good. His pronounced 
executive ability at once gave him a mastery of 
public work and party machinery, and long 
before he was called to a state office he was a 
recognized leader in the councils of his party 
in the state. During his membership in the 
city council he came to a realization of the ne- 
cessity for a radical reform in the police sys- 
tem of Detroit, and he lost no time in securing 
co-operation and in drafting a plan for the 
organization of the present metropolitan police 
system of Detroit. With the draft of the law 
he proceeded to Lansing, and he worked earn- 
estly and zealously until it was passed by the 
legislature. He was made one of the first 
board of police commissioners and as such did 
the greater part of the work in organizing the 
department and perfecting its plant of opera- 
tion and work. Mr. Bagley remained on the 
police board until 1872, when he received the 
Republican nomination for governor of Michi- 
gan, to which office he was elected by the sig- 
nificant and overwhelming majority of fifty- 
seven thousand votes, — a distinct testimonial 
to his personal popularity and the confidence 
reposed in him. In 1874 he was re-elected, 
by a much decreased majority, — a result of 
ordinary political exigencies, as that year stood 
for Democratic victories throughout the entire 
country. 

As governor Mr. Bagley brought to bear 
the same intelligent force that had made his 
business ventures successful, and his adminis- 
tration was remarkable for its active interest 
in the state institutions. He personally investi- 
gated every asylum, college and other state in- 
stitution and brought about many beneficent 



changes in management. No governor of , 
Michigan ever surpassed him in the improving ! 
of the penal and charitable institutions of the ' 
state. He had long been a student of prison 
methods, knew their defects and was able to 
suggest many needed reforms. He devoted ' 
much time to juvenile offenders and depend- 
ent children, and he was instrumental in es- I 
tablishing local agencies to look after children 
charged with crime; thereby much wrong and I 
suffering were prevented. He gave much time 
and attention to perfecting and expanding the 
work of the school for dependent children, 
which had been founded by his predecessor, 
and at the Centennial Exposition, in 1876, few 
educational exhibits excited so much attention 
as the exploitation of this great charity, given 
by his procurement at the exposition. Within 
his administration measures were taken to en- 
large the state provision for the insane. The 
reform school for boys was changed from a 
close prison to a refuge and thereby became 
a far more effective factor for reform and en- 
couragement of youthful malefactors. In the 
various changes which Governor Bagley in- 
stituted in the treatment of unfortunates of 
all orders, the most prominent feature was the 
broad and constant sympathy which he mani- 
fested. His heart was tender and he was ever 
moved deeply by all forms of suffering. Con- 
cerning him the following pertinent statements 
have been given: "His habit of keeping in 
mind the moral and social bearings of all his 
public conduct was his most prominent char- 
acteristic. Few men with his ardent tempera- 
ment and ready sympathies could have been 
safely trusted with the control of school and 
prison management and social reform. But 
while he was an undoubted enthusiast, his care- 
ful business habits and experience saved him 
from rash action, and he never lost his head. 
His state papers were models of excellence and 
in clear, concise and forcible diction gave his 
views on the issues and affairs of the day. His 
speeches, and they were many, were always 
felicitous and delivered in a manner that ap- 
pealed to the intelligence of his auditors. His 
administration was in all respects creditable, 
and particularly so for the care given to the 



I 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



259 



charitable and other public institutions. He 
took a lively interest in the educational ad- 
vancement of the state and obtained liberal 
appropriations for the university and other 
general establishments. Outside of his official 
acts relative to the university, he personally 
donated to it many rare and costly books, and 
also had made and gave in facsimile a complete 
set of all the coins and medals ever minted by 
the United States government. He was care- 
ful and exact in the duties of chairman of the 
state boards, and his knowledge of business 
economics suggested various improvements 
whereby money was saved without parsimony. 
It was he who suggested the idea of the cen- 
tennial tree-planting, since followed in so many 
other states, and his suggestions in this con- 
nection rang with true patriotism and appre- 
ciation." 

Governor Bagley left the public service with 
the respect of all classes of citizens and a well 
earned reputation : his administration ranks 
with the best. He was the choice of the people 
for the United States senate, on the death of 
Senator Zachariah Chandler, but the governor 
of the state at that time failed to respond to 
the popular call, and in the regular election 
which followed, Mr. Bagley was defeated for 
the senate by perfidy among the ring politi- 
cians of the state which he had honored and 
dignified by his generous and able services as 
governor. It can not be doubted that this lack 
of loyalty on the part of those whom he had 
considered his friends, had a decided influence 
in hastening the death of Governor Bagley, in 
the following winter. He visited California 
in the hope of restoring his health, but in spite 
of the best medical skill obtainable and the ten- 
der ministrations of a loving and devoted wife, 
he passed away, in San Francisco, on the 27th 
of July, 1 88 1, mourned by all who knew him, 
honored by all who admire justice and integ- 
rity, and secure in a fame that is a part of the 
history of our nation. In Detroit the people 
felt a sense of deep personal bereavement, and 
this was shown most significantly when here 
occurred the funeral of the honored dead on 
the /th of August. Rich and poor, high and 
low, civilian and soldier, — all assembled to do 



reverence to the great, noble heart which had 
been stilled in death. 

In 1889 there was erected on the Campus 
Martins, in Detroit, a bronze bust of Governor 
Bagley, and on the granite pedestal of the same 
appears the following inscription : "From the 
people, in grateful remembrance of John J. 
Bagley." On the Campus Martius is also 
erected a beautiful memorial fountain, given to 
the city by the members of the Bagley family. 

Governor Bagley married Miss Frances E. 
Newbury, daughter of Rev. Samuel and Mary 
Ann (Sergeant) Newbury, of Dubuque, Iowa. 
The influence of this gracious and cultured 
woman in the career of Mr. Bagley was one of 
the most grateful and hallowed order, and the 
home life was ideal in its every characteristic. 

Governor Bagley was a liberal contributor 
to the benevolent institutions of the state, not 
only in gifts of money but also of time and 
counsel when they were more important than 
money. He aided in many ways the cause of 
religion, in which connection his generosity 
knew no creed. His benevolence was a con- 
stant and unwearied desire to contribute to the 
happiness of all who came within the sphere 
of his influence. He had a high sense of his 
stewardship and of the responsibilities which 
wealth imposes, but the great, tender heart of 
the man is the basis of the love and veneration 
in which his memory is held in the state and 
city to whose civic and industrial progress he 
contributed so generously. 



WILLIAM 0. McMillan. 

The man himself and the prestige that was 
his as a representative of one of the best 
known and most distinguished families of the 
state of Michigan and more specifically of the 
city of Detroit, render it a scientific historical 
necessity that in this work be incorporated at 
least a brief review of the life of this eldest of 
the sons of the late Senator James McMillan, 
to whom personal tribute is paid on other pages 
of this work. 

It may be said with manifest consistency 
that the father of William C. McMillan was 
a great man, and the annals of our essentially 



260 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



democratic nation have shown that not always 
has it been a privilege for a son to stand in 
the shadow of such greatness. With the sub- 
ject of this sketch, however, there was no such 
handicap: he had the intrinsic strength and 
ability to emerge from the shadow, even had 
there been one, and through his own worthy 
achievements he added to the honors of the 
honored name which he bore. William C. 
McMillan was born in Detroit, March i, 1861, 
and in his home city, his death occurred on 
Thursday evening, February 21, 1907, after 
a patient, brave struggle, typical of the man. 
In 1879 Mr. McMillan was graduated in the 
Detroit high school, and he then studied under 
the direction of a private tutor for one year, at 
the expiration of which he was matriculated in 
Yale University, in which he was graduated as 
a member of the class of 1884, receiving the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts. Immediately after 
leaving college he returned to Detroit and en- 
tered the employ of the Michigan Car Com- 
pany, of which his father was one of the prin- 
cipal stockholders and wliich represented at the 
time the largest manufacturing industry in the 
state. He showed such marked executive abil- 
ity that in three year he was incumbent of the 
position of general manager, and in 1888, 
when he was only twenty-seven years of age, 
he was offered the position of general mana- 
ger of a car company in St. Louis, at a salary 
of ten thousand dollars a year. He had no 
desire to remove from his native city, however, 
and thus declined the offer. Mr. McMillan 
continued as manager of the Michigan Car 
Company until its consolidation with the Pen- 
insular Car Company, in 1892, and he con- 
tinued as a member of the directorate of the 
combined corporation until it was absorbed by 
the American Car & Foundry Company. In 
the meanwhile he had been tendered the posi- 
tion of president of the American Exchange 
National Bank and a directorship in the Wash- 
ington Trust Company, both of which he re- 
fused, on account of the demands of other 
business interests. In 1898 Mr. McMillan and 
his father purchased the controlling interest in 
the Michigan Malleable Iron Company, of 
which he became the president. Under his con- 
trol this concern quadrupled its capacity and 



output. Later Mr. McMillan organized and 
secured a controlling interest in the Seamless 
Steel Tube Company. For many years he was 
treasurer and a director of the Detroit & 
Cleveland Navigation Company, of which he 
was president at the time of his death, as 
was he also of the Detroit & Buffalo Steam- 
boat Company. He took great pride in the 
fleets of these two lines, which greatly ad- 
vanced under his executive management. He 
brought about the effective organization and 
rehabilitation of the telephone system con- 
trolled by the Michigan Telephone Company, 
which had passed into the hands of a receiver 
and which he successfully reorganized as the 
Michigan State Telephone Company. His cap- 
italistic interests were numerous and varied 
aside from those already noted, and each con- 
cern received the benefit of his masterful ad- 
ministrative ability and clear business pre- 
science, matured in the school of practical 
experience in affairs and enterprises of mag- 
nificent scope and importance, — enterprises 
through which the family fortune was greatly 
enhanced. 

At the time of his death, in addition to the 
positions already noted, Mr. McMillan was a 
director of the Michigan Steamship Company, 
the American Shipbuilding Company, the Pen- 
insular Sugar Company, the Detroit Union 
Railroad Depot & Station Company, the First 
National Bank, the People's State Bank, the 
Cass Farm Company, Ltd., and held other of- 
ficial positions as follows : Vice-president Du- 
luth & Atlantic Transportation Company ; pres- 
ident of each the Michigan Malleable Iron 
Company, Detroit Shipbuilding Company, 
Detroit Seamless Steel Tube Company, Mon- 
arch Steel Castings Company, Detroit Walker- 
Gordon Laboratory Company, Detroit Hotel 
Company, Cleveland & Toledo Line, Frank 
Whitney Painting Company, and Pontchartrain 
Hotel Company ; treasurer of the Detroit Rail- 
road Elevator Company, secretary Detroit Iron 
Furnace Company, chairman executive commit- 
tee of the Union Trust Company ; treasurer of 
the Detroit Manufacturers' Railroad, treasurer 
of Grace hospital, and a trustee of the Mutual 
Life Insurance Company of New York. 

At the time of his death the Detroit papers 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



261 



spoke at length and with marked appreciation 
of his Hfe and labors, both in the news and the 
editorial columns, and from one of these edi- 
torial utterances the following extracts are 
made : "William C. McMillan's busy life has 
reached its close, and he rests from unceasing 
activities which would have worn down the 
vitality of the most iron constitution. His 
span of life fell a few days short of forty-six 
years, yet in that time he lived a century, 
measuring his cares, responsibilities and 
achievements by the average standard. When 
still a young man, at the age when the average 
sou of wealth is preparing to settle down to 
some detinite pursuit, he was assuming posi- 
tions of responsibility that might tax the ca- 
pacity and test the executive ability of a vet- 
eran in the industrial turmoil. That he acted 
well his part there can be no question. He 
was a man of cultivated mind. He had a 
comprehensive grasp of business affairs that 
grew within an ever-broadening study. He 
would have made his mark anywhere. He 
loved science in the abstract and in the con- 
crete ; for itself and for the application it might 
have in his future endeavors. * * * Mr. 
McMillan's death leaves a perceptible void in 
the business world of Detroit. The interests 
he advanced, created, combined and expanded, 
will remain monuments to his memory. In 
social life Mr. McMillian was genial and sym- 
pathetic in his manner. He kept up a broad 
culture, as if fearful of becoming one of those 
automatic machines that come of steady ap- 
plication to a narrow range of duties and 
investigations." 

For nearly a quarter of a century the name 
of McMillan has represented a power in Repub- 
lican politics in Michigan, which state the 
father of our subject so long and ably repre- 
sented in the United States senate. Hon. 
James McMillan had elements of popular 
strength which were unmistakably lacking in 
the son, whose temperament and business train- 
ing scarcely fitted him to attain to definite suc- 
cess in the domain of practical politics. 
He was a zealous and effective exponent of the 
cause of the Republican party in his native 
state, and in many respects he was to be con- 
sidered the logical political successor of his 



father when the latter was called from the field 
of life's endeavors, in 1902. When Senator 
McMillan died a great many of the party lead- 
ers insisted that William C. McMillan should 
be sent to the senate in his father's place, but 
after careful consideration the latter declined 
to become a candidate, believing such action 
expedient for the party welfare. He virtually, 
however, became the leader of his party in the 
state, and finally, in 1906, he became a candi- 
date for the United States senate. In the cam- 
paign which ensued, a great many of his 
father's old friends rallied to his support, 
while the machine politicians and those inter- 
ested in a campaign where money is freely 
used, fought him bitterly, on account of his 
clearly defined stand against them at the time 
of announcing his candidacy. The presence of 
three other candidates in the field left the 
vote in the legislature fairly evenly divided. 
Forty-eight hours before he expected to leave 
for the state capital Mr. McMillan was taken 
ill and was unable to participate personally in 
the campaign. The vote was so evenly divided 
between the four leading candidates that Mr. 
McMillan's supporters were confident that his 
presence would have turned the tide in his 
favor, but as this was impossible, at his request, 
they finally threw their support to William 
Alden Smith, who was elected. It can not be 
doubted that the strain of his political stand 
had a direct influence in bringing about the 
death of Mr. McMillan, whose health had been 
on precarious footing for a long time. He 
was a man of reservation, but the best voucher 
of his sterling worth and noble attributes is 
offered in the fact th,at those who knew him 
best most admired and respected him. He was 
reared under patrician surroundings and had 
the advantages of wealth, and still he was thor- 
oughly democratic at heart and understood 
the springs of human thought and action, 
though not in that appreciative way which 
makes for indiscriminate popularity, to seek 
which his tastes and strength were too in- 
sistent to allow him. Tmth and probity and 
intrinsic nobility represented the man as he 
was, and it is well that his life should be 
estimated at the high value for which it stood. 
Mr. McMillan was a member of various 



262 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



societies and clubs of prominent character, both 
in Detroit and elsewhere, and was recognized 
as a man of high intellectual attainments as 
well as great business sagacity. He was 
always loyal to his native city, and not yet 
can the full estimate of his services to Detroit 
be made. The perspective of years is neces- 
sary to determine adequately, though all may 
see the direct and multifarious benefices of 
purely material order. 

In 1884, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
McMillan to Miss Thayer, of Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, who survives him, as do also their 
two children, — James Thayer and Doris. 



JOHN OWEN. 

A strong and noble character was that of 
the late John Owen, who exerted an emphatic 
influence in connection with business and 
cii'ic affairs in Detroit during the entire course 
of a long and significantly successful career. 
The greater part of his life was passed in this 
city and he gained success through his individ- 
ual ability and application, ever standing 
exemplar of that integrity of purpose which 
figures as the plumb of character and makes 
for objective valuation in connection with the 
varied relations of life. He was a financier 
of marked astuteness, served as treasurer of 
the state at a critical and climacteric period, 
was one of the leading bankers of Detroit, and 
had other capitalistic interests of distinctive 
importance. His strength was as the number 
of his days and he was summoned from the 
mortal life in the fulness of years and honors, 
his death occurring at his home in Detroit 
on the 20th of March, 1892. 

Mr. Owen was born near the city of Toronto, 
Canada, on the 20th of March, 1809, and he 
was a child at the time of his father's death. 
In 1818, when he was nine years of age, his 
mother removed to Detroit, where he soon 
afterward began to attend school in the old 
University building, on Bates street. The finan- 
cial resources of his mother were very limited 
and while thus attending school he defrayed 
the expenses of his tuition by services rendered 
to his preceptor. When but twelve years of 
age he secured a position as errand boy in the 



drug store of Dr. Chapin, one of the pioneer 
physicians of Detroit, and he remained with 
the doctor for several years, making himself 
so indispensible that when he was only twenty 
years old he was admitted to partnership in 
the business, without the investment of capi- J 
tal other than his services and his proven 1 
integrity of character. Later the firm became ( 
J. Owen & Company, the concern being a lead- , 
ing one of the order in the city and holding a j 
representative patronage. In 1853 Mr. Owen 
retired, from the drug business, and the well 
known firm of T. H. Hinchman & Son became 
the eventual successor of this pioneer house. 

Through his well directed endeavors Mr. 
Owen had accumulated a competency, and his 
business acumen and mature judgment were 
shown in the extent and character of his cap- 
italistic investments. He became largely in- 
terested in banking and lake marine navigation. 
He was one of the earliest and largest stock- 
holders in the Detroit & Cleveland Steam Nav- 
igation Company, of which he was president 
for many years and with which he continued 
to be identified until the time of his death. 
He was also one of the principal stockholders 
of the Detroit Dry Dock Company, both of 
these great concerns owing much of their suc- 
cess to his administrative direction. He was 
the first president of the latter corporation, 
which was the direct successor of the ship- 
building firm of Campbell, Owen & Company. 

During the financial stringency that followed 
the panic of 1857 Mr. Owen held the presi- 
dency of the Michigan Insurance Bank, and 
as has well been said, "The fact that the 
bank weathered the storms of that period was 
very largely due to the unbounded confidence 
which the business public had in his ability 
and integrity." Apropos of the same subject 
another appreciative article contains the fol- 
lowing equally pertinent words : "His integ- 
rity and good name constituted the wall that 
prevented the financial breakers from over- 
whelming not only the bank but scores of in- 
dividuals as well." Such statements as these 
indicate the character and reputation of this 
honored pioneer of Detroit. 

That popular confidence and esteem were 
not restricted to local limitations as touching 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



263 



Mr. Owen is further evidenced in the fact that 
in i860, at the chmacteric period just prior 
to the outbreak of the civil war and when 
financial disquietude was in evidence through- 
out the entire nation, he was elected to the 
office of state treasurer, of which he remained 
incumbent from 1861 to 1865, covering the 
entire period of the war, and with utmost 
fidelity and discrimination did he administer 
the fiscal affairs of the state, protecting its 
interests and loyally upholding the hands of 
the general state administration in providing 
for the needs of the Michigan troops at home 
and in the field. In the first years of the war 
his personal credit and reputation, together 
with those of the late Hon. Henry P. Bald- 
win, who was chairman of the senate finance 
committee during a portion of the same period, 
were the prime agencies which enabled the 
state to successfully negotiate the loans which 
it was compelled to make. 

Never a seeker of public office, Mr. Owen 
accepted the same only when he felt that civic 
duty and responsibility obligated him to sub- 
ordinate his own wishes for the public good, 
and in no position of trust to which he was 
called did he fail to accomplish much in the 
direction designated. In 1836, the year prior 
to the admission of Michigan to the Union, 
he held the office of alderman at large in 
Detroit, and in the same body he represented 
the First ward in 1844-5. I" 1839-40 he was a 
member of the board of education; from 1859 
to 1870 he was commissioner of grades; and 
from 1865 to 1879 he was a valued member 
of the board of water commissioners. His in- 
terest in educational matters was of insistent 
type, and he was a member of the board of 
regents of the University of Michigan from 
1 84 1 to 1848, — a period during which the 
aflfairs of the institution especially needed wise 
management and guidance. In his earlier years 
he served as a member of the volunteer fire 
department of Detroit, having been foreman 
of Company No. i in 1837, and from 1841 to 
1843 he was president of the department so- 
ciety. In 1864, while state treasurer, he was 
also president of the Michigan Soldiers' Relief 



Society, and he was one of the first directors 
of the Detroit College of Medicine, to whose 
upbuilding he largely contributed. 

Reverting to the banking associations of Mr. 
Owen, it should be stated that he became the 
first president of the old National Insurance 
Bank, the immediate successor of the Michigan 
Insurance Bank, in which he had held the pres- 
idency up to the time of reorganization under 
the new title. In 1869 the National Insurance 
Bank and the First National Bank were consol- 
idated, largely through the wish of Mr. Owen 
to retire from the office of chief executive, 
and he then became a director of the First 
National, with which he continued to be iden- 
tified in this capacity until 1880, when he re- 
signed, having disposed of his stock in the 
institution. At a meeting of the board of 
directors held on the 22d of March of that 
year, the president and cashier of the First 
National Bank presented to the board the fol- 
lowing preamble and resolutions, which were 
unanimously adopted and which are con- 
sistently perpetuated in this sketch : 

Whereas, The Hon. John Owen, after an 
official connection with this bank and its im- 
mediate predecessor of over forty-four years, 
has decided to retire from the directorship of 
this bank, to which he was first elected on 
March 3, 1869, be it 

Resolved, That it is with deep regret that we, 
the officers and directors of this bank, learn 
of this determination on the part of Mr. Owen, 
and that we desire to place on record our 
high appreciation of his character, and to ac- 
knowledge the great benefits we have derived 
from his counsels, and the larger advantage 
to the bank for his faithful attendance upon the 
meetings of this board, and his ever watchful 
and careful attention to the interests of the 
bank. 

Resolved, That we attribute no small share 
of the present prosperous condition of the bank 
and its freedom from losses to Mr. Owen's wise 
and disinterested advice in all matters pertain- 
ing to the administration of the bank's affairs 
during the eleven years he has been connected 
with it. 

Resolved, That a copy of these proceed- 
ings and resolutions, under seal of the bank, 
be transmitted to Mr. Owen by the cashier. 



264 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



with the best wishes of the board for his con- 
tinued happiness and prosperity. 

Dominated by the highest principles was 
the course of Mr. Owen's life in all its rela- 
tions, and his benevolences and charities were 
unostentatious and ever admirably placed. He 
had been reared in the stem school of neces- 
sity and knew well the springs of human mo- 
tive, so that he was kindly and tolerant in his 
judgment and ever ready to lend a helping 
hand to his less fortunate brother. He was 
trustee and treasurer of the Central Methodist 
Episcopal church for half a century and was 
one of the most prominent and influential lay- 
men of that denomination in Michigan, while 
his financial support kept the afifairs of his own 
church society on the safe credit side. He did 
much for the upbuilding and maintenance of 
the church at large and was long a trustee of 
Albion College, to which noble church institu- 
tion he made liberal financial contributions both 
in his lifetime and by the provisions of his 
wall. As early as 1837 he served as presi- 
dent of a state temperance society, and he 
ever labored for the obliteration of the liquor 
traffic in whatever guise presented. He was 
trustee and treasurer of Elmwood Cemetery 
Association for more than forty years. 

Concerning him another writer has said : 
"His benefactions have not been confined with- 
in denominational lines, but whenever time 
and influence and means could help solve social 
problems he has been ready to aid. His long 
residence in the city, his upright life and care- 
ful judgment, and the many services he has 
rendered the public, have made his name a 
synonym for character and worth." 

It is scarcely necessary to say, in view of 
what has preceded, that in the sacred precincts 
of his home the true nobility of the man found 
its most perfect apotheosis. Thus at this time 
there is no desire to lift the curtain which veils 
with privacy every true home, the only refer- 
ence to the domestic life of Mr. Owen being in 
the bare statements concerning his marriage 
and his children. 

Mr. Owen married Miss Jane Cook, who 
was bom in Detroit, a daughter of Hiram and 
Jane (Thorn) Cook. She survived her hon- 



ored husband, as do also one son and one 
daughter, — Edmund J. and Lafayette are de- 
ceased; John, Jr., resides in Detroit; and Fan- 
nie is now the widow of George H. Lothrop, 
of Detroit. Mrs. Owen died on Sunday, March 
22, 1908, of pneumonia, at the family home, 
1750 Jefferson avenue. 



BUSSELL A. ALGER. 

A life conspicuous from the magnitude and 
variety of its achievment was that of the late 
General Russell A. Alger, one of the most dis- 
tinguished and honored figures in the history 
of the state of Michigan and one whose influ- 
ence transcended local environs to permeate 
the national life. So great an accomplishment 
as was his must, per se, imply exalted char- 
acter, and thus beyond and above all General 
Alger merits perpetual honor by virtue of the 
very strength and nobility of his manhood. 
He rendered service to the state and nation to 
the fullest extent of his powers ; his labors 
were unsparing, and his honesty of purpose 
was beyond cavil. The reflex of the high 
honors conferred upon him was the honors he 
in turn conferred. It is not easy to describe 
adequately a man who was as distinct in char- 
acter and one who accomplished so much in the 
world as did General Alger, and the limitations 
of this article are such as to give only a cursory 
glance at the individuality and achievements 
of the man, — not permitting extended genea- 
logical research or critical analysis of character. 

Russell Alexander Alger was born in a 
pioneer log cabin in the township of Lafay- 
ette, Medina county, Ohio, on the 27th of 
February, 1836, and was a son of Russell and 
Caroline (Moulton) Alger. The genealogy in 
the agnatic line is traced back to English 
origin, and the original American progenitor 
of the Alger family came hither from England 
in 1759. Through distinguished English chan- 
nels the Alger line is traced back definitely to 
William the Conqueror. John Alger, the 
great-grandfather of him who is the subject of 
this memoir, participated in many battles of 
the Revolutionary war, and the name was one 



DETROIT AND AVAYNE COUNTY 



265 



honored in New England, where was cradled 
so much of our national history. The mother 
of General Alger was a direct descendant of 
Robert Moulton, who arrived in Massachu- 
setts in 1627, in charge of a vessel laden with 
valuable ship-building material and bringing 
with him a number of skilled ship-carpenters. 
The first sea-going vessel built in Massachu- 
setts was constructed under his supervision. 
The Moulton family in America has been one 
of much distinction and prominence. 

Early in the nineteenth century the Alger 
family was founded in the state of Ohio, and 
its representatives were identified with the 
pioneer history of that great commonwealth. 
The boyhood of Russell A. Alger was passed 
under the conditions common to the locality 
and period, though he was early called upon to 
assume greater responsibilities than did the 
average boy, as his parents were in ill health 
and in most modest financial circumstances. 
He was but twelve years of age at the time of 
the death of his parents, and was then thrown 
upon his own resources, while he also assumed 
most bravely the burden of providing for his 
younger brother and sister. He had, as a mat- 
ter of course, received but meager educational 
advantages, and when he thus faced the prob- 
lem of life at the age noted, he lost no time in 
securing such employment as came within the 
compass of his powers and abilities. He found 
work on a farm at Richfield, Ohio, where he 
remained nine years, feeling fully the lash of 
necessity and yet never losing courage, ambi- 
tion or self-reliance. Within the period of his 
work on the farm he attended a neighboring 
academy during the winter months. His 
marked facility for the accumulation of knowl- 
edge caused him to make rapid progress in his 
studies, and he finally was able to secure a po- 
sition as teacher in a district school, though he 
still continued at farm work during the sum- 
mer seasons. 

In March, 1857, shortly after attaining to 
his majority, and with character well moulded 
in the stern school of necessity, he took up the 
study of law, under the preceptorship of the 
firm of Wolcott & Upson, of Akron, Ohio. In 
1859 he was admitted to practice, by the su- 



preme court of Ohio, and then removed to the 
city of Cleveland, that state, where he secured 
a position in the law office of Otis, Coffinberry 
& Wyman. After but a few months his health 
became impaired, owing to close confinement 
and arduous study, and he was compelled to 
abandon his association with the legal profes- 
sion. 

The year 1859 recorded the removal of Gen- 
eral Alger to Michigan, but how little could 
he have imagined all that fate had in store for 
him, a poor young man, in connection with the 
history of this state and that of the nation. 
Soon after his arrival/ in Michigan he located 
in Grand Rapids, which was then a mere vil- 
lage, and there he identified himself with the 
line of industrial enterprise along which he 
was destined to achieve his great financial suc- 
cess. In a business way his affairs were pros- 
pering during the climacteric period just prior 
to the outbreak of the civil war, but when the 
conflict between the states was precipitated he 
was among the first to voice his loyalty to the 
Union by tendering his services in its defense. 
One of the phases of his noteworthy career 
which will ever redound to his honor is that 
involved in his gallant and brilliant military 
career. Subordinating all other interests, in 
August, 1 86 1, General Alger enlisted as a 
private in the Second Michigan Cavalry, in 
which he was commissioned captain at the time 
when his regiment was mustered into service, 
and he was forthwith assigned to the com- 
mand of Company C. The record of his army 
service as given by Adjutant General Rob- 
bertson's "Michigan in the War," being the 
official record of the troops of the state, is as 
follows: "Captain Second Cavalry, September 
2, 1861 ; major, April 2, 1862; lieutenant colo- 
nel Sixth Michigan Cavalry, October 16, 1862; 
colonel Fifth Michigan Cavalry, February 28, 
1863; wounded in action at Boonesboro, Mary- 
land, July 8, 1863; resigned September 20, 
1864, and honorably discharged. Brevet brig- 
adier general United States Volunteers, for 
gallant and meritorious services, to rank from 
the battle r " Trevilian Station, Virginia, June 
II, 1864; brevet major general United States 
Volunteers. June 11, 1865, for gallant and 



266 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



meritorious services during the war." From 
private to brevet major general within so short 
a time is, indeed, a creditable record. The ad- 
vancement did not come through favoritism 
but because each promotion was honestly and 
gallantly won. The qualities that had dis- 
tinguished him in civil life, were brought into 
play in the field and made him one to whom 
others naturally turned in hours of emergency 
or danger. The limits of space preclude the 
giving of a detailed history of General Alger's 
army career and relating the stirring events of 
danger and heroism that are woven therein. 
In the earlier years of the war he was active 
in the south and west, but the larger portion 
of his service was with the Army of the Po- 
tomac. As colonel of the Fifth Michigan Cav- 
alry he entered Gettysburg on the 28th of June, 
1863, his being the first Union regiment to 
reach the village, and there he and his men 
received a most noteworthy ovation on the part 
of the loyal citizens. 

One of the most important engagements in 
which General Alger participated was the bat- 
tle of Booneville, July i, 1862, at which time 
he was serving as captain of Company C, Sec- 
ond Michigan Cavalry. General Chalmers, 
with five thousand mounted Confederates — 
representing nine regiments — made an attack 
on Booneville, which was held by Colonel 
Sheridan, who had with him at the time of the 
attack but two small regiments, the Second 
Michigan Cavalry and the Second Iowa Cav- 
ali-y, numbering in all less than nine hundred 
men, and the former of which was armed with 
sabers, Colt's revolvers and revolving carbines. 
So great was the heroism displayed by these 
two regiments that General Chalmers was led 
to believe that he had been deceived in the 
strength of the enemy, supposing the slaughter 
effected by the Michigan regiment with their 
carbines must certainly be the work of an in- 
fantry brigade. Sheridan, with his little body 
of men, was in danger of being surrounded 
and captured, so he decided to send out ninety 
picked men in command of Captain Alger to 
make a circuit of the enemy and charge upon 
the rear "with sabres and cheers." This ruse 
had the desired effect, for as soon as Captain 



Alger and his men charged upon the reserve 
of the enemy, numbering at least two thousand 
men, they broke and fled, as did also the force 
directly in front of Sheridan, leaving one 
hundred and twenty-five of their comrades 
dead upon the field. The Second Michigan, 
which had borne the burden of the fight, lost 
forty-one, dead and wounded. 

In the official reports of engagements Gen- 
eral Alger was frequently mentioned for dis- 
tinguished services, — notably by Custer in his 
report on the battle of Gettysburg. On July 
8, 1863, he was seriously wounded in a hot 
fight near Boonesboro, Maryland, and did not 
resume service until September. He served 
with marked distinction during the campaigns 
of 1863-4, taking part in all the engagements 
of the Army of the Potomac, and with his 
brigade he accompanied Sheridan to the 
Shenandoah Valley in 1864. In all General 
Alger participated in sixty-six battles and skir- 
mishes, and by bravery and faithfulness he 
richly merited the distinction which he 
acquired. 

At the close of the war General Alger re- 
turned to Michigan, and early in 1866 he 
located in Detroit, where, in the following 
year, he established himself in business, as a 
member of the firm of Moore, Alger & Com- 
pany, dealers in pine lands and lumber. This 
was the same line of enterprise in which he had 
previously directed his energies, while residing 
in Grand Rapids. The title of the firm was 
soon changed to Moore & Alger, and this firm 
was eventually succeeded by that of R. A. 
Alger & Company, which was finally merged 
into the corporation which has since been 
known as Alger, Smith & Company and of 
which General Alger was the president and 
chief stockholder from the beginning until his 
death. This has long held prestige as one of 
the leading lumber concerns in the Union and 
its transactions have been enormous in extent. 
General Alger was also interested largely in 
various other companies in the lumbering in- 
dustry and also in important mining corpora- 
tions. Such was the multiplicity of his capi- 
talistic investments that even mention of the 
same can not be given in detail in as circum- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



267 



scribed an article as the one at hand. He did 
a great work in connection with the civic and 
industrial development of Michigan and 
through normal and legitimate means gained 
a large fortune, the use and stewardship of 
which was ever a matter of deep and conscien- 
tious concern to him. He had large and pro- 
ductive investments in the west and south, 
though his interests continuously centered in 
Michigan. 

Unwavering in his allegiance to the Repub- 
lican party and an effective supporter of its 
cause, General Alger never permitted the use 
of his name in connection with any political 
office until 1884, when he was elected a dele- 
gate to the national Republican convention, 
held in Chicago. In the same year he was the 
nominee of his party for governor of Michi- 
gan, and was elected by a plurality of 3,953, 
thus returning the state to Republican rule. 
As chief executive of a great state his admin- 
istration compares favorably with that of any 
of Michigan's governors. In a publication of 
this kind it is impossible to dwell at any length 
upon the details of his gubernatorial or gen- 
eral political career, crowned though it was 
with high honors and distinguished prefer- 
ment. At the expiration of his term as gov- 
ernor he positively refused to become a candi- 
date for a second term, owing to the exigencies 
incidental to his private affairs. 

At the national Republican convention in 
1888 General Alger was among the most 
prominent of the presidential candidates, and 
with the continuous balloting he increased his 
strength to one hundred and forty-three votes. 
In the sixth ballot, however, a break was made 
in the ranks of his followers, and General 
Harrison, then second choice, was brought for- 
ward and received the nomination. In the fall 
of the same year General Alger's name headed 
the list of presidential electors from his state. 
In the national convention of the Republican 
party in 1892 he was again a popular candidate 
for nomination and again showed his great 
hold upon the esteem of the leading members 
of his party. 

The one feature of his political career that 
brought its measure of regret and sorrow to 



General Alger was that of his service in the 
office of secretary of war at the time of the 
Spanish-American war. Time has already 
shown how unjust were the criticisms directed 
against this loyal, honorable and intrinsically 
patriotic citizen and able official. In 1896 he 
was called to the cabinet of President McKin- 
ley in the portfolio of secretary of war, and he 
assumed the duties of the office March 4, 1897. 
The unpleasantness which marked his admin- 
istration was the diametrical result of "long 
existent conditions revealed by the stern test of 
war." It is not necessary here to record the 
history of the case, but naught of vindication 
is demanded for General Alger, concerning 
whom, in this connection, the New York Even- 
ing Post spoke as follows at the time of his 
death: "He was a victim of the wretched or- 
ganization of the army and the department, 
which clung to the system of the civil war that 
had been long outgrown." He resigned the of- 
fice of secretary in August, 1899, and gratify- 
ing to him must have been the enthusiastic 
and sympathetic reception which was given to 
him by the people of his own state after the 
criticism which had been leveled at him with 
so great injustice. When he passed from the 
scene of life's endeavors his successor in the 
office of secretary of war, Hon. William H. 
Taft, gave the following appreciative estimate 
of his ser\'ices in the office: "General Alger 
was patriotic, earnest and most devoted to the 
interests of the army, and especially consid- 
erate of the welfare of the enlisted men. He 
was a gentle, kindly man, with great confidence 
in his friends and associates, and was much be- 
loved by his subordinates. He was the sub- 
ject of unjust criticism because of the coun- 
try's lack of preparedness for war when war 
came, although for this he was in no wise re- 
sponsible." 

On the 27th of September, 1902, Governor 
Bliss appointed General Alger a member of the 
United States senate, to fill the vacancy caused 
by the death of Senator James McMillan, and 
on the 20th of the following January he was 
elected to the same office by the legislature of 
the state. Owing to failing health he declined 
to become a candidate for re-election and his 



268 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



term of office as senator would have expired 
March 4, 1908. He distinctively honored his 
state by his services in the senate, of which he 
was a member at the time of his death, which 
occurred in the city of Washington, on the 
24th of January, 1907, as the result of oedema 
of the lungs. His summons was sudden, as 
the attack which terminated his life came only 
about ten minutes before he succumbed. He 
had long suffered from valvular disease of the 
heart, and his health had been delicate for some 
time. The following brief extract is taken 
from an editorial article which appeared in 
the Washington (D. C.) Herald at the time 
of his demise, and which is but example of 
the many thousands of appreciative estimates 
appearing in the press of the nation : "General 
Russell A. Alger did not live in vain. A 
kindly, lovable character, he was helpful to his 
fellows and served his country well. He was 
the type of rich man whom riches do not spoil, 
— a man who had his wealth to good ends, 
while material success did not put him out of 
touch with humanity. Michigan loved him as 
he loved Michigan." Glowing tributes to his 
worth were paid in both houses of congress 
and in the legislature of his home state, while 
in Detroit there was such an outpouring of 
citizens of all classes to render a last mark of 
affection and respect as to establish anew his 
wonderful claim upon the love and apprecia- 
tion of the people of the city to whose welfare 
he so largely contributed. His body lay in 
state in the city hall from two until five o'clock 
on Sunday following his death, and the entire 
community showed that it felt a sense of deep 
personal bereavement. The funeral was held 
from the family home and the simple services 
of the interment in the Alger mausoleum were 
conducted under the auspices of the military 
organizations of which he had been an honored 
member. 

General Alger was a member of the Mili- 
tary Order of the Loyal Legion and of Fair- 
banks Post, No. 17, Grand Army of the Re- 
public, Detroit. In the latter he was ever an 
enthusiastic worker. His affection for and 
sympathy with his old comrades in arms was 
of the most insistent type, and one of the last 



acts of his life was in connection with securing 
a merited pension for an old soldier of his own ' 
command. In 1889, at the national encamps ' 
ment of the Grand Army of the Republic, in 
Milwaukee, he was unanimously and without 
opposition elected commander in chief of the ' 
order. In the memorial address given by Hon. 
Edwin Denby, of Michigan, in the house of I 
representatives in Washington, appear the fol- 
lowing words : "If I were asked to name the I 
qualities of General Alger which more than 
others accounted for his remarkable success in 
political life and for the devotion of his friends, 
I would say his kindness, generosity, tact and 
sweetness of disposition, — the great human at- 
tributes that charm and attract and make the 
world akin. His course through life was 
marked by many deeds of utmost unostenta- 
tious charity. How much he gave will never 
be known, but that his bounties were large is 
certain from the occasional instances brought 
to public notice. In Detroit he was mourned 
by none more thoroughly than the newsboys 
of that city. There they have a large organi- 
zation, consisting of six or seven hundred 
members, called the Newsboys' Association. 
General Alger helped the boys in and out of 
the association with clothing and other neces- 
saries and with his kindly cheer, year after 
year, until he became the 'newsboys' friend,' a 
badge of honor he was well worthy to wear. 
How many other persons there are who re- 
gard his passing as the loss of their best earthly 
friend can not be known. His charities he 
tried to hide, but you will hear to-day some 
instances that could not be concealed. He 
rendered back to society in constant benefac- 
tions the riches it gave to him. He was one 
of the kindest, most lovable men in public 
life." 

The address of Hon. John C. Spooner, of 
Wisconsin, in the United States senate, con- 
tained the following tribute : "No man with- 
out noble purpose, well justified ambition, 
strong fiber, and splendid qualities in abun- 
dance could have carved out and left behind 
him such a career. His pathway was from the 
beginning upward, and all along it. at every 
stage of it, he discharged well every duty 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



269 



which manhood could demand ; and all along he 
scattered with generous hand deeds of kind- 
ness and helpfulness to those who were in 
need, sowing the seed which blossomed in 
fragrance along his pathway and made it 
beautiful." 

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the 2d of 
April, 1 86 1, was solemnized the marriage of 
General Alger to Miss Annette H. Henry, 
daughter of W. G. Henry, of that city, and 
of the nine children of this union five are liv- 
ing, namely : Mrs. Henry D. Shelden, of 
Detroit; Mrs. William E. Bailey, of Harris- 
burg, Pennsylvania ; Mrs. Charles B. Pike, of 
Chicago; and Russell A. and Captain Fred M., 
of Detroit. 

Mrs. Alger survives her honored husband 
and divides her time between her beautiful 
homes in the cities of Detroit and Washing- 
ton. Like the General, she is a member of the 
Presbyterian church, in whose work and sup- 
port she has been active. A woman of gra- 
cious personality and distinctive culture, she 
complemented in every respect the career of 
her honored husband, and in the tender and 
hallowed memories and associations of their 
ideal married life lies her greatest measure of 
consolation and compensation. 



ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 

A distinguished figure in the history of Mich- 
igan and that of the nation was that of the 
late Zachariah Chandler, to whose life and 
labors Detroit may point with special pride and 
appreciation, since in this city he maintained 
his home and centered his interests until the 
time of his death. 

Mr. Chandler was born at Bedford, New 
Hampshire, on the loth of December, 1813, 
and in well ordered New England institutions 
he received his early educational training. In 
December, 1833, he came to Detroit and estab- 
lished himself in the dry-goods business, with 
which he continued to be identified for many 
years. He was successful in his business oper- 
ations and soon gained recognition as one of 
the wealthy and influential citizens of the state. 
In 1848 he was president of the Young Men's 
Benevolent Association, and in the same year 



he lent his co-operation in the building of sev- 
eral plank roads, which afforded much needed 
facilities. In 1851 he was elected mayor of 
Detroit, and his administration was marked by 
progressiveness and great public spirit. In 1857 
he succeeded Hon. Lewis Cass in the United 
States senate. 

As an aggressive and fearless exponent of 
the principles of the Republican party he made 
himself a dominating force and power in the 
senate. Of his political career the following 
pertinent statements have been written : "He 
had courage of a high order, and a fearless- 
ness and frankness of utterance that were es- 
pecially needed at the time he took his seat 
in the senate. The administration of President 
Buchanan began simultaneously with his career 
as a senator, and the vacillation and shuffling 
of the president afforded a sharp contrast to 
the boldness and high patriotism of Mr. 
Chandler." 

Among the most important speeches made by 
Senator Chandler during the administration of 
President Buchanan were those in opposition 
to the admission of Kansas to the Union, under 
the Lecompton constitution; in opposition to 
the annexation of Cuba to the United States; 
and in favor of appropriations for the con- 
struction of a ship canal through the St. Clair 
Flats, above Detroit. He also made a vigorous 
protest against the partisan character of the 
standing committee of the senate under Dem- 
ocratic domination. 

Mr. Chandler was re-elected to the senate 
in 1863 and again in 1869, and thus he served 
for an aggregate period of eighteen years. In 
December, 1861, upon a motion made by him, 
a joint committee of the senate and house of 
representatives on the conduct of the war was 
appointed. This historic committee continued 
in service until after the close of the great in- 
ternecine conflict between the north and the 
south, though many changes were made in its 
membership. Mr. Chandler was a member dur- 
ing the entire time and was always the ruling 
spirit. In this connection his abilities and poli- 
cies proved most effective in maintaining the 
unity of the Republican party in its war meas- 
ures. When this party gained control of the 



270 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



senate Mr. Chandler was made chairman of 
the committee on commerce, a position which 
he retained until the expiration of his senato- 
rial term, on the 3d of March. 1875. He was 
a most earnest and valued supporter of the 
administration of President Lincoln and also 
that of President Grant, the confidence of 
both of whom he held to a supreme degree. The 
most notable speech delivered by Senator 
Chandler was in relation to the conduct of the 
war, and this speech undoubtedly had much to 
do with effecting the transfer of General Grant 
to the command of the Army of the Potomac. 

Mr. Chandler showed at the inception of 
his public career that he possessed great abil- 
ity as a politician, and when his advice was 
heeded, party success was generally a sequel. 
He was one of the most zealous of the advo- 
cates of the abolition of slavery and the pres- 
ervation of the Union. He was chairman of 
the Union congressional committee for four 
years and was a member of the national Repub- 
lican committee in 1876. 

On the 19th of October, 1875, President 
Grant appointed Mr. Chandler secretary of the 
interior, and of this cabinet position he re- 
mained incumbent until after the inauguration 
of President Hayes. Of his services in this 
connection the following estimate has been 
given out from an authoritative source: "His 
careful and personal administration of affairs in 
connection with the position was a surprise to 
all, and gained him praise even among those 
of opposite political faith. He introduced and 
carried out a series of reforms in the Indian 
department, the land and pension offices, and 
exhibited an amount of personal knowledge 
concerning the affairs of his office that was 
remarkable, while he displayed a moral cour- 
age that was a revelation to corrupt officials." 

As before stated. Senator Chandler was a 
member of the national Republican committee 
in 1876. On the first session of that body he 
was elected its chairman. To the duties of 
this position he devoted himself with an ardor 
that was astonishing, never relaxing his ef- 
forts until the memorable election of that year 
was closed. Mr. Chandler then retired to pri- 
vate life, dividing his time between his beauti- 



ful residence in Detroit and his extensive marsh 
farm near Lansing. In the political campaign 
of 1878 he again began a life of activity and 
was made chairman of the Republican state 
central committee. Largely owing to his 
able maneuvering of the forces at his command 
the state rolled up one of its old-time Republic- 
an majorities, every congressional candidate 
of the party being elected, besides a large ma- 
jority of the state legislature. Owing to the 
failing health of Senator Christiancy, who had 
defeated Senator Chandler in 1875, the former 
was compelled to seek rest: He resigned on 
the loth of February and Mr. Chandler was 
chosen to fill out the unexpired term. While 
occupying his chair a bill was introduced giv- 
ing pensions to the surviving soldiers of the 
war of 1 81 2, and at the same time an amend- 
ment was offered denying the benefits of any 
pension to Jefferson Davis. One of the most 
remarkable debates in the history of the United 
State congress then followed. In the discussion 
Senator Chandler delivered a speech that was a 
masterpiece of oratory and the same received 
more attention than any other address deliv- 
ered in congress for years, while its author 
was overwhelmed with letters of congratulation 
and thanks, which came from every state in the 
Union. 

Then came the campaign of 1879, and no 
public speaker was in greater demand than 
Zachariah Chandler. He worked hard, traveled 
thousands of miles, and delivered innumerable 
addresses in behalf of the party he loved so 
well. Repeatedly during his arduous work did 
he shows signs of failing health. At Janes- 
ville, Wisconsin, he contracted a severe cold, 
but on reaching Chicago he exhibited but slight 
signs of indisposition. He delivered an address 
that evening — October 31, 1879 — in McCor- 
mick hall, which spacious auditorium was filled 
to overflowing. After the close of his re- 
marks Senator Chandler returned to the Grand 
Pacific hotel, and retired for the night. On the 
following morning, November ist, he was 
found dead in his bed, and thus ended a life 
of signal usefulness and honor. 

In early life Mr. Chandler was united in 
to Miss Letitia G. Douglass, of 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



271 



New York, and she survived him by a num- 
ber of years. Their only child, Mary Doug- 
lass Chandler, is the wiie of Hon. Eugene 
Hale, United States senator from the state 
of Maine. 



GEORGE H. RUSSEL. 

George Howard Russel has been an im- 
portant factor in the industrial development 
of Detroit, and he is recognized as one of the 
thoroughly representative citizens of his native 
city, where his business interests are of wide 
scope and varied order. As a manufacturer, 
banker and public-spirited citizen he has well 
upheld the prestige of an honored family name. 
He is the eldest son of Dr. George B. and 
Anna (Davenport) Russel. His father was 
one of the most distinguished of the pioneer 
physicians and surgeons of Detroit and of the 
state. The Davenport family was founded in 
Detroit many years prior to the admission of 
Michigan as one of the sovereign states of the 
Union. Dr. George B. Russel, to whom is 
dedicated a special memoir in this volume, was 
likewise a most potent factor in the founding 
and upbuilding of many of the great manu- 
facturing and business enterprises of Detroit. 
He also contributed largely to the city's devel- 
opment by obtaining and undertaking the im- 
provement of property in the earlier days, when 
the tendency of owners to hold their land re- 
tarded growth. Dr. Russel came to Detroit 
from Pennsylvania in 1836, and for details 
concerning his life history reference should be 
made to the memorial sketch just mentioned. 
Records concerning the Davenport family also 
appear in this volume. 

George H. Russel was born in Detroit, on 
the 29th of November, 1847. I" the public 
schools of his native city and in Patterson's 
excellent school he received his preliminary 
education, doing effective work and being 
eligible for entrance to college in 1863. Much 
to his regret, however, he was prevented from 
taking the course in the University of Michi- 
gan, and at the age of sixteen he found it 
necessary to seek employment. He initiated 
his active business career in June, 1863, when 
he assumed the position of yard foreman of the 



Detroit & Lake Superior Iron Manufacturing 
Company. Though he is now a large and 
robust man, of commanding presence, he 
was at that time a tall, slender stripling, 
of almost his present height, and it was 
for the sake of his health that he thus took 
up active outdoor work. Two years of such 
apphcation gave him tone and strength, and 
within the interval he also showed the business 
qualities which were later to bring about such 
successful accomplishment. At the expiration 
of two years Mr. Russel became bookkeeper 
for the same company, holding this position 
for two years, and he was then elected secre- 
tary and treasurer of the Hamtramck Iron 
Works. In 1872 he became also the secretary 
and treasurer of the Detroit Car Works, 
organized in that year. 

In 1876 the two companies, after struggling 
through the financial panic of 1873, succumbed 
to the inevitable, as did many other business 
concerns in those disastrous years. Mr. Rus- 
sel, left without a situation and without finan- 
cial means, undertook to carry on an indepen- 
dent business for himself. He leased a build- 
ing and in it started an iron foundry, on a very 
modest scale. The extensive works and the suc- 
cessful business of the Russel Wheel &. Foundry 
Company stand as the final result of this begin- 
ning. Soon after founding his little enter- 
prise Mr. Russel took as an associate his 
younger brother, Walter S., and within a short 
time afterward the company was organized un- 
der the present title. A number of years later 
John R. Russel, another brother, became one 
of the interested principals in the concern. The 
subject of this sketch was president of the 
company from the time of its incorporation 
until 1906, and, notwithstanding the exactions 
of his many other financial and business in- 
terests, he still gives a personal supervision to 
the affairs of the great concern of which he 
was the founder. A description of the com- 
pany and its plant appears in this work. 

In 1889 Mr. Russel was chosen president of 
the State Savings Bank, which under his man- 
agement became the largest financial institution 
in the state. With this bank the People's Sav- 
ings Bank was merged in 1907, under the title 
of the People's State Bank, and Mr. Russel 



272 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



continued the executive head. In 189 1-2 he 
was president of the Michigan Bankers' Asso- 
ciation and in 1898 he was president of the 
American Bankers' Association. He was also 
chairman of the clearing-house committee and 
served one term as president of the Detroit 
Bankers' CUib. There is undoubtedly no more 
prominent and honored a figure in the banking 
circles of Michigan. Mr. Russel is also pres- 
ident of the River Rouge Improvement Com- 
pany, and his conduct of its affairs has been 
marked by wise discrimination and good judg- 
ment, so that the company has been most suc- 
cessful in its operations. Its property has be- 
come very valuable, as the result of judicious 
selection and reclamation, although at large ex- 
pense, of low-lying lands near the city of 
Detroit. He was one of the projectors of the 
Detroit Radiator Company, of which he was 
president for some time, and this has become 
one of the important industrial concerns of the 
city, the enterprise being now owned by and 
conducted under the title of the American 
Radiator Company. He is a director and also 
treasurer of the Detroit United Railway, con- 
trolling all of the city street-car lines and all 
the important suburban electric lines entering 
the city ; he was one of the organizers and first 
directors of the Union Trust Company, as well 
as the Great Lakes Engineering Company, 
became vice-president and is a director of the 
American Car & Foundry Company, is also a 
director of the International Banking Corpora- 
tion ; and is a stockholder in several other bank- 
ing and business corporations. 

Mr. Russel is a staunch adherent of the old 
Democratic party, and, though he has never 
been a seeker of public office, he has ever 
shown a deep interest in local affairs of a pub- 
lic nature, holding the welfare and progress 
of his native city closely to heart. He was the 
first president of the present board of park and 
boulevard commissioners of Detroit and was 
a useful and diligent member of that body. In 
1893, as an official of the clearing-house com- 
mittee of the city, he did much to uphold the 
financial supremacy of Detroit during the panic 
which began in that year. He is a valued and 
popular member of the Detroit Club, the lead- 



ing organization of the sort in the city, and 
was its president in 1889 and 1890. He and I 
his family attend the Presbyterian church. i 

In 1872 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. ' 
Russel to Miss Frances E. Bagg, daughter of 
the late John S. Bagg, the well known editor ' 
of the Detroit Free Press. They have four 
sons and five daughters. | 

The following estimate of the character and 
labors of Mr. Russel has been given by one 1 
familiar with the details of his career: "He 
is firm and pronounced in his individual views, 
but is considerate of and attentive to the 
opinions of others, and has a kindly, genial 
disposition, which invariably wins to him the 
friendship of those who come to know the 
man as he is. He leads men not simply be- 
cause they have confidence in his honor and 
integrity but because they respect and like 
him. In all the afYairs and relations of life 
he is a typical American, — a good citizen, de- 
voted to his family and friends, liberal in public 
affairs and industrious in business." 



JAMES F. JOY. 

That "man lives not to himself alone" is an 
assurance which is amply verified in all the af- 
fairs of life, but its pertinence is most patent 
in those instances where persons have so em- 
ployed their inherent talents, so improved their 
opportunities and so marshaled their forces as 
to gain presiige which transcends mere local 
limitations and finds its angle of influence ever 
broadening in beneficence and human helpful- 
ness. There are thousands of men of fine 
character and ability ever looming up among 
us, and in even a cursory review of the lives 
of such lies much of incentive and inspiration. 
Apropos of these statements there is peculiar 
consistency in according in this volume an 
epitome of the career of Detroit's distinguished 
citizen, the late James F. Joy, whose produc- 
tive activities were gigantic and whose life 
was one of impregnable integrity and honor. 
He was a man of the nation but was essentially 
a citizen of Detroit, whose people may ever 
take pride in his character and his accomplish- 
ment. 





«t.^, 




DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



273 



James Frederick Joy was born in Durham, 
New Hampshire, on the 2d of December, 
1810, and was a son of James and Sarah 
(Pickering) Joy. His father was a black- 
smith by trade and in later life was a manu- 
facturer of scythes and a ship builder at Dur- 
ham. The original American ancestor in the 
agnatic line was Thomas Joy, who immigrated 
from England about the year 1632, locating 
in Boston, where he became a land holder in 
1636, as shown by the town records. From 
that city his descendants removed to various 
localities in New England. The father of the 
subject of this memoir was a man of much en- 
terprise and of strong intellectuality; he was 
a Federalist in politics and a Calvinist in re- 
ligion. His influence was potent in fixing cor- 
rect principles in the minds of his children and 
all of them honored him in their after lives. 

The early education of James F. Joy was 
secured in the common schools and in a neigh- 
boring academy, in which he took a two years' 
course. He then engaged in teaching and 
through the compensation thus received, sup- 
plemented by such financial assistance as his 
father was able to accord, he realized his am- 
bition and entered upon a collegiate course. 
In 1833 he was graduated, at the head of his 
class, in Dartmouth College, which conferred 
upon him the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He 
soon afterward entered Harvard Law School, 
at Cambridge, where he made rapid advance- 
ment in the accumulation and assimilation of 
technical knowledge, but his pecuniary status 
was such that he was compelled to withdraw 
at the end of the first year. He thereafter was 
for several months preceptor in the academy 
at Pittsfield, New Hampshire, and for a year 
was a tutor in Dartmouth College. He re- 
signed the latter position to resume his law 
studies at Cambridge, where, within a year, 
he completed the prescribed course and was 
duly admitted to the bar, in Boston. He had 
decided to locate in the west, and in Septem- 
ber, 1836, he arrived in Detroit, where he en- 
tered the law office of Hon. Augustus S. Por- 
ter, "one of the noblest men that ever repre- 
sented Michigan in the United States senate." 
In May of the following year he opened an 



office of his own, and in the ensuing autumn 
he formed a professional partnership with 
George F. Porter, who had an extended ac- 
quaintanceship with prominent capitalists and 
financiers, so that the firm at once secured a 
clientage of representative order, and became 
known as one of the leading legal firms in the 
western country. During the height of the 
speculative craze in the late '30s and early 
'40s Michigan had established what was known 
as the internal-improvement system, under 
whose operations the state had purchased the 
Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad. In 1846, 
through the workings of this system, the state 
became bankrupt, and as a means toward 
solvency proposed to sell this railroad, whose 
name had been changed to the Michigan Cen- 
tral. In the interest of a corporation formed 
to buy the property Mr. Joy largely framed 
its charter, completed the organization of the 
corporation and induced capital to embark in 
the enterprise. The sale restored the state to 
solvency and general business resumed normal 
ramifications. The new company undertook 
to extend the road to Chicago, and in the im- 
portant litigation incident thereto Mr. Joy was 
engaged to such an extent in Michigan, In- 
diana and Illinois that he was gradually drawn 
away from his practice in Detroit. He grad- 
ually made railway law a specialty and for a 
long period he was one of the foremost figures 
in railway litigation in the United States, his 
practice being extensive and profitable. From 
being the legal adviser of railway companies 
he was gradually drawn into the field of man- 
agement, becoming prominent in extending 
railway connections and in the construction 
and executive control of new lines. The case 
of George C. Bates in ejectment against the 
Illinois Central and Michigan Central Railroad 
Companies, in the United States court, was 
the last very important cause in which he ap- 
peared as the leading counsel and advocate. 
The case involvel title to the Chicago station 
grounds of the two companies, — property at 
that time valued at two million dollars, — and 
in this celebrated case Mr. Joy's remarkable 
powers were so exemplified as to gain him un- 
precedented prestige. The necessarily pre- 



274 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



scribed limitations of this publication of course 
prevent a detailed review of this cause celehre, 
but the same is a matter of historical record. 
Mr. Joy became extensively identified with 
the railway interests of the country and was 
largely engaged in the extending of lines. He 
organized the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 
Railroad Company, whose line cost sixty 
millions of dollars, and before construction was 
instituted he made a trip on foot over the 
proposed route. For many years he was the 
executive head of the corporation, and under 
his direction the lines were extended to Quincy 
and Omaha. The line from Kansas City to the 
Indian Territory was another enterprise pro- 
moted by him. Incidentally he also built the 
first bridge across the Missouri river at Kan- 
sas City, thus giving great impetus to the de- 
velopment of that city. About 1857 Mr. Joy 
became associated with J. W. Brooks and en- 
tered into a contract, through a company or- 
ganized for the purpose, to undertake and 
complete the Sault Ste. Marie canal. The 
work was pushed forward with utmost vigor 
and was completed within two years, to the 
great benefit of navigation and commerce. 

About the year 1867 Mr. Joy became presi- 
dent of the Michigan Central Railroad Com- 
pany, of which he had been general counsel for 
many years. As chief executive the road was 
largely rebuilt and every department was made 
adequate to meet the demands placed upon it. 
These improvements were made at great ex- 
pense, double track being laid on a large por- 
tion of the line and the steel rails used having 
cost, in gold, one hundred and thirty dollars 
per ton, in England. Mr. Joy also promoted 
the building and finally acquired control of the 
Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw Railroad, from 
Jackson to Saginaw and Mackinaw City, and 
also of the road from Jackson to Grand Rap- 
ids, — both now parts of the Michigan Central 
system. He also built the Detroit & Bay City 
and the Detroit, Lansing & Northern Rail- 
roads, and the Michigan Central's air line from 
Jackson to Niles, the Kalamazoo & South 
Haven, and the Chicago & West Michigan 
Railroads, were alike the results of his activity 
and progressiveness. He was the prime fac- 



tor in the building of more than sixteen hun- 1 
dred miles of railroad in Michigan alone, and 
the beneficent influence of this work may well 
be understood. In the early '70s Mr. Joy be- 
came interested in a proposed railroad to run 
along the western bank of the Mississippi 
river from Dubuque, Iowa, to a point opposite 
La Crosse, Wisconsin, and through his efiforts ' 
the line was completed, being now a part of the i 
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul system. Mr. \ 
Joy was also largely instrumental in securing , 
to Detroit its connection with the Wabash , 
Railroad and in providing adequate station 
grounds for its business. He and other De- 
troit citizens furnished most of the money by 
which the connecting line was built from De- 
troit to Logansport, Indiana, and with four 
others he built the large and elaborate union 
depot in Detroit, together with the railroad, 
through the western part of the city, connect- 
ing with the Wabash. Mr. Joy was also one 
of the organizers of and attorney for the 
Sault Sainte Marie Ship Canal Company (in 
1852-3-4), which built the first "Soo" canal 
and locks, thus making possible the navigation 
of Lake Superior by vessels from the lower 
lakes. 

For several years prior to his death Mr. Joy 
lived essentially retired from active business, 
though still financially interested in a number 
of the corporations mentioned. Of him it has 
been said : "His life was of great benefit to 
his city and state, as well as to Chicago and 
the western country. Few men have guided 
and invested for so many years such vast sums 
of money as did he." In 1845 he was one of 
those who purchased the stock of the Michigan 
State Bank, which thereafter paid ten per cent, 
dividends regularly until the expiration of its 
charter, in 1855, at which time its stockholders 
received one hundred and thirteen per cent, 
for their shares. He was a director of the 
Second National Bank of Detroit, and when its 
charter expired, in 1883, it was succeeded by 
the Detroit National Bank, of whose direc- 
torate he continued to be a member until his 
death. 

Though never active in the domain of "prac- 
tical politics," and never a seeker of public 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



275 



office, Mr. Joy was intrinsically loyal to all the 
duties of citizenship and exerted his influence 
in the promotion of good government, being 
an uncompromising advocate of the principles 
and policies of the Republican party. In 1838 
he was chosen to the office of school inspector 
in Detroit, and in 1848 was elected city re- 
corder. In 1 86 1 he was induced to accept the 
nomination as representative of the Detroit 
district in the state legislature, to which he was 
elected and in which he held a place of much 
prominence and influence in the climacteric 
period marking the opening of the civil war. 
He served a short time as regent of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, but resigned on account 
of the exactions of his business interests. In 
1880 he was a delegate to the Republican na- 
tional convention, in Chicago, and there made 
the address nominating the Hon. James G. 
Blaine for the presidency. 

From a sketch of the career of Mr. Joy pre- 
pared several years ago by the writer of the 
present article, the following pertinent extracts 
are made: "Although always an active man, 
Mr. Joy never neglected mental recreation and 
improvement, but at all times kept up his early 
acquaintance with the classics and with all that 
is best in literature. When business hours 
were over, business cares were laid aside and 
never carried home. As is inevitable in the 
life of such a man as Mr. Joy, he encountered 
many and large financial losses, but, no matter 
what their magnitude, it is believed that there 
never was an evening when he would not lose 
all thought of them in reading the pages of 
some favorite author. His love of books was 
a taste that he had cultivated from early youth. 
His library, including many costly volumes, 
was the result of the steady accumulation of 
years and contained the best editions of the 
best authors. Not only were all the great 
lights of English literature represented but 
also the works of the best of foreign authors 
in the original text, and the latter he read 
with the same facility as did he those in his 
native tongue. Well thumbed editions of the 
ancient classics and the works of the ablest 
French authors found prominent places in his 



collection and gave ample evidence of having 
been read and reread many times." 

Mr. Joy was twice married. He first wedded 
Martha Alger Reed, daughter of Hon. John 
Reed, of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, member of 
congress for several years and also lieutenant 
governor of his state. 

Upon her death Mrs. Joy left the following 
children : Sarah Reed, who married Dr. Ed- 
ward W. Jenks, both of whom have passed 
from life ; Martha Alger, who married Henry 
A. Newland, both of whom were killed in a 
railroad accident ; and James Joy. 

Mr. Joy's second wife was Miss Mary 
Bourne, of Hartford, Connecticut, and the chil- 
dren of this union were: Frederic, who died 
in 1893 ; Henry Bourne, who is at the head of 
several large business interests in Detroit, 
among them being the Packard Motor Car 
Company ; and Richard Pickering Joy, who is 
president of the National Bank of Commerce, 
of Detroit. 

James F. Joy was summoned to the life eter- 
nal on the 24th of September, 1896, and his 
life on earth stands as perpetual voucher for 
nobility of character and of definite usefulness 
in the complex scheme of human activity and 
accomplishment. 



HENRY P. BALDWIN. 

No name is more honored in the history of 
Michigan than that of the subject of this brief 
memoir. His influence permeated the public 
life of the commonwealth, of which he became 
governor and which he later represented in the 
United States senate; his consecration and 
noble efforts as a churchman of the Protestant 
Episcopal church stretched forth until his name 
became familiar and revered by the clergy and 
laity of the church throughout the entire 
Union ; he contributed in magnificent measure 
to the business and civic advancement of De- 
troit, where he maintained his home for more 
than half a century; and, above all and dom- 
inating all, was the personal exaltation of 
character which denoted the man in all the 
relations of his life. His was the faith that 
makes faithful, and this fidelity to duty in 



276 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



every form is what made his character distinct, 
noble and inspiring. His lineage was one of 
distinguished and most interesting order, and 
greatly did he himself add to the honors of 
the name which he bore. Strong in his convic- 
tions but not intolerant, always firm in the 
right but with no room in his heart for revenge, 
compassion and pity dwelt with him as con- 
stant guests. Flattery could not cajole him 
into compromise nor power awe him into 
silence. His life, character and services are 
pre-eminently entitled to careful study, and this 
investigation can not but beget a feeling of 
objective appreciation, reverence and incentive. 
He well exemplified the truth of the state- 
ments that, "The bravest are the tenderest ; the 
loving are the daring." 

Henry P. Baldwin was born at Coventry, 
Rhode Island, on the 22d of February, 1814, 
and the eventide of the last day of the year 
1892 witnessed the release of his spirit to the 
realm of the immortal, which gained added 
glory when this transition occurred. The 
direct genealogical line of Governor Baldwin 
traces authentically to Nathaniel Baldwin, who 
was of the staunch English Puritan stock and 
who took up his abode in Milford, Connecticut, 
in 1639. From this worthy ancestor the direct 
line touches Rev. Moses Baldwin, who had 
the distinction, in 1757, of being the first to 
receive a degree from the College of New 
Jersey, now known as Princeton Univer- 
sity. Rev. Moses Baldwin was ordained 
to the ministry of the Presbyterian church 
and for more than fifty years he was 
incumbent of a pastoral charge at Palmer, 
Massachusetts, where his death occurred in the 
year 181 3. John Baldwin, son of Rev. Moses 
Baldwin and named in honor of the founder of 
the American branch of the family, was born 
in Massachusetts, was graduated in Dart- 
mouth College in 1791, and died in North 
Dartmouth, Rhode Island, in 1826. John Bald- 
win, father of the subject of this memoir, 
married Margaret Williams, daughter of Rev. 
Nehemiah Williams, who was a Harvard grad- 
uate and who was for a score of years pastor 
of the Congregational church at Brimfield, 
Massachusetts, where he died in 1796: he was 



likewise a scion of staunch Puritan stock, hav- , 
ing been a lineal descendant of Robert Will- '< 
iams, who settled at Roxbury, Massachusetts, 
in 1638. From these brief data it will be 
seen that the future governor of Michigan had 
much in his favor in an ancestral way. His 
natural heritage was that of culture and 
refinement, which few men have more beauti- I 
fully exemplified throughout life as did he. He 
was afforded the advantages of the common I 
schools of his native state and had entered 
upon higher academic studies when the death 
of both of his parents compelled him to assume 
the active duties and responsibilties of life, 
while he was still a mere youth. To those 
who knew him in later years came full ap- 
preciation of how admirably he rose above 
the educational deprivation of his early life, 
for he was a man of broad culture and erudi- 
tion, having read wisely and well and having 
shown that ready povver of assimilation which 
ever designates the receptive and sensitive 
temperament. 

After leaving school Mr. Baldwin secured a 
position as clerk in a mercantile establish- 
ment, in which he was employed until he had 
attained to the age of twenty years, when he 
initiated his independent business career by 
opening a general store at Woonsocket, Rhode 
Island. It is natural to infer that his beginning 
was on a modest scale, but he was equipped 
with energy, and ambition, self-reliance and 
courage; practical experience and unswerving 
integrity of purpose, — the very essentials of 
definite success in temporal affairs. In 1837, 
three years after engaging in business at Woon- 
socket, he closed out his interests there and 
made a trip to the west. He visited Michigan, 
which was admitted to statehood in that year, 
and with marked prescience and judgment de- 
termined to number himself among the per- 
manent residents of Detroit, in which embry- 
onic city he located in the spring of the follow- 
ing year. Soon after coming to Detroit the 
future governor opened a small shoe store on 
Jefferson avenue, near Woodward avenue, in 
the center of the principal retail district at that 
time, and there he continued in the retail trade 
until 185 1, when he expanded the scope of the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



277 



enterprise into a jobbing business, which grew 
to be one of the largest and most important of 
the sort in the west and through which Mr. 
Baldwin laid the foundation for his ample and 
well earned fortune. He continued his active 
connection with the business until i860 and 
retained his interest in the same until 1878, 
when he retired, having been identified with 
the enterprise, of which he was the founder, 
for the long period of forty years. He gained 
prestige as one of Detroit's most progressive 
and substantial business men, achieved a note- 
worthy success and left an unsullied reputation 
when he finally withdrew from the domain of 
commercial pursuits. Here, indeed, as in all 
other relations of life, he "kept himself un- 
spotted from the world." 

To men of such character political history 
must ever owe a debt, for in this great arena 
of political afifairs chicancery, subterfuge and 
malfeasance readily creep. As has been well 
said of him in this connection, by Right Rev. 
George D. Gillespie, the venerable and hon- 
ored bishop of the diocese of Western Mich- 
igan (Episcopal) : "Even in politics, that 
common field of urgent criticism and calumny, 
he had only honorable mention." In i860 he 
was elected to a seat in the state senate, serv- 
ing during 1861-2, — the crucial period which 
marked the opening of the civil war and which 
taxed to the utmost the political powers of 
the state. Incidentally he was chairman of 
the finance committee and the committee to 
whom he was assigned charge of the improving 
of the Sault de Ste. Marie canal, the chief work 
of internal improvement then in charge of the 
state. He also served as a member of the 
committee on banks and corporations, and was 
an effective and valued worker both on the 
floor of the senate and in the deliberations of 
the committee rooms. His success here but 
presaged that which was to be his in more 
exalted public offices. In 1868 he was the 
candidate of the Republican party for the office 
of governor of Michigan, being elected by a 
splendid majority and being chosen as his own 
successor two years later. Of his labors as 
governor Farmer's history of Detroit and 
Michigan has spoken as follows : "The 



period of his incumbency was marked by 
the establishment and improvement of sev- 
eral public enterprises. He assisted mate- 
rially in the advancement and broadening of 
the scope of the state charities. He founded 
the state public school for dependent children, 
which is a model of its kind. He also secured 
the permanent organization of a commission 
to supervise the state charities and penal in- 
stitutions. . He recommended the establish- 
ment of the Eastern insane asylum, the state 
board of health and the state house of correc- 
tion. He obtained appropriations for the en- 
largement of the university and was instru- 
mental in the erection of the elegant state cap- 
itol building, at Lansing. He not only recom- 
mended the appropriation for its construction, 
but the contracts for all the work were let under 
his administration, and he appointed the build- 
ing commission under whose direction and 
supervision the capitol was begun and com- 
pleted. During his last term the fire of 1871 
destroyed the city of Chicago, and other fires 
swept, with devastating consequences, through 
the state of Michigan. Governor Baldwin is- 
sued a call to the state of Michigan on behalf 
of the western metropolis, and it is a matter 
of history that that call was nobly answered. 
Soon afterward he issued a similar appeal in 
aid of the people of his own state and sup- 
plemented it with such admirable and system- 
atic methods for the collecting of donations 
and administering relief, that within three 
months he was enabled to make the gratifying 
public announcement that no further aid was 
needed." 

Within the limits necessarily prescribed for 
a sketch of this character it is impossible to 
offer full details concerning the public career 
of Governor Baldwin; indeed, the record is 
a very part of the history of the state itself, 
and to that generic source reference should be 
made for a comprehensive review of his efforts 
and accomplishment in the sphere of high pub- 
lic service. In 1876 he was elected delegate 
at large to the National Republican convention, 
and in 1879, upon the sudden death of Hon. 
Zachariah Chandler, Michigan's brilliant repre- 
sentative in the United States senate, Mr. Bald- 



278 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



win was almost uniformly recognized as his 
legitimate and logical successor, and there was 
hearty public commendation when Governor 
Croswell appointed him to the vacant seat. Sen- 
ator Baldwin's term of office was brief, cover- 
ing two sessions of congress. But there, as 
elsewhere, he was methodical, industrious and 
far-seeing. He did excellent work in behalf 
of his state as a member of the committee on 
commerce and inaugurated the legislation 
which gave to Detroit its present magnificent 
federal building. While a member of the sen- 
ate he was elected chairman of the Republican 
state central committee, and served in that posi- 
tion during 1880-1. 

What the Protestant Episcopal church in De- 
troit and Michigan owes to Governor Baldwin 
never can be expressed in words, and few 
laymen have been more prominent and influen- 
tial in the work of the church at large than 
was he. In a memorial address delivered by 
Hon. William R. Bates at a joint convention of 
the two houses of the state legislature, Febru- 
ary 28, 1893, the following pertinent sentiments 
were uttered : 

"As a churchman Governor Baldwin was 
known and respected wherever the Episcopal 
church existed in this country, for all his long 
life he was most intimately connected with 
church work and had the confidence and per- 
sonal friendship of the bishops and clergymen 
of that faith. He was one of the fathers of the 
Episcopal church in Detroit, always active in 
her interests and always liberal — far beyond 
his means in some instances, for Governor 
Baldwin never was a millionaire — and when 
he donated the ground and later furnished 
most of the money for the beautiful St. John's 
church in Detroit, it was taken from his cap- 
ital. Over twenty years ago when he retired 
from active business, (he retired in 1861 but 
his name was retained in the business until 
1878) he made a rule to spend all of his in- 
come each year, and a very large proportion 
of it went to aid struggling churches and in- 
digent church people. His aid was not con- 
fined to the church ; to others he was liberal 
to a fault; as Burke said of Herbert, he 're- 
membered the forgotten.' He was a studious 



man and read much. As a traveler he had 
visited nearly every land, and his reminiscences 
were very interesting." From the age of 
twenty-seven years until his death Governor 
Baldwin represented his parish in the diocesan 
conventions and was also a member of the 
standing committee. In 1844, at the age of 
thirty, he was elected a deputy to the general 
convention of the church, and he served in 
that capacity at every succeeding convention 
until he closed his long and distinguished 
service with that of 1892, the year of his death. 
In a tribute offered to his memory by Right 
Rev. Thomas F. Davies, bishop of the diocese 
of Michigan, appear these words : "There was 
something almost sublime in his fidelity to duty. 
Of slight figure and delicate constitution, he 
was often prostrated by severe illness and could 
never be called a strong or vigorous man. But 
his resolute will triumphed over the weakness 
of his body, and again and again he would sur- 
prise his friends by being at his post of duty 
when most men would have deemed it an im- 
possibility to make the exertion." Soon after 
his locating in Detroit Governor Baldwin be- 
came a vestryman and later became a warden 
of St. Paul's church, then representing the only 
local parish, and in 1858 he was the foremost 
in the founding of the new parish of St. John's, 
of which he was a warden thereafter until his 
death, loved and revered by all church folk in 
his home city and state. At the time of his 
demise the entire state mourned the loss of one 
of its most honored citizens, and the various 
organizations with which he had been or was 
at the time identified passed resolutions of me- 
morial tribute, while the people of his home 
city manifested a deep sense of personal be- 
reavement. A strong, true, noble man, it is 
certain that "his works do follow him." 

Governor Baldwin was promiently identified 
with banking history in Detroit, and to his 
wisdom and administrative ability the financial 
stability of the city was largely due in many 
crucial periods. In all that made for the social, 
and civic advancement of Detroit he main- 
tained an abiding interest and his aid was 
given liberally to those enterprises representa- 
tive of the high civic ideals. Henry Porter 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



279 



Baldwin died on the 31st of December, 1892, 
and none better merited the "peace that passeth 
all understanding." 

Governor Baldwin was twice married, his 
first union having been with Harriet M. Day, 
of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, whom he wedded 
about the year 1835 and whose death occurred 
in 1865. Of their several children only one 
attained to years of maturity, Percy Baldwin, 
who became the wife of Lieutenant George W. 
Rose, of the United States Army, and whose 
death occurred in 1896. In 1866 was solemn- 
ized the marriage of Governor Baldwin to 
Miss Sibyl Lambard, of Augusta, Maine, and 
they became the parents of one son and three 
daughters. The son is deceased, and the 
daughters are : Sibyl, who is the wife of Har- 
rison B. Wright, of Bala, Pennsylvania; 
Katharine, who is the wife of Walter P. Bliss, 
of New York city; and Mary L., who is the 
wife of Wyllys Terry, of New York. The only 
representative of the family in Detroit at the 
present time is the Governor's nephew and 
namesake, Henry P. Baldwin, with whom his 
relations were most intimate and paternal and 
who has assumed charge of many local in- 
terests formerly owned by the subject of this 
tribute. Of him individual mention is made 
on other pages of this work. 



FREDERICK BUHL. 

Within the pages of this publication will be 
found mention of those representative citizens 
who have been the founders and builders of 
Detroit, and among those meriting a place of 
distinction is the subject of this memoir, who 
was one of the pioneer merchants of the city 
and who was a citizen of sterling worth, hold- 
ing a commanding place in the esteem and con- 
fidence of the community in which were cen- 
tered for so long a period of years his various 
interests. He was a man of forceful individu- 
ality and played a large part in the business 
affairs of the Michigan metropolis, with whose 
annals the name is most conspicuously identi- 
fied, both through his life and labors and those 
of his brother, the late Christian H. Buhl, as 
•well as bv reason of the standing of the pres- 



ent generation in the civic and business life 
of the city. 

Mr. Buhl was a native of the old Keystone 
state of the Union, having been born in Butler 
county, Pennsylvania, on the 27th of Novem- 
ber, 1806, and being the second son in a family 
of eleven children. His parents were of sturdy 
German ancestry and the Buhl family was 
founded in Pennsylvania in the colonial epoch. 
The parents were natives of the kingdom of 
Saxony, Germany, where they were reared to 
maturity and they immigrated to America prior 
to their marriage. 

Owing to the conditions and exigencies of 
time and place, the subject of this review was 
afforded but meager educational advantages in 
his youth, but his strong natural mentality and 
his keen powers of observation and assimila- 
tion enabled him to effectually overcome this 
early handicap. At the age of sixteen years 
Mr. Buhl left his native county and went to 
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of 
learning the jeweler's trade, but his health be- 
came precarious and he did not long follow 
this vocation. In 1833 he came to Detroit, 
having first gone to Chicago, with which place 
he was not favorably impressed. In Detroit 
he entered into partnership with his brother, 
Christian H., of whom individual mention is 
made in this volume. They here engaged in 
the fur and hat business, building up a most 
flourishing enterprise, and the firm of F. & C. 
H. Buhl continued in existence for more than 
twenty years. Their operations in the handling 
of furs steadily broadened and strengthened 
and eventually covered the entire northwest. 
In 1842 they joined the successors of the 
American Fur Company in the purchasing of 
furs throughout Canada and the states border- 
ing on the Great Lakes, and they carried on 
a very extensive and profitable business under 
the original firm name until 1855, when Chris- 
tian H. Buhl retired, to enter the hardware 
business. Thereafter Frederick Buhl contin- 
ued the business in an individual way, becom- 
ing one of the largest shippers of furs in the 
country, as well as an importer and manufac- 
turer of furs. The enterprise was conducted 
under the title of F. Buhl & Company and the 



280 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



concern gained a wide reputation for reliability 
and for the great scope of its operations. Mr. 
Buhl severed his active association vi^ith the 
business in February, 1887, when he sold his 
interest in the same to his son Walter, after 
which time the industry was conducted under 
the name of Walter Buhl & Company until 
1898, when the business was sold to Edwin S. 
George. 

Frederick Buhl was a man of great business 
sagacity and of most progressive ideas, and as 
a citizen he stood for all that was useful and 
loyal, taking an abiding interest in all that 
made for the advancement and material and 
civic prosperity of Detroit. He served his city 
as mayor in 1848, and the record of his admin- 
istration is one which lends perpetual honor 
to him and to the municipality. He was one 
of the original directors of the Merchants' Ex- 
change and Board of Trade, which was or- 
ganized in 1847, and was active in its work, as 
was he also in other organizations whose ob- 
ject was the promotion of the business and 
social interests of Detroit. He was a mem- 
ber of the directorate of the State Bank for 
a number of years, and was a director of the 
Second National Bank of Detroit at the time 
of his demise. He was prominently identified 
with the providing of street-railway facilities 
in the city and was for some time president of 
the Fort Wayne & Elmwood Railway Com- 
pany. He rendered valuable service as presi- 
dent of Harper Hospital, one of the noble in- 
stitutions of Detroit, and his contributions to 
the same were munificent. His political al- 
legiance was given to the Republican party and 
his religious faith was that of the Presbyterian 
church, of which he was a zealous and consist- 
ent member, having been for many years an 
elder in the Fort Street Presbyterian church. 
He was a man of clean mind, clean heart and 
consequently clean life, so that his influence 
was beneficent in whatever direction it was ex- 
erted. Mr. Buhl's death occurred on the 12th 
of May, 1890, and the record of his life and 
labors merits a place of honor in every publi- 
cation whose province is the consideration of 
those men who have been factors in the best 
business and social life of Detroit. 



In 1836 was solemnized the marriage of 
Frederick Buhl to Miss Matilda Beatty, who, 
like himself, was a native of Butler county, 
Pennsylvania, and whose death occurred on 
the 1st of March, 1884. They became the par- 
ents of five children, concerning whom the fol- 
lowing brief record is given. Frederick A. en- 
listed at the inception of the civil war, became 
captain of his company in the First Michigan 
Volunteer Infantry, and served as such until 
he received the disabling wound which resulted 
in his death, at Annapolis, Maryland, Septem- 
ber 15, 1864: he was wounded in the groin at 
Gettysburg, was mortally wounded at Shep- 
ardstown and died at the age of twenty-one 
years. Walter Buhl is now living retired in 
Detroit. Frederica is the widow of James H. 
Ford, who was a representative business man 
of Detroit. Grace is the widow of Addison 
Moffat. Harry C. died, leaving two children. 



JAMES McMillan. 

In tracing the history of lives conspicuous 
for their achievements, the most interesting 
feature of the study is to find the key to the 
problem of their success. The more critically 
exact this study becomes, the more convincingly 
certain it is that the key is in the man himself. 
Usually men who achieve most, do it against 
the very obstacles before which other men suc- 
cumb. They gain it not more through special 
gifts than from the rallying of every gift and 
the full equipment of mind and body into 
the service of their purposes. The late 
Senator James McMillan, of Detroit, illus- 
trated in a very marked degree the power 
of concentrating the resources of the en- 
tire man and lifting them into the sphere of 
high achievement; of supplementing brilliant 
natural endowments by close application, im- 
pregnable integrity and marked tenacity of pur- 
pose. Along the manifold lines in which he 
directed his splendid energies and abilities,— 
as a business man, as a citizen and as a states- 
man,— he made of success not an accident but 
a logical result. Not yet have sufficient years 
elapsed since he was called from the scene of 
his fruitful labors, to enable us to gain a clear 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



281 



definition of the perspective of his life and 
thereby determine the full benefits of his serv- 
ices to the world. He was much to Michigan, 
even as Michigan was much to him, and in 
private life and exalted public office he was 
ever mindful of the claim of his home city and 
state. No work touching the lives of those 
who have been potent in connection with the 
upbuilding of Detroit can be consistent with 
itself without rendering a large measure of 
grateful recognition to him who is the subject 
of this brief memoir. 

James McMillan was a scion of most sturdy 
Scottish lineage, and in his character exempli- 
fied many of the sterling characteristics of the 
race from which he was sprung. He was born 
in Hamilton, province of Ontario, Canada, on 
the 1 2th of May, 1838, and his death occurred 
in the city of Detroit on the loth of August, 
1902, at which time he was a member of the 
United States senate. He was a son of Will- 
iam and Grace McMillan, who were born and 
reared in Scotland, where their marriage was 
solemnized and where they continued to reside 
until 1836, when they immigrated to America, 
with the intention of establishing a home in the 
state of Illinois. En route, however, they vis- 
ited friends in Hamilton, Ontario, and finally 
decided to make permanent location in that 
city. Of the father of Senator McMillan the 
following has been written : "William McMil- 
lan was a man of exceptionally strong and sym- 
metrical character and of the highest integrity. 
His business interests were wide and his identi- 
fication with many important enterprises made 
his name well known throughout Ontario." He 
became specially interested in railway business, 
and from the inception of the Great Western 
Railway until his death, in 1877, he was con- 
nected with the same. He prospered in his 
business and was prominent in civic and church 
affairs. The McMillan home, if somewhat 
stern in discipline, after the fashion of those 
days, was one of comfort, intelligence and 
piety. The mother of Senator McMillan sur- 
vived her honored husband by several years 
and both were laid to rest in Hamilton. 

James McMillan was afforded the advan- 
tages of the Hamilton Grammar School, a 



preparatory institution maintained as a vir- 
tual adjunct of Toronto College, and in this 
school he was favored in having as an in- 
structor Dr. Tassie, an educator of marked 
ability and high reputation. The natural in- 
clinations of the youth, however, were in the 
direction of a business career, and after^re- 
ceiving good practical training in the school 
mentioned, he voluntarily withdrew when but 
fourteen years of age, in order that he might 
initiate his busmess career. He secured em- 
ployment in a hardware establishment in his 
native city and there devoted four years to 
learning the details of the business. 

In the year 1855 James McMillan, then sev- 
enteen years of age, came to Detroit from 
Hamilton, Ontario. Upon his arrival in the 
Michigan metropolis he presented letters of 
introduction to several of the influential mer- 
chants of the city, and with one of these he 
forthwith secured a place in the line of busi- 
ness to which he had been trained. Later, 
through the influence of his father, the young 
man became purchasing agent of the Detroit 
& Milwaukee Railroad. This place he gave 
up for a time, in order to accept a highly re- 
sponsible position with the railroad contractor 
who was finishing the western portion of that 
road. In 1864 his business ability led a firm 
of car builders in Detroit to seek him for a 
partner in their slender enterprise. The late 
John S. Newberry also joined in the partner- 
ship, and under Mr. McMillan's active and 
energetic supervision the Michigan Car Com- 
pany grew to be one of the great manufactur- 
ing concerns of the country, putting forth 
branches like the Detroit Car Wheel Com- 
pany, the Detroit Iron Furnace Company, the 
Baugh Steam Forge Company, and the De- 
troit Pipe & Foundry Company, — in all of 
which establishments between five and six 
thousand men were employed. 

One success leading to another, vessel build- 
ing at the Detroit Dry Dock Company's works, 
passenger transportation between Cleveland, 
Detroit and Mackinac and further lake trans- 
portation by me-ns of fast freighters, felt the 
controlling hand of Mr. McMillan. He was 
also the leading spirit in the semi-political 



282 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



railroad project to link the upper peninsula 
of Michigan to the lower by the road that is 
now the Duluth. South Shore & Atlantic; and 
it was his energy and money that carried the 
enterprise through, after death had removed 
several of his associates and when other ob- 
stacles seemed for a time insuperable. Of this 
road Mr. McMillan was president at the time 
he entered the United States senate, and he 
resigned the office shortly afterward. Always 
ready to take hold of new enterprises, like' the 
introduction of the telephone in Michigan and 
natural gas in Detroit, there never was a time 
that Senator McMillan did not have leisure 
for social pleasures or money for charity and 
philanthropy. Extensive foreign travel aided 
in cultivating a naturally refined taste and led 
him to take a deep and intelligent interest in 
the Detroit Museum of Art, of which institu- 
tion he was president for several years. 

Prompted by that appreciation and gener- 
osity which were a part of his very nature, Mr. 
McMillan gave to the University of Michigan 
a comprehensive Shakespeare library, and built 
for the Presbyterian students at that institu- 
tion a fine hall, to be used in connection with 
theological training. He also erected a large 
dormitory at the Mary Allen Seminary, an 
institution for the education of colored girls, 
at Crockett, Texas; and to Albion College, a 
Methodist Episcopal institution, at Albion, 
Michigan, he gave the splendid chemical labo- 
ratory building which bears his name. As the 
result of a careful consideration of the needs 
of his home city, he planned a free hospital 
for Detroit, and, in association with his part- 
ner, the late John S. Newberry, erected the 
Grace Hospital, on land set apart for such pur- 
pose by the late Amos Chaffee. The hospital 
was later amply endowed by Mr. McMillan 
and others, and he was its president at the 
time of his death. His private benevolences 
were large, but invariably discriminating and 
unostentatious, and his influence and aid were 
given most generously to all objects making 
for the progress and prosperity of Detroit. 

Mr. McMillan ever gave an unqualified al- 
legiance to the Republican party and was an 
able exponent of its principles and policies. 



His rare faculty of gaining and retaining the 
good will and esteem of men led Hon. Zacha- 
riah Chandler to secure his aid on the state 
central committee of the party, and years later, 
in 1886, when the party was very much in 
need of his services, he became chairman of 
that committee, — a position which he held 
almost continuously until he declined a re- 
election, in 1896. In recognition of these serv- 
ices, implying the successful maneuvering of 
forces in the various campaigns, the Republi- 
cans of the legislature in 1889 unanimously 
selected Mr. McMillan as United States sena- 
tor, and in 1895 he was re-elected to the sen- 
ate by a unanimous vote in the legislature, as 
a mark of the appreciation the state had for 
his effective work in this distinguished office. 
He was elected for a third term and was a 
member of the senate at the time of his death. 

In the national senate Mr. McMillan's love 
of work and his ability to deal comprehensively 
with questions of detail, were of decided ad- 
vantage on the committees of commerce, post- 
offices and post-roads, naval affairs, and, es- 
pecially, on the District of Columbia com- 
mittee, in the chairmanship of which last he 
succeeded Senator Ingalls. At the same time 
his familiarity with the great industries of 
Michigan enabled him to be of service to his 
state, particularly when river and harbor mat- 
ters were under consideration. He continued 
in the harness until his death, and his term 
in the senate would have expired in 1907. His 
was a valiant soul, and the battle of life brought 
to him high honors worthily achieved. His 
was a strong character and one whose in- 
fluence is ever widening in the lives of those 
whom it touched. 

Upon entering the senate Mr. McMillan 
relinquished the active management of much 
of his business to his elder sons, and there- 
after he gave his time and thought mainly to 
his senatorial work, though still maintaining 
his familiarity with and control over a very 
large group of enterprises. In Washington, 
as in Detroit, Senator and Mrs. McMillan be- 
came no inconsiderable portion of the city's 
social life, and their home in the national capi- 
tal became the center of a quiet but distin- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



283 



guished hospitality. Since the death of her 
husband Mrs. McMillan has passed much of 
her time in Washington, where she still 
touches most graciously the social life of the 
capital, but she retains her affection and love 
for Detroit, a city endeared to her by the hal- 
lowed associations and memories of past years, 
and here she passes a portion of each year. 
In the year i860 Mr. McMillan was united in 
marriage to Miss Mary L. Wetmore, daugh- 
ter of C. P. Wetmore, a representative citizen 
of Detroit, and of their six children three sons 
and one daughter survived their honored 
father. Since his demise one of these sons has 
been called to the life eternal. All of the sons 
were graduated in Yale University. Follow- 
ing are brief data concerning the children: 
William C. McMillan died February 21, 1907, 
leaving a widow and two children, — James T. 
McMillan and Doris McMillan. Grace (Mc- 
Millan) Jarvis died in 1888, leaving one 
daughter,— Grace McMillan Jarvis. James 
Howard McMillan died in 1902, leaving one 
daughter,— Gladys McMillan. Amy McMil- 
lan is now Lady Harrington, of England. 
The two surviving sons are Philip H. McMil- 
lan and Francis W. McMillan. 



JACOB S. FARRAND. 

He who serves is royal. We can not afford 
to hold in light esteem those who have wrought 
nobly in the past, nor fail to accord honor to 
those who have given an heritage of worthy 
thoughts and worthy deeds. Among those 
who have stood as distinguished types of the 
world's workers, none is more worthy of men- 
tion than Jacob S. Farrand, who wrote his 
name large upon the social and business his- 
tory of Detroit and the state of Michigan and 
whose life was characterized by signal purity 
of purpose and a high sense of his stewardship. 
He was a typical American citizen, thoroughly 
in harmony with the spirit of the republic, 
making the most of his own opportunities and 
working his way upward to success and to all 
that is desirable and ennobling in life. 

Jacob S. Farrand was born in Mentz, Cayu- 
ga county, New York, on the 7th of May, 



18 1 5, and his death occurred at his home in 
Detroit, at five o'clock in the afternoon of 
April 3, 1 89 1. He was a son of Bethuel Far- 
rand, who was a blacksmith and farmer in the 
old Empire state and who was of staunch 
French-Huguenot lineage. Bethuel Farrand 
came with his family to Detroit in 1825, more 
than a decade before Michigan was admitted to 
the Union, having secured the contract for in- 
stalling a primitive system of waterworks in 
this city, which was then a frontier town. The 
family arrived in Detroit in May and in the 
following autumn removed to Ann Arbor, 
where the father was eventually chosen the 
first probate judge of Washtenaw county. In 
Ann Arbor the subject of this memoir, who 
had previously attended the common schools 
whenever opportunity afforded, first became 
identified with that line of business in which 
it was his to rise to a position of prominence 
and great success. When but twelve years of 
age Mr. Farrand secured employment in a 
drug store in the little village of Ann Arbor, 
and the next year he carried the mail on the 
usually execrable roads between that place and 
Detroit, making the trips on horseback. It 
may be said that he was one of those men 
whose minds are certain to develop in breadth 
and strength, no matter how few the specific 
educational advantages, and he effectually 
made good the handicap of early years in this 
respect. Reading, observation and close asso- 
ciation with men and affairs brought to him a 
large and diversified fund of information, giv- 
ing him a most mature and symmetrical men- 
tality. 

In 1830 Mr. Farrand took up his permanent 
residence in Detroit, where he became a clerk 
in the retail drug store of Rice & Bingham. 
Five years later, when but twenty-one years 
of age, he formed a partnership with Edward 
Bingham, of this firm, and engaged in the 
same line of enterprise. Within a short time 
thereafter he received appointment to the office 
of deputy collector of the port and district of 
Detroit, then including nearly all the United 
States shores of Lakes Huron and Michigan, 
and during the year 1841 he served as military 
secretary to the governor of Michigan, with 



284 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the rank of major. In 1845 Mr. Farrand en- 
gaged in the drug business at No. 80 Wood- 
ward avenue, and in 1859 the late Alanson 
Sheley came into the firm, which adopted the 
title of Farrand, Sheley & Company the next 
year, upon the admission of William C. Will- 
iams to the firm. In 1871 the title became 
Farrand, Williams & Company, upon the ad- 
mission of Harvey C. Clark. In the mean- 
while the concern had become one of the 
largest wholesale drug houses in the west, and 
the buildings, at the corner of Larned and 
Bates streets, erected in 1872. were conceded 
for many years to be among the largest and 
best equipped of all occupied by similar estab- 
lishments in the entire Union. The annual 
business of the concern grew to be in excess 
of one million dollars, and Mr. Farrand con- 
tinued a strong directing force in his house, 
under various changes in partnership, until the 
time when he was attacked with the illness 
which eventuated in his death. He was senior 
member of the firm of Farrand, Williams & 
Clark at the time of his demise. 
' Within the limits of a sketch of circum- 
scribed order, as must necessarily be the one 
at hand, it is impossible to do full justice to 
the life and services of so active and successful 
a man as was Jacob S. Farrand, but it will 
not be incompatible to mention the more prom- 
inent of his associations aside from that to 
which reference has already been made: He 
was a director and for fifteen years president 
of the Frst National Bank; was one of the 
incorporators and vice-president of the Wayne 
County Savings Bank; for nearly a score of 
years was president of the Michigan Mutual 
Life Insurance Company; was a director of 
the Detroit Fire & Marine Insurance Com- 
pany; treasurer of the Detroit Gaslight Com- 
pany ; for six years a member of the city board 
of education; member of the common council 
from i860 to 1864, within which period he 
served one year as president of the body and 
for a short time as acting mayor; for a quarter 
of a century he was a member of the city board 
of water commissioners, of which he was long 
president; for eight years he was a member 
and president of the board of police commis- 



sioners; was president of Harper Hospital, and 
Home and Day School governing boards, the 
Waynt County Bible Society and the Detroit 
Society for Sabbath Observance ; trustee of the 
Eastern Asylum for the Insane, a state insti- 
tution; for thirty-five years an elder in the 
First Presbyterian church of Detroit; commis- 
sioner to the Presbyterian general assembly 
in 1863, 1869, and 1873, and to the Canadian 
assembly for the last mentioned year; the Pan- 
Presbyterian council, in Edinburgh, Scotland, 
m 1877; and for many years he was receiving 
agent in Detroit for the American board of 
commissioners for foreign missions. These 
connections, even when thus briefly noted, in- 
dicate the activities of the man and the great 
scope and variety of his interests. He gave 
of his best in the furtherance of good govern- 
ment, of morality and the general uplifting of 
his fellow men. The generosity of a great 
heart animated him, and yet his judgment 
ever came into play in directing his benevo- 
lences. 

At the time of his death memorial tributes 
from the various organizations with which he 
was identified were entered with every mark 
of appreciation, and to those permitted to 
know Mr. Farrand in a more personal and in- 
timate way came a most poignant sense of per- 
sonal bereavement when he was thus called 
from the scene of life's endeavors. His efforts 
in religious and charitable works were founded 
on deep convictions of duty, and, as has before 
been stated, he had a peculiarly high sense of 
his stewardship, especially after he had gained 
so large a measure of financial success. The 
causes of religion, temperance and general 
morality lay close to his heart, and he labored 
with all of zeal and enthusiasm to do good for 
others. It is needless to say that such a life 
was eminently characterized by unselfishness. 
As a citizen and business man he left an in- 
effaceable impress upon the history of his time, 
though ever modest in his attitude and toler- 
ant in his judgment. 

From an editorial appearing in the Detroit 
Journal at the time of the death of Mr. Far- 
rand, are taken the following appreciative ex- 
tracts: "His name, prominent in a score of 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



285 



illustrious ways, was, in consequence of his 
long, upright and eminent business career, a 
household word in the state. In usefulness to 
the community he surpassed many another 
man who has filled loftier stations. Measured 
by the good he has accomplished, the evil he 
himself has forborne to do and has prevented 
others from doing, his life has been one of far 
more value than have the lives of men who 
have sought and obtained more prominent 
places and conspicuous honors. The lives of 
such men are public benefactions ; their deaths 
public calamities. He deserves a public me- 
morial whose usefulness rather than whose 
ostentation shall preserve his deeds as an ex- 
ample and incentive to his fellow men." 

On the I2th of August, 1841, was solemn- 
ized the marriage of Mr. Farrand to Miss 
Olive M. Coe, of Hudson, Ohio. Olive M. 
(Coe) Farrand was born at Vernon, Ohio, 
April 12, 1 82 1, a daughter of Rev. Harvey 
and Deborah (Eddy) Coe. On the maternal 
side she is descended from Samuel Eddy, son 
of Rev. William Eddy, of Cranbrook, Kent, 
England. Said Samuel Eddy was the first of 
the line to immigrate to America and his de- 
scendants figure prominently in colonial his- 
tory. One of these, Lawrence by name, served 
through the war of the Revolution and shared 
in the privations at Valley Forge. In the 
paternal line also Mrs. Farrand is descended 
from staunch Puritan stock, and among her 
more immediate forebears was her great-great- 
grandfather, Samuel Coe, who was a soldier 
in the Seventeenth Regiment, Continental line. 
He took part in the battles of Roxbury and 
Bunker Hill, and, being promoted to a ser- 
geancy in Captain Champion's company, Third 
Regiment, Connecticut line, he participated in 
the capture of West Point, in the battle of 
White Plains and in the storming of Stony 
Point. He was honorably discharged August 
18, 1778, after three years' service, and was 
pensioned as a sergeant. 

Rev. Harvey Coe, father of Mrs. Farrand, 
was a graduate of Williams College and was 
the second home missionary sent from Con- 
necticut to the Western Reserve. He was one 
of the founders of Western Reserve College, 



formerly located at Hudson, Ohio, and now 
established in the city of Cleveland, and was 
one of its trustees as long as he lived. Of a 
scholarly temperament, and thoroughly equip- 
ped as to mental, moral and physical qualities, 
he was an important factor in the religious, 
educational and social development of Ohio. 
Inheriting the deep religious convictions of 
her ancestors and having a strong character 
and charming personality, Mrs. Farrand came 
to Detroit and to her new home admirably 
fitted for the responsibilities she was about to 
undertake. With her husband she united with 
the First Presbyterian church, gave it the lov- 
ing services of her best years, and is today 
the oldest member of the organization. Identi- 
fied with all of the many social, charitable and 
religious societies of the church for so long a 
period, and with the Protestant Orphan 
Asylum and other philanthropic institutions of 
the city, and holding a secure and positive 
place as the central figure of an ideally happy 
home, she won and has retained the admira- 
tion and confidence of all who have come 
within the sphere of her gentle and gracious 
influence. 

Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Farrand the following brief data are entered : 
William R. is one of the interested principals 
in the Farrand Company, of Detroit, and has 
other important capitalistic interests; Jacob S., 
Jr., is an interested principal in the wholesale 
drug house of Farrand, William & Clark, and 
Olive C. is the wife of Richard P. Williams, 
likewise a representative business man of De- 
troit. An older daughter, Mary C, became 
the wife of Rev. James Lewis, a Presbyterian 
clergyman, and her death occurred December 
3, 1889. at Joliet, Illinois. 

LEWIS DAVENPORT. 

The subject of this brief memoir was a 
pioneer business man and an important citizen 
of Detroit in the early days. He was famil- 
iarly known as Captain Davenport, owing to 
his prominent identification with local marine 
affairs. 

A scion of a family founded in America in 
the early colonial days, Lewis Davenport him- 



286 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



self was a native of Petersham, Massachusetts, 
where he was born on the 20th of May, 1795, 
being a son of John and Eunice (Hawk) 
Davenport, both of whom were hkewise born 
in Petersham. 

The founder of the family in America was 
Thomas Davenport, who came from Wey- 
mouth, England, on the ship "Abigail," reach- 
ing Salem, Massachusetts, September 6, ,1628. 
He became a large landholder in Dorchester, 
which is now the city of Boston, and was a 
man of influence in the community. He served 
as freeman in 1642 and as constable in 1670. 
His death occurred November 9, 1685. O^ 
his nine children the next in order of direct 
descent to the subject of this memoir was 
Charles Davenport, who was born in Dorches- 
ter, Massachusetts, September 7, 1652, and 
who died February i, 1720. Charles Daven- 
port married Waitstill Smith, and they became 
the parents of eight children. He served as 
selectman from 1700 to 1714, and held other 
offices of local trust, besides serving as an 
ensign. The next in order of direct descent 
was Charles Davenport, born in Dorchester, 
February 15, 1700. His son Thomas was 
born at Worcester, Massachusetts, April 19, 
1736, and died in Petersham in March, 1818, 
that state. He was a minute man at the incep- 
tion of the Revolutionary war, serving eight 
days after the battle of Bunker Hill and later 
serving six months as a "coat man." His 
total term of service as a soldier in the struggle 
for independence extended from 1775 to 1778, 
and from July to September of the latter year 
he held the office of sergeant in his company. 

His son John, the father of the subject of 
this memoir, was born July 31, 1761, in Peter- 
sham, and was reared to maturity in Massa- 
chusetts, whence he moved to the state of New 
York. In 1776 he served under General 
Bailey as one of the "Green Mountain Boys," 
at the inception of the war of the Revolution, 
and when he had attained to maturer years it 
was his to render valiant service as a soldier 
in the war of 181 2, in which he was a member 
of Captain Rally's company in a command 
known as Forsythe's sharpshooters, from New 
York state. He removed from his native state 



to Grand Island, Vermont, thence to Messena 
Springs, New York, and from the latter point 
to Green Springs, Ohio. He passed the clos- 
ing years of his life at Winamac, Indiana, 
where he died in 1838, at the age of seventy- 
eight years. 

Lewis Davenport was reared in New York 
and Ohio and received such advantages as 
were afiforded in the common schools of his 
day. As a young man he came to Detroit, 
where he engaged in mercantile pursuits, to 
which he devoted his attention for a number 
of years, eventually extending his interests into 
other fields of enterprise. He established the 
first steamboat ferry between Detroit and 
Windsor. He owned and placed in commis- 
sion for this service the vessel known as "The 
United," which was under command of Cap- 
tain Jim Forbes for many years. Captain 
Davenport continued to be identified with the 
operation of the ferry line until his death, 
which occurred at his home in Detroit, on the 
8th day of September, 1848. 

On the 26th day of January, 1826, Captain 
Davenport was united in marriage to Miss 
Sarah Horner, a daughter of Archibald and 
Elizabeth (Thorn) Horner, the former of 
whom was one of the pioneer merchants of 
Detroit. Mrs. Horner was a daughter of Cap- 
tain William Thorn, who commanded a British 
vessel on the Great Lakes during the war of 
1 81 2 and who died at Port Huron, Michigan, 
in 1842, at the patriarchal age of ninety-nine 
years. Mrs. Sarah (Horner) Davenport was 
born in the year 1810, and she survived her 
husband by three decades, her death occurring 
October 22, 1879. She was a woman of high 
character and many virtues. She lived a 
romantic life among the early settlers and the 
Indians, was married very young, and lived to 
occupy a conspicuous place among the noble 
Christian women of Detroit, with children and 
grand-children gathered about her. 

A brief record of the children which grew 
to maturity of Lewis and Sarah (Horner) 
Davenport is as follows : Anna became the wife 
of Dr. George B. Russel, a distinguished phy- 
sician, and died June 8, 1888, (a memoir of 
Dr. Russel is published in this work) ; Lewis 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



287 



Davenport was a practicing physician, and died 
October 22, 1879, the same day as his mother; 
Sarah married Henry A. Wight, a prominent 
lumber merchant of Detroit, and died Septem- 
ber 6, 1901 ; Matilda C. who now resides in 
Detroit is the widow of General John A. King, 
United States Army, a soldier whose name is 
honored in the history of the state and nation. 



CHARLES A. DUCHARME. 

An enormous amount of vital strength has 
been used in the upbuilding of the city of 
Detroit, and this dynamic or energizing force 
has been the means through which the name 
and prestige of the city and the state have been 
carried to the furthermost corners of the 
world. The industrial growth of the Michigan 
metropolis has been on the whole one of some- 
what slow but substantial order, but within 
the past decade the advancement has been 
almost marvellous, though it stands as the 
diametrical result of the combined efforts and 
powers of its representative business men, 
among whom the subject of this sketch occu- 
pies a prominent and secure place, being 
second vice-president and secretary of the 
Michigan Stove Company, the most gigantic 
concern of the sort in the world, throughout 
the most diverse sections of which its trade 
penetrates. Mr. Ducharme is a son of the 
late and honored pioneer of Detroit, Charles 
Ducharme, a tribute to whose life and services 
appears on other pages of this work, so that 
a further review of the family history is not 
demanded in connection with the present 
article. 

Charles Albert Ducharme has well upheld 
the prestige of the name in his native city and 
here his capitalistic interests are of varied 
order and of distinctive importance, even aside 
from that represented by the company just 
mentioned. He was born in Detroit, on the 
22d of September, 1858, and in addition to 
the beneficent influences and surroundings of 
a home of unequivocal culture and refinement, 
he early began to take advantage of the public 
schools, in which he secured his rudimentary 
educational discipline. This was supplemented 
by thorough study in Patterson's private 



school, Detroit, in which excellent institution 
he remained during seven school years. Later 
he was for some time a student in the Michi- 
gan Military Academy, at Orchard Lake, and 
after leaving the same he was given the broad- 
ening advantages of nearly a year of travel 
in Europe. 

On the 4th of August, 1879, he became a 
clerical employe in the offices of the Michigan 
Stove Company, of which his father had been 
one of the founders and the first president, and 
he has ever since been actively identified with 
the business. On the 28th of September, 1882, 
he was elected purchasing agent of the con- 
cern; on the 17th of January, 1887, was ad- 
vanced to the responsible position of secretary ; 
and on the 26th of January, 1903, while re- 
taining the office of secretary, he was also 
made second vice-president, of which two 
positions he has since continued the incum- 
bent. His influence in connection with the up- 
building of this giant industrial enterprise has 
been of no indefinite type and he has developed 
the most admirable powers of generalship and 
administrative finesse, so that he stands un- 
equivocally as one of Detroit's veritable cap- 
tains of industry, as well as one of her most 
loyal citizens. The "Greater Detroit" to Mr. 
Ducharme symbolizes what he knows is pos- 
sible of accomplishment and his aid and co- 
operation have been and continue to be given 
in the promotion of those measures and enter- 
prises which are conserving the advancement 
of the city to a still higher position as a com- 
mercial and industrial center. He is a member 
of the directorate of each the Union Trust 
Company, the People's State Bank, the Detroit 
Fire & Marine Insurance Company, and the 
Ireland & Matthews Manufacturing Company. 
He gained much by financial inheritance but 
has amplified and extended his interests 
through personal effort and executive force, 
having various other capitalistic investments 
in addition to those already mentioned and 
being the owner of valuable realty in his native 
city and elsewhere. 

Though never a seeker of public office Mr. 
Ducharme has the fullest measure of civic 
pride and appreciation and in politics he gives 
allegiance to the Republican party. Socially, 



288 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



as in business, his position is a secure and 
admirable one, and he is identified with vari- 
ous local organizations of a representative 
character, including the Detroit Club, the 
Yondotega Club, the Country Club, the De- 
troit Automobile Club and the Huron Moun- 
tain Club, of which last he is a director. In 
a less localized way he is a member of the 
Society of Sons of the American Re-volution 
and of the Society of Colonial Wars in the 
State of Michigan, of which latter he was one 
of the organizers, serving several years as its 
secretary. 

On the 8th of June, 1881, Mr. Ducharme 
was united in marriage to Miss Caroline B. 
Philbrick, daughter of Elbridge G. and Mary 
(Packer) Philbrick, of Detroit, and the two 
children of this union are Charles B., who 
was born July 29, 1882, and Harold, who was 
born Ma) ^22, 1884. 



DAVID WHITNEY, JR. 

"He coveted success but scorned to attain it 
except through industry and honest means. 
He acquired wealth without fraud or deceit, 
and the results of his life are full of inspira- 
tion to the rising generation." These are sig- 
nificant words, and they were written concern- 
ing the subject of this memoir at the time of 
his death, which occurred on the 28th of No- 
vember, 1900. He was a dominating factor 
in connection with the material development 
and progress of the city of Detroit and the 
state of Michigan, and no shadow rests upon 
any portion of his career now that he has been 
called from the scenes and labors of this mor- 
tal life. His success, and it was great, was 
largely attained through his connection with 
the lumbering industry, and he was essentially 
the architect of his own fortune. He was re- 
served and reticent, never courting or desir- 
ing public notice, and evading the same by 
every legitimate and courteous means. But 
now that a perspective view of his career in 
its entirety may be gained, it is but consistent 
that at least a brief record of his life history 
be entered in a work of the province assigned 
to the one at hand. 

David Whitney, Jr., was born at Westford, 



Massachusetts, on the 23d of August, 1830, 
and his parents were likewise natives of the 
old Bay state, where the respective families 
were early founded. He bore the full patro- 
nymic of his father and retained the "junior" 
after his name ever after his father's death, — 
perhaps as a mark of perpetual honor to the 
latter. David Whitney, Sr., was a man of 
energy and resourcefulness, sturdy in the rec- 
titude of his character and endowed with that 
capacity for consecutive application which 
ever designates the true New England type. 
He was the owner of a good farm and was 
also interested in lumbering and brick-making 
on a small scale. He was a man of prominence 
and influence in his community. 

The subject of this memoir was reared un- 
der the invigorating discipline of the farm, 
from whose fields and forests have come some 
of the strongest characters in our nation's his- 
tory, and his early educational training was 
secured in the common schools. From his 
boyhood he knew labor, and during the entire 
course of his life he never failed in appreciation 
of its dignity and value, realizing that skilled 
hands and industry constitute the master key 
of success and progress. Upon attaining to 
his legal majority Mr. Whitney left the farm 
and became clerk for a lumber firm which 
conducted a yard and box factory. He re- 
mained with this concern three years and 
within this period he gained considerable ex- 
perience which proved of value to him in his 
later business career. At the time of his resig- 
nation he was superintendent of the business, 
and after his retirement he instituted an inde- 
pendent career in connection with the lumber 
industry. 

Mr. Whitney's success in these earlier years 
had not been of spectacular order but rested 
upon the firm foundation of energy, integrity 
and work. In 1857, at the age of twenty-nine, 
Mr. Whitney came to Detroit, and from the 
time of his arrival he was a member of the 
firms of C. & D. Whitney, Jr., and Skillings, 
Whitney Brothers & Barnes, in each of which 
concerns his brother Charles was an interested 
principal : the headquarters of the two firms 
were maintained in the east. He assumed per- 



I 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



289 



sonal charge and management of their western 
business, which consisted principally in buying 
and shipping lumber and the purchase of pine 
lands and logs. For a time the two firms were 
numbered among the largest lumber dealers in 
the Union, and the subject of this sketch had 
charge of the extensive operations in Michi- 
gan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, while his part- 
ners supervised the interests in the greater por- 
tion of the east, including Canada. In the late 
'70s each of these firms dissolved partnership, 
and thereafter David Whitney, Jr., gave his 
attention more largely to investing in pine 
lands, principally in Michigan and Wisconsin. 
He had the prescience to determine how great 
must be the eventual appreciation in the value 
of such properties, and he grew to be one of 
the most extensive lumber operators in the two 
states mentioned. He was interested in the 
manufacturing of timber products and became 
the owner of large tracts of valuable timber 
land, from the development of which he gained 
his position as one of the millionaires of 
Michigan. The history of the great lumber 
industry of this state leaves record of his great 
and masterful operations. 

Throughout the major portion of his busi- 
ness career in Michigan Mr. Whitney also had 
large investments in connection with lake- 
marine transportation, having owned a large 
fleet of steam barges and consorts. His fleet 
was utilized principally in the lumber trade, but 
it also came into effective requisition in the 
shipping of iron ore from the Lake Superior 
ports to manufacturing and distributing cen- 
ters on the lower lakes. He continued to be 
the holder of valuable timber tracts until his 
death, and also made large investments and 
improvements in Detroit realty. He was a 
stockholder and director in many banking in- 
stitutions, and was also numbered among the 
stockholders of a large number of important 
industrial corporations, and was the owner of 
manufacturing plants in connection with the 
lumber industry. Mr. Whitney did much for 
Detroit in the development and improvement 
of his real-estate holdings and was never lack- 
ing in loyalty and public spirit of a practical 
order. He was a staunch supporter of the 



cause of the Republican party and was a con- 
sistent member of the Presbyterian church, to 
whose support he contributed in liberal meas- 
ure. In a thoroughly unostentatious way he 
also gave much to worthy charitable and 
benevolent objects and institutions, as well as 
to individual persons deserving of his aid and 
sympathy. His nature was strong and true, 
with perhaps a touch of austerity; he knew 
men at their real value and had no toleration 
of deceit or meanness in any of the relations 
of life. He did not come so largely to the at- 
tention of the public eye as did many of his 
contemporaries who accomplished less and who 
did less for the world, but he felt the responsi- 
bilities which wealth and success impose and 
ever endeavored to live up to those responsi- 
bilities, in the straightforward, undemonstra- 
tive way characteristic of the man. His name 
merits an enduring place on the roster of the 
honored and valued citizens of the state of 
Michigan. 



ABRAHAM C. TRUAX. 

The names and deeds of those who have 
wrought nobly in the past should not be al- 
lowed to perish, and it is in the making of 
perpetual record concerning such persons that 
a publication of this order exercises its su- 
preme function. The name Truax is one 
which is ineffaceably traced on the history of 
Detroit and the state of Michigan and which 
figures on the pages of our national history 
from the early colonial epoch to the present 
time. Strong men and true, gentle and gra- 
cious women, have represented the name as 
one generation has followed another upon the 
stage of life, and loyalty and patriotism have 
been in distinctive evidence, while the family 
escutcheon has ever been a symbol of integ- 
rity, honor and usefulness. In America there 
have been many distinguished citizens to 
upbear the prestige of the name, and not the 
least of these was Colonel Abraham Caleb 
Truax, the Michigan pioneer to whom this 
brief memoir is dedicated. 

The Truax family in America is of French 
Huguenot extraction, and heraldic history 
shows that the family had been one of promi- 



290 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



nence and influence in France. So far as 
authentic data bear assurance, the first of the 
name in America was Philippe du Trieux, 
whose name is found attached to a legal docu- 
ment recorded in "Dutch Manuscripts," vol- 
ume II, page 27, in the archives of the de- 
partment of the secretary of state of New 
York and bearing date of October 7, 1623. 
The name has undergone various changes in 
orthography and pronunciation during the 
long intervening years, and it is a singular fact 
that the descendants in the state of New York 
invariably spell the name Truax, while those 
of New Jersey usually designate the patrony- 
mic as Truex. The coat-of-arms of the family 
is preserved by the American branch and is 
most interesting in at least an heraldic sense. 
The motto is "Bien faire et ne rien craindre," 
and the summary of the device, as interpreted 
from the heraldic symbolism, is that a knight 
or warrior, known as Dutrieu de Terdonck, 
with the rank of a peer, represented with a 
stirrup suspended from his dexter hand, won 
victory while in the stirrup on the field of bat- 
tle, and was rewarded, at different times, by 
a gold star of six radiating points. On the 
escutcheon this star appears thrice, and the 
place of honor is held by another reproduction 
of a stirrup. 

The subject of this review was a lineal 
descendant of Isaac du Trieux, or Truy, son 
of the original Philippe du Trieux, and said 
Isaac was the founder of the branch of the 
family which was established in or about 
Schenectady, New York, in the seventeenth 
century. He was one of the first settlers in 
that locality, where he and his family were 
residing at the time of the burning of the town 
and the massacreing of its inhabitants by the 
French and Indians in 1690. He it was who 
escaped and bore the news of the tragic event 
to Fort Orange, on the site of the present city 
of Albany. 

Abraham Caleb Truax was of the sixth 
generation in line of direct descent ^ from 
Philippe du Trieux, and the specific record of 
the genealogy is summarized as follows: Son 
of Caleb and Fytje (Sophia) van Patten; of 
Isaac Abramse and Engel Beck ; of Abrahamse 
and Christina de la Grange; of Isaac and 



Maria Williamse Brouwer; and of Philippe du 
Trieux and Susanna de Scheene, or de Chiney. 
Abraham Caleb Truax was born at Schen- 
ectady, New York, February 11, 1778. He 
was a cousin of Stephen Van Rensselaer, 
known as "the patron" of Albany, or Renssel- 
aerwick, whose possessions, forty-eight miles 
long, and twenty-four miles wide, extended 
over three counties. As a small boy Abraham 
C. Truax was left to the care of an uncle in 
Schenectady, where he was reared to maturity, 
having most meager educational advantages 
and eariy familiarizing himself with hard 
manual labor. His father was an ensign, or 
sergeant, in Colonel Abraham Wemple's regi- i 
ment during the war of the Revolution, and ; 
this is shown on the muster rolls in the state . 
department at Albany, New York, from No- 
vember 5, 1779, until October 29, 1781. 1 

Mr. Truax is supposed to have arrived in 
Detroit in the opening year of the nineteenth 
century, neariy forty years before the admis- 
sion of Michigan to the Union. He made the ' 
trip overiand, by the way of Canada, and after , 
locating in Detroit he followed various lines of 
business enterprise possible in the pioneer 
community, accumulating some means and in- 
vesting the same largely in local realty. Con- 
cerning the career of this steriing and sturdy 
pioneer we can not do better at this point than 
to quote from an article prepared by his 
grandson, Elliott T. Slocum, who is one of the 
representative citizens of Detroit and who is 
the subject of a specific sketch in this volume : 
"In 1812, when war was declared against 
Great Britain, being imbued with that spirit 
of patriotism which throbs the breast of every 
true, loyal Huguenot, he shouldered the old 
flintlock musket in defense of his native coun- 
try. He was with General Hull at the time 
of the surrender, and later, for meritorious 
conduct, he was commissioned captain, by 
General Cass, and in 1838 was commissioned 
colonel by Governor Stevens T. Mason. After 
peace had been declared he resumed his former 
vocation, with which the ravages of war had 
made havoc. On May 30, 1809, he purchased 
of Elijah Brush, for three hundred dollars, a 
strip of ground, on Jefferson avenue, between 
Wayne and Shelby streets, where stood the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



291 



new part of the Michigan Exchange and the 
store next to it on the west. About 1813 he 
erected on said ground a building which for 
those days was one of the best in Detroit, and 
which for many years was known as the Truax 
building. On May 11, 1815, he sold the same 
to James May, for two thousand nine hundred 
dollars. 

"In 181 7 he had estabhshed himself — 
against the opposition of many friends — upon a 
plat south of Detroit, and on the Detroit river, 
and this, after being surveyed into streets and 
village lots, offered superior inducements to 
buyers and builders alike. Thus, from a former 
chaotic wild, arose the flourishing and beauti- 
ful village of Truaxton, now Trenton, Wayne 
county, Michigan. He was the first white 
settler to erect a house in that locality and was 
known as a successful Indian trader. 

"Later in life he occupied many prominent 
federal and municipal offices. He was a pro- 
gressive business man, richly endowed with 
that sterling quality of integrity which com- 
manded respect and love from all who knew 
him. 
"The chaotic wilds, prior to the advent of 

Truax, 
Are changed since his hand leveled th' wood- 
lands. 
With axe and with adze he formed th' timbers 
To build the first house as a home for th' white 

man. 
Th' loom took th' place of the bow and th' 

arrows ; 
Th' woodlands were cleared of th' red-painted 

savage. 
And th' howl of th' wolf in th' forest is 
ended. 
"The old Truax homestead, familiarly 
designated in its palmy days as the 'Tavern' 
or the 'Half-Way House' — between Detroit 
and Monroe, — was the best known old way- 
side inn in that section of the country. It was 
erected amid Indian wigwams early in the 
nineteenth century, by Abraham C. Truax, and 
stands today as 

"An altar mark to a patriot's mind. 
Whose sword, axe, adze and wedge combined, 
Hewed, cut and raised, with a master pride, 
This old-time homestead, and thus provided 
For generations four." 



On the 24th of February, 181 7, Colonel 
Truax married Lucy Melinda Brigham, of 
Hanover, New Hampshire. She died October 
8, 1838. They had four children, only two 
of whom reached adult age. A son, George 
B. Truax, died in Detroit in 1869, after a suc- 
cessful business life; and a daughter, Sophia 
Maria Brigham Truax, who was born June 
14, 1818, at Truaxton (Trenton), Wayne 
county, Michigan, was married May 16, 1838, 
to Giles Bryan Slocum. She is still living, 
nearly ninety years of age, and spends her 
summers at the old homestead on Slocum's 
Island, and her winters in Detroit. She is a 
stately, gracious figure whose mind forms an 
indissoluble link between the pioneer epoch and 
the present day, with its opulent prosperity, 
and reverent affection is bestowed upon her 
by all who know her. In this connection ref- 
erence should be made also to the sketch of 
the life of her honored husband, whose death 
occurred in 1884. Said sketch appears on 
other pages of this work. 

Colonel Truax met his death by the explo- 
sion of the steamer "Vance," on the Detroit 
river, in 1844. His remains lie in Woodmere 
cemetery. 



THOMAS W. PALMER. 

Graven deeply and with marked distinction 
on the history of the state of Michigan are 
the name and works of Thomas W. Palmer, 
of Detroit, and now, venerable in years, he 
stands as an honored member of a striking 
group of men whose influence in the social and 
economic life of the nation has been of most 
beneficent order. 

Thomas Witherell Palmer is a native of the 
city of Detroit, where he was born on the 
25th of January, 1830, which date bears sig- 
nificant evidence of the fact that he is a scion 
of one of the pioneer families of the city and 
state. He is now the only survivor of the 
nine children of Thomas and Mary Amy 
(Witherell) Palmer. His father was born in 
Ashford, Windham county, Connecticut, on 
the 4th of February, 1789, and at the age of 
nineteen years, in company with his brother, 
who was two years his senior, he initiated his 



292 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



independent career, as an itinerant merchant, 
— a vocation common to New England at that 
time. 

In the year 1808 the two brothers, with a 
span of horses and a small stock of merchan- 
dise, left New England and made their way to 
western Canada, and later they made a per- 
manent location at Maiden, Canada, where 
they met with success and where they were 
residing at the time of the outbreak of the war 
of 1812. When the news of the initiation of 
the conflict became known in the village every 
American there, some fifteen in all, including 
the Palmer brothers, was arrested and im- 
prisoned. Some took the oath of allegiance to 
Great Britain and were then released, but the 
Palmers and five others refused to take this 
action, in consequence of which they were re- 
tained in duress for five weeks or more, after 
which they were taken over the St. Lawrence 
river to Monguagon, whence they proceeded 
on foot to Detroit, which became a strategic 
point in the war, as history well records. 
After Hull's surrender of Detroit the Palmer 
brothers returned to Maiden, on parole, and 
were there permitted to exchange their stock 
of merchandise for furs. They then returned 
to Connecticut, and a few months later they 
located at Canandaigua, New York, where 
they conducted a prosperous business until the 
close of the war, in 1814, at which time they 
had on hand a large stock of goods that had 
depreciated in value. Thomas Palmer pro- 
ceeded to Canada with this stock, of which he 
disposed to advantage, after which he made his 
way to Detroit, where he made his advent 
June 16, 1815. Here he forthwith engaged in 
business, in which he continued in partnership 
with his brother, under the original title of 
F. & T. Palmer. Prosperity followed this 
venture until 1824, when the financial crisis 
forced their liquidation, though in time they 
paid one hundred cents on every dollar of in- 
debtedness. 

In the year 1828 Thomas Palmer acquired 
a large tract of pine land in St. Clair county, 
where he built a saw mill and opened a store! 
both of which he conducted for several years.' 
In 1845 he acquired mining interests in the 
Lake Superior region, but as his operations in 



this line were not profitable he returned to 
Detroit, where he continued to reside until his 
death, which occurred on the 3d of August 
1868. ' 

In 1 82 1 was solemnized the marriage of 
Thomas Palmer to Miss Mary Amy Witherell, 
daughter of Judge James Witherell, a native 
of Mansfield, Massachusetts, who had removed 
to Fairhaven, Vermont, in which state he had 
served as circuit judge and member of the 
legislature and from which he had been sent 
as a representative in congress. He enlisted 
in the Continental army when but sixteen 
years of age and served during the entire 
period of the war of the Revolution. In 1808 ' 
he took up his abode in Detroit, having been 
appointed a judge of the territorial supreme 
court by President Jefiferson. Judge Witherell 
died in January, 1838. 

Thomas W. Palmer, the immediate subject 
of this review, passed the first twelve years of 
his life in Detroit, where he received his rudi- 
mentary education, and he was then sent to 
the village of Palmer (now the city of St. 
Clair), named in honor of his father, where • 
he entered the school conducted by Rev. O. C. 
Thompson. Upon leaving this preparatory 
institution he was matriculated in the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, where he continued his 
studies for one year, at the expiration of which 
he was compelled to withdraw, on account of 
failing eyesight, and he passed a portion of 
the succeeding year on Lake Superior, where 
he was concerned with his father's mining in- 
terests. In the meanwhile he partially re- : 
gained the strength of his eyes, and he again ' 
entered the university, but the application to ( 
his books brought about a revival of the same 
trouble, and he was compelled to relinquish 
permanently his ambition to complete the uni- , 
versify course. 

In the autumn of 1848, in company with 1 
five others. Senator Palmer — for thus' he is 
familiarly and best known — made the voyage ' 
to Spain, thereafter making a two months' 1 
trip on foot through that historic land and 
visiting many places of interest. He then 
embarked for South America, where he passed . 
three months, after which he returned home. ' 
In 1850 he went to Wisconsin, where for a 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



293 



year he was employed as agent for a lake 
transportation company. In 1851 he engaged 
in business at Appleton, that state, but met 
financial disaster through the destruction of 
his establishment by fire. 

In 1853 Mr. Palmer returned to Detroit, 
where he engaged in the real-estate business, 
in which he continued two years. In 1855 
he turned his attention to lumbering and pine 
lands, and soon formed a partnership asso- 
ciation with Charles Merrill, an extensive 
operator in this field of enterprise. For years 
the firm of C. Merrill was composed of Messrs. 
Merrill, Palmer and J. A. Whittier, with 
headquarters at East Sagiaw, and when Mr. 
Merrill died, in 1872, the same firm name 
was retained, his interest being retained by 
his only daughter, the wife of the subject of 
this sketch. During the long intervening 
years Senator Palmer has continued to be 
largely interested in the lumbering industry, 
through which he has amassed a fortune, and 
his other capitalistic investments are of wide 
scope and importance. His is one of the larg- 
est estates of Michigan and he has ever ad- 
ministered its affairs with distinctive ability. 

Senator Palmer has been aligned as a 
staunch supporter of the principles of the Re- 
publican party from the time of its formation 
to the present, and he has been marked for 
leadership in its ranks. He was never a can- 
didate for office until 1873, when he was 
chosen a member at large of the first board 
of estimates of the city of Detroit. In 1878 
he declined the nomination for congress, but 
at the earnest solicitation of his friends he 
accepted the nomination for state senator, and 
was elected. While a member of the senate 
he introduced and pushed to its passage the 
bill creating the state industrial school for 
girls, at Adrian, and was largely instrumental 
in securing the passage of a bill providing for 
a boulevard system in Detroit. While a mem- 
ber of the senate he served as chairman of the 
Republican legislative caucus that nominated 
Zachariah Chandler for the national senate. 

In 1883 Senator Palmer was elected to the 
United States senate, to succeed Thomas W. 
Ferry. He earnestly championed the cause of 
the homesteaders of the northern peninsula of 



Michigan in their fight against the various 
land and mining companies that assailed their 
rights, and in the senate he also delivered the 
first set speech ever there given in favor of 
woman suffrage. He introduced and spoke 
in favor of the bill to restrict immigration, and 
in connection therewith prepared complete sta- 
tistics of immigration for reference, — the first 
complete record of the sort ever compiled. 

While in the senate he was largely instru- 
mental in securing the passage of the bill that 
gave the department of agriculture a repre- 
sentation in the president's cabinet. Had he 
so desired he could have been re-elected to the 
senate, but he had decided to retire from active 
politics and was not a candidate before the 
legislature. In March, 1889, Senator Palmer 
was tendered the post of minister to the court 
of Spain. This position he accepted, and with 
his wife embarked for Madrid. This diplo- 
matic position he occupied with the highest 
honor, both to himself and his country. 

The office of envoy and minister he held but 
thirteen months. He tendered his resignation 
in May, 1890, and returned home. In June 
of that year President Harrison appointed him 
one of the commissioners at large of the 
World's Columbian Exposition, and upon the 
meeting of that body, June 27th, he was unani- 
mously elected its president, — an office for 
which his executive ability and his varied ex- 
periences as an organizer most eminently 
fitted him. He labored earnestly and zealously 
for the success of the exposition, and to his 
sound judgment and accurate, discriminating 
mind a large portion of its success may be 
ascribed. As a public speaker Senator Palmer 
enjoys a high reputation. 

Senator Palmer was the first to suggest the 
erection of a soldier's monument in Detroit, 
and was the first secretary of the organization 
that secured the erection of the fine memorial on 
the Campus Martius. He was one of the pro- 
jectors, founders and the first president of the 
Detroit Museum of Art, to which he has con- 
tributed sixteen thousand dollars. He reveres 
the memory of his mother, and as a tribute to 
her he contributed in large measure, in 1888, 
to the erection of the Mary W. Palmer Me- 



294 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



morial church, Methodist Episcopal, in De- 
troit. 

A sketch of Senator Palmer's life would be 
incomplete without more than a cursory ref- 
erence to his "Log Cabin," which has a na- 
tional reputation. The environs of Detroit, 
beautiful as they are, can show few, if any, 
scenes more beautiful than the site of the "Log 
Cabin," seven miles north of the city. The 
cabin itself is built after the style of the old 
colonial log houses, but the superior workman- 
ship of its construction and the elaborate finish 
of its interior made its total cost exceed ten 
thousand dollars. To Mr. Palmer the value 
of the various articles of domestic utility which 
he has stored here can not be estimated in 
money. Adjoining the log cabin is a dense 
forest, which remains untrammeled by the 
march of civilization that years ago reached it 
and passed on. In the cultivation and care of 
this property, comprising more than six hun- 
dred acres, Mr. Palmer has found a great in- 
terest and satisfaction. He finally sold a 
portion of this tract to a syndicate, and then, 
with characteristic munificence, made a free 
gift of the remainder, worth probably a quarter 
of a million dollars, to Detroit for park pur- 
poses. This greatly appreciated beauty spot 
is known as Palmer Park. 

On the i6th of October, 1855, was solemn- 
ized the marriage of Mr. Paumer to Miss 
Elizabeth P. Merrill, daughter of his partner, 
Charles Merrill. They have no children of 
their own, but while in Spain they adopted a 
little Spanish boy, who has since remained in 
their home. 



HUGH McMillan. 

No name is more familiar in connection with 
the civic and industrial history of Detroit than 
that of McMillan, and the name has farther 
stood for the highest type of citizenship. One 
of the prominent and influential representa- 
tives of the McMillan family in Detroit was 
the late Hugh McMillan, younger brother of 
the late United States Senator James McMil- 
lan, and he won marked distinction in the es- 
tablishing and upbuilding of a number of the 
most solid and extensive business enterprises 



in the Michigan metropolis and elsewhere in 
the state, being a man of broad capacity, 
strong initiative and marked administrative 
power. In his death, which occurred on the 
loth of February, 1907, Detroit and Mich- 
igan suffered the loss of one of their most 
useful business men and most honored citizens. 

Mr. McMillan was born in the city of Ham- 
ilton, province of Ontario, Canada, on the 28th 
of September, 1845, being a son of William 
and Grace McMillan, both of whom were born 
and reared in Scotland, the former having 
been a native of the city of Glasgow, where 
for several years he was engaged in mercantile 
pursuits. He was a man of exceptionally 
strong and symmetrical character and one 
whose entire course in life was dominated and 
directed by the highest principles of integrity 
and honor. In 1836 he immigrated to Amer- | 
ica and took up his residence in Hamilton, ^ 
Ontario, where he continued to make his home 
until his death, which occurred in 1874, his ' 
wife surviving him by several years. His 
business connections were wide and varied and 
his identification with many important enter- 
prises caused his name to become well known 
throughout Ontario. He was prominently 
concerned in the organization of the Great 
Western Railroad Company, of which he con- 
tinued to be an officer until his death. 

The fifth son in a family of six sons and 
one daughter, Hugh McMillan, subject of this 
memoir, was reared to maturity in his native 
place, where he was afforded the advantages of 
the public schools and also Phillips Academy, 
a well ordered institution of higher training, 
in the city of Hamilton. He was graduated 
in this academy, and though he was a close and 
appreciative student he early formulated plans 
for his future career, determining to devote his 
life to business affairs, for he had the pre- 
science to realize that herein lay his greatest 
potential. At the age of fourteen years he 
secured a clerical position in the employ of 
the Great Western Railway, and after two 
years' experience as bookkeeper in the office 
of this company he was induced to come to 
Detroit, in 1861. Here he became a clerk in 
the office of the general superintendent of the 
Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad. At the expi- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



295 



ration of three years he withdrew from the 
railway service and assumed a position as 
salesman in the hardware establishment of 
Ducharme & Prentice. With this firm he re- 
mained until 1872, when he became secretary 
of the Michigan Car Company, which was 
rapidly becoming an important industrial cor- 
poration and in which his brother, the late 
Senator James McMillan, was largely inter- 
ested. With the upbuilding of this industry 
he had much to do, as his executive ability and 
progressive ideas came into play in a most 
effective manner, while he was indefatigable 
in his efforts to promote the advancement of 
the company's interests. Several years after 
identifying himself with this company he was 
made vice-president of the same, as well as 
general manager. He was also largely inter- 
ested in the closely allied industries conducted 
under the titles of Detroit Car Wheel Com- 
pany and the Baugh Steam Forge Company, 
which were organized about the same time. 
Of the first mentioned he was vice-president 
and general manager, and of the latter was 
vice-president and treasurer. These three con- 
cerns figured most potently and conspicuously 
in connection with the industrial advancement 
of the city of Detroit. 

The scope of Mr. McMillan's productive en- 
terprise widened beyond the labors he per- 
formed in connection with the corporations 
just mentioned. He was one of the promoters 
of the Detroit, Mackinac & Marquette Rail- 
road Company, of which he was the original 
secretary and treasurer, as well as a member 
of its directorate. Within two years the com- 
pany completed the construction of a line one 
hundred and fifty miles in length and extend- 
ing through a section of the upper peninsula 
opulent in natural resources but previously lit- 
tle more than a wilderness. In the develop- 
ment of this now beautiful region, now 
marked by great industrial activity and by 
flourishing cities and towns, the line of rail- 
road thus constructed was the most potent 
factor, and its projectors showed great fore- 
sight and wisdom in carrying through the en- 
terprise, though there was much popular 
skepticism in regard to the matter at the 



time the initiative operations were instituted. 
The line was completed in 1879 and Mr. 
McMillan continued his active official connec- 
tion with the original company until 1886, 
when a syndicate of eastern and western capi- 
tahsts organized the Duluth, South Shore & 
Atlantic Railway Company, with a capital of 
ten millions of dollars, for the purpose of pur- 
chasing the road and constructing about two 
hundred additional miles of trackage, to con- 
nect it with the western terminus of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad, at Duluth, and with 
the eastern railways at Sault Sainte Marie. 
As the financial agent of this syndicate Mr. 
McMillan, in October, 1886, completed the 
negotiations for the purchase from the bond- 
holders the property of the Detroit, Mackinac 
& Marquette Railway, for a consideration in 
excess of three million dollars. In view of 
results it is unnecessary in this connection to 
enter into details as to the great benefit that 
has inured to the upper peninsula and the 
state at large through the operations of this 
company, whose lines now form a valuable 
connecting link between the eastern and west- 
ern seaboards. 

Mr. McMillan was also one of the organ- 
izers of the Michigan Telephone Company and 
his confidence and energetic efforts were 
brought into effective play in bringing the en- 
terprise to successful culmination. The com- 
pany at one time controlled the entire telephone 
business of the state and he was its secretary 
and treasurer for several years. Mr. McMil- 
lan was also one of the founders of the Com- 
mercial National Bank of Detroit, mentioned 
elsewhere in this volume, and was its president 
for twenty years, from the time of its incep- 
tion. For some time he was also a director 
and large stockholder in the State Savings 
Bank, and was a director of the Union Trust 
Company. Of other important corporations 
with which he was prominently identified men- 
tion may consistently be made, though various 
changes occurred in the control and title of cer- 
tain of them both before and after his death. 
He was president of the Detroit Dry Dock 
Company, vice-president and treasurer of the 
Detroit Iron Furnace Company and the New- 



296 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



berry Furnace Company, vice-president and 
general manager of the Detroit Pipe & Foun- 
dry Company, vice-president of the Fulton 
Iron & Engine Works and the Detroit Iron 
Mining Company, president of the Red Star 
Line of steamers, and president of the Ham- 
tramck Transportation Company. At the time 
of his demise he was a stockholder in" the De- 
troit Railroad Elevator Company, the Detroit 
& Cleveland Steam Navigation Company, of 
both of which he was treasurer at the time of 
his death, and of the Duluth & Atlantic Trans- 
portation Company, the American Steamship 
Company, and the National Steamship Com- 
pany, of which latter he was president and 
treasurer. There were no mirages in the ken 
of Mr. McMillan as a business man, and his 
judgment was almost ultimate in its wisdom, 
while his capacity for affairs of the greatest 
scope and importance seemed almost phenom- 
enal. He was not a man of limited horizon, 
however, and had deep and grateful apprecia- 
tion of the elements which make for the higher 
ideals in the scheme of human existence. He 
was broad in his information touching histori- 
cal and literary subjects, finding much of 
solace in his fine library, and he enjoyed to 
the full the company of his friends, to whom 
his loyalty was inviolable. 

In politics, though never an aspirant for 
official position, he was a staunch advocate of 
the principles of the Republican party, and his 
religious faith was indicated by his member- 
ship in the Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian 
church, in which he was an officer for many 
years. He was a popular and valued member 
of the Detroit Club, of which he served three 
terms as president, and he had the distinction 
of being one of the few Michigan men to have 
attained to the thirty-third and supreme degree 
in Scottish Rite Masonry. 

On the 2d of May, 1867, Mr. McMillan 
was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Dyar, 
whose death occurred on the 9th of February, 
1894. They became the parents of three sons 
and one daughter: Gilbert N., Alice, Harold 
D. (deceased), and Maurice B. In 1899 Mr. 
McMillan contracted a second marriage, being 
then united to Miss Josephine Warfield, a na- 



tive of Maryland, who survives him, as do also 
their two sons — Hugh, Jr., and William. 



HON. JOHN S. NEWBERRY. 

With the history of the city of Detroit the 
name of John S. Newberry was inseparably 
identified for a period of more than thirty 
years, and through all the days to come will 
there be accorded to him a tribute of honor 
as a man of high intellectualit>, sterling in- 
tegrity and pronounced business and profes- 
sional acumen, and as one who contributed in 
no small measure to the progress and prosperity 
of the beautiful metropolis of Michigan. 
Many men excel in achievements along some 
given course, but to few is it permitted to fol- 
low several lines of endeavor and stand well 
to the front in each. In the subject of this 
memoir is given a striking illustration of such 
exceptional accomplishment. As a lawyer he 
won pronounced prestige, public recognition 
and endorsement ; as a business man and manu- 
facturer he produced results of most positive 
character; and as a public official he served his 
constituency with signal fidelity and unques- 
tionable ability. 

John Stoughton Newberry was born at 
Waterville, Oneida county. New York, on the 
1 8th of November, 1826, and his death oc- 
curred in the city of Detroit, on the 2d of 
January, 1887. He was a son of Elihu and 
Rhoda (Phelps) Newberry, both of whom 
were natives of Connecticut and representatives 
of families founded in New England in the 
early colonial epoch of our national history. 
Thomas Newberry, grandfather of Elihu, im- 
migrated from England to America in 1625, 
and settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, 
whence members of the family later removed 
to the state of Connecticut. When the subject 
of this memoir had attained to the age of five 
years his parents removed to Michigan, and 
after a short stay in Detroit located at Romeo, 
Macomb county, where he attended the local 
schools of the period, thus gaining his rudi- 
mentary educational discipline. Later he con- 
tinued his studies at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and 
finally he was matriculated in the University of 




-^.^^ >^_ 




DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



297 



Michigan, in the literary department of which 
he was graduated as valedictorian of the class 
of 1845, duly receiving the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts. In the meanwhile he had acquired a 
practical knowledge of civil engineering and 
surveying, and after his graduation he at- 
tached himself to the construction department 
of the Michigan Central Railroad, in which 
service he remained two years, after which he 
spent one year in traveling through the west- 
ern territories. Upon returning to Michigan 
Mr. Newberry located in Detroit, where he 
took up the study of law in the office and 
under the preceptorship of the well known firm 
of Van Dyke & Emmons. Here he applied 
himself with such industry and energy that he 
was admitted to practice in 1853, having 
shown marked capacity for the accumulation 
and assimilation of the science of jurispru- 
dence. In the practice of his chosen profes- 
sion he became associated with Messrs. Towle 
and Hunt, under the firm name of Towle, Hunt 
& Newberry, and after the dissolution of this 
professional alliance Mr. Newberry entered 
into a partnership with Ashley Pond, under 
the title of Pond & Newberry, and a little later 
the firm was augmented by the admission of 
Henry B. Brown, later associate justice of the 
United States supreme court. Subsequently 
Mr. Pond withdrew from the firm and Messrs. 
Newberry and Brown continued their associa- 
tion until 1863, when Mr. Newberry decided to 
abandon the' practice of law. While in the 
active work of his profession he confined him- 
self almost exclusively to the trial of admiralty 
cases in the United States courts, and before 
his retirement from the bar he compiled a val- 
uable work on that particular class of cases, — 
a work that has since been recognized as a 
standard authority in its province. 

In 1863,- in company with Messrs. McMillan, 
Dean and Eaton, Mr. Newberry took a gov- 
ernment contract to build railway cars for 
army purposes, and this venture proved highly 
remunerative, with the result that, in the fol- 
lowing year, the Michigan Car Company was 
organized and incorporated, with Mr. New- 
berry as president and one of the largest stock- 
holders. From this enterprise have sprung 



some of the most important manufacturing in- 
dustries of Detroit, — notably, the Baugh Steam 
Forge Company, the Detroit Car Wheel Com- 
pany, the Fulton Iron & Engine Works, and 
many kindred concerns, in each of which Mr. 
Newberry was president and had large finan- 
cial interests. Under his administration the 
several industries transacted an average vol- 
ume of business ranging from three to five 
million dollars annually, and gave employment 
to nearly three thousand persons. Mr. New- 
berry was also largely interested in car-build- 
ing enterprises in London, Ontario, and St. 
Louis, Missouri. At the time of his death he 
was a director in each the Detroit & Cleveland 
Steam Navigation Company; the Vulcan Fur- 
nace Company, at Newberry, Michigan, a vil- 
lage named in his honor; the Detroit National 
Bank; the Detroit, Bay City & Alpena Rail- 
road Company ; the great Detroit seed house of 
D. M. Ferry & Company; the Detroit Railroad 
Elevator Company ; and many other prominent 
corporations of Detroit and Michigan. 

Mr. Newberry was distinctively a careful 
and conservative business man, — so much so, 
in fact, that his death caused no cessation of 
business in any of the corporations in which he 
was financially interested and which had felt 
the strength of his directing influence. He 
was a large investor in real estate during the 
latter years of his life, especially in centrally 
located business property in the city of his 
home, and wherever his money was so placed 
it has proved of metropolitan benefit. 

Upon reaching his legal majority Mr. New- 
berry attached himself to the Whig party, and 
he continued to support its cause until the birth 
of the Republican party, when he transferred 
his allegiance to this newer and stronger can- 
didate for public favor and support. He was 
the first person to be appointed by President 
Lincoln as provost-marshal of Michigan, and 
he served in that capacity through 1862-3, with 
the rank of captain of cavalry. During this 
interval he had charge of the drafts for mili- 
tary service and personally attended to the 
forwarding of the drafted men and the sub- 
stitutes to the field. Mr. Newberry was elected 
to congress in 1879, from the first congres- 



298 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



sional district of Michigan, and served during 
the sessions of 1879 and 1880, within whiclt 
he accomplished a most splendid work in the 
advancement and protection of the commercial 
interests of the country, as a member of the 
committee on commerce. He also served on 
other important committees, to the' labors of 
which he devoted himself with earnestness and 
ability. 

Realizing that his personal business was 
suffering during his absence in the national 
capital, Mr. Newberry positively refused a re- 
nomination, and until the hour of his death he 
thereafter devoted his great energies toward 
the development of his vast business enter- 
prises. In early life Mr. Newberry was a 
member of the Congregational church, but 
upon locating in Detroit he united with the 
Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian church, upon 
whose services he was a regular attendant and 
to whose support he contributed with marked 
liberality. In the matter of contributions to 
charitable and philanthropic causes he has had 
few equals in the city of Detroit, and his 
crowning act in this direction came after his 
death, when it was found that he had be- 
queathed six hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
to charitable institutions. Within the last 
years of his life, in company with his business 
associate, the late Hon. James McMillan, he 
founded Grace Homoeopathic hospital, in De- 
troit, to the establishing of which he con- 
tributed more than one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. 

Mr. Newberry's abiding interest in his aJma 
mater, the University of Michigan, was shown 
in no uncertain way, and a perpetual monu- 
ment to this and to his memory is Newberry 
Hall, a magnificent modem structure erected at 
Ann Arbor by Mrs. Newberry, for the use of 
the Students' Christian Association and as a 
memorial to him. A second consistent memo- 
rial erected in honor of Mr. Newberry is the 
Newberry Memorial chapel, which was built by 
Mrs. Newberry in 1887, at a cost of about 
seventy thousand dollars, and which was pre- 
sented to the Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian 
church of Detroit. This unique edifice is lo- 
cated at the corner of Earned and Rivard 



streets, and is used for prayer meetings and 
other church purposes. 

In the year 1855 Mr. Newberry was united 
in marriage to Miss Harriet N. Robinson, of 
Buffalo, New York, and her death occurred 
early in the following year. She left one son, 
Harry R. Newberry, who is now one of the 
representative business men and capitalists of 
Detroit. On the 6th of October, 1859, was 
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Newberry to 
Miss Helen P. Handy, daughter of the late 
Truman P. Handy, one of the pioneers and 
most honored and influential citizens of Cleve- 
land, Ohio, and she survives her honored hus- 
band and still maintains her home in Detroit, 
as do their three children, — Truman H., John 
S. and Helen H. The last mentioned is now 
the wife of Henry B. Joy, son of the late James 
F. Joy, of Detroit. Truman H. Newberry was 
assistant secretary of. the United States navy, 
to which ofiice he was appointed in 1905, by 
President Roosevelt, and in November, 1908, 
he was made Secretary of the Navy ; and John 
S., president and general manager of the De- 
troit Steel Castings Company, is individually 
mentioned on other pages of this volume. 



JAMES V. CAMPBELL. 

The strong, true men of a nation are its 
crown jewels, their deeds are their crystallized 
thoughts, and their influence for good extends 
in ever widening angle even after they them- 
selves have been called from the scene of life's 
endeavors. The history of jurisprudence in 
Michigan, dignified as it is by many exalted 
names, finds none whose powers and labors 
have been more beneficent, fruitful and cumu- 
lative than were those of the honored subject 
of this memoir, who was for nearly two score 
of years a judge of the supreme court of this 
commonwealth, having received appointment 
to the bench of this highest of the state courts 
at the time of its reorganization in 1857, and 
having continued in active service until the 
close of his long and signally useful life. Of 
him one of the leading members of the bar 
of the state has written, with all consistency, 
the following words: "He exercised more in- 
fluence in settling and fixing the jurisprudence 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



299 



of this state than any other man, and to him 
we are indebted more than to any one of his 
associates for the high reputation obtained by 
the Michigan supreme court." This is, indeed, 
high encomium, and its strength lies in its ab- 
solute truth. A man of prodigious learning 
in the law, especially that of constitutional or- 
der, peculiarly familiar with the minutiae of 
the English law, on which is based the Ameri- 
can, he yet spared neither time nor labor in 
his legal investigations and discussed all rele- 
vant questions with marked clearness of illus- 
tration, strength of argument and fullness and 
variety of learning. Of exalted character, ap- 
preciative of the sources from which issue all 
human motives and actions, his was essentially 
and primarily a judicial mind, and fortunate it 
is for the state of Michigan that his services 
were enlisted on the bench of her supreme court 
for so long a period. He was engaged in the 
practice of his profession in Detroit for some 
time and had already gained a high reputa- 
tion among his compeers of an exceptionally 
brilliant bar, but he was not long permitted to 
remain in the private work of his profession, 
having been still a young man when he was 
called to the supreme bench, whose work there- 
after demanded his time and attention until 
he answered the final and inexorable summons 
of the one supreme Judge of all. 

Through a long line of the historic clan of 
Campbell in Scotland is traced the lineage of 
James Valentine Campbell, and the founder of 
the immediate family in America, a man pos- 
sessing the sturdy integrity and other canny 
traits of the true Scotsman, was his great- 
grandfather, Duncan Campbell, who was an 
officer in a Highland regiment and who set- 
tled on the Hudson river in eastern New York. 
Henry M. Campbell, grandson of Duncan 
and son of Thomas Campbell, was born in 
Ulster county. New York, on the loth of Sep- 
tember, 1783, and in early manhood he re- 
moved to the city of Bulifalo, which was then 
a mere village. At the inception of the war 
of 1812 he took up arms and was made cap- 
tain of an artillery company in the American 
army. In October, 1812, he married Lois 
Bushnell, a representative of an old and hon- 



ored New England family. Captain Camp- 
bell left his young wife in Buffalo and was 
absent with his military command at the time 
when that city, in 1813, was burned by the 
British. His own home was destroyed and 
his wife and her relatives found refuge in the 
adjoining forests before the English troops 
arrived. After the war Captain Campbell be- 
came a successful business man in Buffalo, 
and he was a prominent and influential citizen, 
having been elected a judge of the Erie county 
court, a position to which laymen were then 
eligible. This honored patriot became one of 
the pioneers of Detroit, having taken up his 
residence in this city in 1826 and having here 
passed the residue of his days, as did also his 
devoted wife, a woman of noble character and 
gracious personality. Judge Campbell, as he 
was familiarly known, became a successful 
merchant in Detroit and later engaged in the 
real-estate business, in which likewise he was 
prosperous, though he eventually met with 
somewhat severe financial reverses. He was 
prominent in public affairs and held various 
offices of trust, including that of associate jus- 
tice of the county court, county supervisor, 
alderman, director of the poor, etc., and he 
was also president of one of the early banking 
institutions of the city. He was a communi- 
cant of the Protestant Episcopal church and 
was prominently identified with old St. Paul's 
parish, the first organized in Detroit. He did 
much for the promotion and support of the 
work of this church and soon after uniting 
with St. Paul's he became its senior warden, 
serving in this office until his death. 

Of the children of Henry M. and Lois 
(Bushnell) Campbell six attained to maturity, 
and all were afforded excellent educational ad- 
vantages, while all remained faithful adherents 
of the Episcopal church. Two of the daugh- 
ters married lawyers who attained distinction 
at the Detroit bar and another daughter was 
for nearly a score of years at the head of a 
successful school for girls, in Detroit. The 
fourth daughter died, unmarried, at the age 
of twenty-five years, and Henry M., who was 
born in 1821, was drowned in the Detroit 
river, in 1836. 



300 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



James V. Campbell, to whom this sketch is 
dedicated, was born in Buffalo, New York, 
on the 25th of February, 1823, and was thus 
about three years of age at the time of the 
family removal to Detroit, which then had a 
population of about two thousand, a very con- 
siderable portion of which was of French ex- 
traction. His father died in 1842, leaving, as 
has been written, "little to his family save a 
name unimpeachable for integrity and public 
spirit." The mother survived until 1876. The 
subject of this memoir was afforded the ad- 
vantages of the best schools of the period in 
Detroit and then was sent to an Episcopalian 
institution at Flushing, Long Island, an insti- 
tution conducted by Rev. William A. Muhlen- 
burg, a distinguished clergyman and educator. 
The school was amplified into a college and 
Judge Campbell completed the collegiate or 
academic curriculum, being graduated as a 

member of the class of 1841. 

After leaving school Judge Campbell re- 
turned to Detroit and forthwith began reading 
law under the preceptorship of the firm of 
Douglas & Walker, and in 1844 he was ad- 
mitted to the bar, at the age of twenty-one 
years. He was admitted to partnership with 
his preceptors, Samuel T. Douglas and Henry 
N. Walker, both of whom were eminent law- 
yers of the state. Douglas, who married a 
sister of Judge Campbell, was editor of the 
reports of the supreme court of the state from 
1843 ^° 1847, and Walker reported the deci- 
sions of the court of chancery of the state from 
1842 to 1845. About this time Mr. Campbell 
became secretary of the board of regents of 
the state university, a position which he re- 
tained for several years. Prior to his eleva- 
tion to the supreme bench he had been en- 
gaged in the active and successful practice of 
his profession for about thirteen years, had 
been retained in many important litigations in 
both the state and federal courts and had 
gained uiunistakable prestige. In 1857 he was 
elected one of the four justices of the reorgan- 
ized supreme court of Michigan, thus being 
one of the first on this bench under the new 
judicial regime His associates. Judges Mar- 
tin, Manning and Christiancy, were all many 



years older than he, and all had been chosen 
by the Republican party, then but recently or- 
ganized. By successive re-elections Judge 
Campbell continued on the supreme bench until 
his death, which occurred on the 26th of 
March, 1890, without premonition or prior 
illness, since he fell dead, from heart syncope, 
while sitting in his library. 

When the law department of the University 
of Michigan was established, in 1858, Judge 
Campbell was called to the Marshall profes- 
sorship in that department, an incumbency 
which he retained for a quarter of a century. 
A history of that department of the great uni- 
versity which is Michigan's pride must ever 
bear recognition of the large and powerful in- 
fluence exerted by Judge Campbell in building 
up the law school, maintaining it at the high- 
est standard, and imparting to students from 
his great fund of technical knowledge that 
wise admonition and information which could 
not but bear fruitage in their subsequent pro- 
fessional careers. In 1866 the honorary de- 
gree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon 
Judge Campbell by the university — the first 
degree of this order granted by the institution. 
His interest in educational matters was insist- 
ent and unflagging, and he was a member of 
the board of education of Detroit from 1854 
to 1858. One of the public schools in this city 
has consistently been named in his honor. In 
the early days he was a member of the Young 
Men's Society of Detroit, a forceful literary 
and social organization, of which he served as 
president in 1848. The nucleus of the present 
fine public library of Detroit was that estab- 
lished by this society. In 1880, when the pub- 
lic library was placed under the control of a 
board of commissioners. Judge Campbell was 
made president of the body. 

Judge Campbell's life work, however, was 
that of a jurist, and upon his record on 
the bench rests no shadow of wrong or injus- 
tice. His opinions appear in the State Reports 
of the Supreme Court Decisions from the fifth 
to the seventy-ninth volumes, and his opinions 
there entered number about three thousand. 
A sketch of this order has no reason to touch 
specifically upon the details of this record. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



301 



but the very record itself is an integral 
part of the history of one of the sovereign 
states of the Union and must bear to future 
generations of lawyers and citizens in general 
the evidence of the patient and conscientious 
efforts and labors of a noble man and honest 
and able jurist. From an appreciative sketch 
of Judge Campbell's career written by Hon. 
Charles A. Kent, of Detroit, who was long 
associated with him as a member of the fac- 
ulty of the law department of the university 
and who long practiced before him in the su- 
preme court, the following extract is made : 
"Judge Campbell had great learning, not only 
in the American and English cases and text 
books, including admiralty law, but also in the 
history of our institutions, local as well as gen- 
eral. He knew much of Roman law and the 
law of nations and of early French customs 
and something of other continental law. He 
was remarkably free from political bias or fear 
of public opinion or subservience to any tem- 
porary wave of public passion. The trust in 
his absolute integrity of motive was justly per- 
fect. He was very independent in his opinions. 
He had a strong sense of the justice of a case, 
and was very reluctant to yield his views of 
justice to the opinions of his associates or to 
any precedents. He wished to decide every 
case as appeared to him to be right, but per- 
haps he never manifested that love of arbi- 
trary power, that disposition to have one's 
own way at all hazards, which is natural to 
almost all human beings and appears occasion- 
ally on the bench. He had great faith in the 
people and in popular institutions and in all 
the great maxims and traditions of the com- 
mon law, but he had not the slightest trace of 
the demagogue. He had some strong preju- 
dices, but they were generally good prejudices, 
of a kind necessary to stability of character in 
the best men. He had no subtle theories nor 
much refined abstruse reasoning. In all his 
opinions he appears to have had chiefly in view 
the effect of the decision on what he thought 
the merits of the case before him. I think he 
seldom made a decision likely to strike the av- 
erage mind as unjust." In conclusion of the 
same article appear the following words: 



"Perhaps the largest bar meeting ever held in 
Detroit attested the shock at his sudden death 
and the universal feeling that a great and good 
man, a learned and upright judge had passed 
away. His memory is lovingly cherished by 
all who knew him. His fame as a judge will 
depend on the number and importance of the 
legal principles established in his opinions. His 
life is a worthy model for imitation by all law- 
yers who would be governed by the highest 
ideals in private and public life." 

In 1876 Judge Campbell published a volume 
of several hundred pages and gave to the same 
the title of "Outlines of the Political History 
of Michigan." His other publications, not 
numerically great, were articles in law maga- 
zines and addresses on various public occasions. 

Reared in the faith of the Protestant Epis- 
copal church, Judge Campbell ever remained 
a devout and zealous churchman, wielding 
much influence in parish and diocesan affairs 
and taking a lively interest in the work of the 
church at large. For many years prior to his 
demise he had served as a member of the ves- 
try of St. Paul's church, Detroit, and for more 
than thirty years he was secretary of the stand- 
ing committee of the diocese of Michigan. In 
this connection it may be recalled that his hon- 
ored father was a member of the first standing 
committee of this diocese and was senior war- 
den of St. Paul's church. 

On the 8th of November, 1849, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Judge Campbell to 
Miss Cornelia Hotchkiss, who was born at 
Oneida Castle, New York, August 17, 1823, 
of New England stock, and who died in De- 
troit on the 2d of May, 1888. Of the children 
of this union six grew to maturity and five are 
now living. Henry M. and Charles H., the 
two eldest sons, are individually mentioned on 
other pages of this work, being representative 
members of the Detroit bar. Concerning the 
other children the following brief data are en- 
tered : 

James V. Campbell, Jr., was born in Detroit 
on the 8th of July, 1856, and in his native city 
was reared and educated. He became one of 
the successful stock brokers of Detroit and 
continued to be engaged in this line of busi- 



302 



DETEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ness here until his death, which occurred in 
September, 1894. In 1887 he married Miss 
Ellen A. Piatt, of Lyons, New York, who sur- 
vives him, as does also their only child, Lois 
B., who was bom in 1894, the year of her 
father's death. Miss Cornelia Lois Campbell, 
eldest daughter of the subject of this memoir, 
remains at the old homestead in Detroit. 
Douglas H. Campbell, who was born on the 
1 6th of December, 1859, was graduated in the 
University of Michigan in 1882, and in 1886 
he secured from his alma mater the degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy. He passed two years 
in effective post-graduate work in leading uni- 
versities of Germany, and in 1888 he accepted 
the professorship of botany in the state univer- 
sity of Indiana. Since 1891 he has held a sim- 
ilar chair in Leland Stanford University, Cali- 
fornia. Edward D. Campbell, the youngest 
son, was born in Detroit, September 8, 1863, 
and was graduated in the state university in 
1885, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. 
In 1 89 1 he became a member of the faculty of 
the University of Michigan and he is now di- 
rector of the chemical laboratory in this uni- 
versity. In 1888 he married Miss Jennie Ives, 
of Cincinnati, Ohio, and they have six chil- 
dren — Cornelia H., Edward D., Jr., Mary 
Ives, Jane, James V. and Charles D. 



FREDERIC B. SIBLEY. 

The honored subject of this memoir, whose 
death occurred in Detroit on the 8th of April, 
1907, was a scion of one of the oldest and 
most distinguished families not only of this 
city but also of the state of Michigan, with 
whose annals the name has been indissolubly 
linked for more than a century. He himself 
was a native of Detroit, where he was bom 
more than a decade prior to the admission of 
the state to the Union, — a fact which bears 
its own significance. 

The Sibley family traces its lineage back 
through sturdy English stock, where the line 
has been authentically followed to the year 
1066. The original American progenitor was 
John Sibley, who came to the New World in 
1629, in one of the vessels of Governor Win- 



throp's fleet. One of his descendants held the 
rank of colonel in the Continental line during 
the war of the Revolution, in which other rep- 
resentatives of the family were likewise par- 
ticipants, not less than ten of the name having 
fought at Concord. The same definite loyalty 
has been shown in succeeding generations, for 
members of the family have been found as 
patriot soldiers in the various other wars in 
which the nation has been involved. 

Solomon Sibley, father of the subject of 
this memorial, was born at Sutton, Massachu- 
setts, October 7, 1769, and he was reared in 
that state, having studied law in Boston after 
due preliminary educational work. He was 
graduated in Brown University, a noted insti- 
tution of learning in those days. In 1795 he 
took up his residence in Marietta, Ohio, whence 
he later removed to Cincinnati, where he was 
engaged in the practice of his profession in 
partnership of Judg''. Burnett, a prominent fig- 
ure in the histon ^ Ohio. In 1796, soon 
after the English had retired from control of 
Detroit,' Solomon Sibley came to this place, 
being then twenty-seven years of age, and 
within a short time he here took up his per- 
manent abode. In January, 1799, he was 
elected a member, from Wayne county, of the 
general assembly of the Northwest Territory, 
in which body he was largely instrumental in 
procuring the passage of the act incorporating 
the town of Detroit in 1802. For his services 
in this regard he was officially granted the 
freedom of the new corporation. After the 
second election he became chairman of the 
board of trustees of Detroit, and under the 
first city charter, of 1806, was made mayor 
of the city, by appointment of Governor Hull. 
He was auditor of the territory from 18 14 to 
1817; was United States attorney from 181 5 
to 1823; delegate to congress from Michigan 
from 1821 to 1823; and one of the judges of 
the supreme court of the territory from 1823 
to 1837. He was one of the most conspicuous 
and honored figures in the early history of the 
state, as the facts already given well indicate, 
and his name will ever be enrolled high on the 
list of the worthiest and mose useful pioneers 
of Detroit and Michigan. He continued a resi- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



303 



dent of Detroit until his death, on the 4th of 
April, 1846. 

In October, 1802, Solomon Sibley was mar- 
ried, at Marietta, Ohio, to Miss Sarah Whip- 
ple Sproat, and they became the parents of 
eight children, concerning whom the following 
brief data are entered : Colonel Ebenezer 
Sproat Sibley, of the United States engineer- 
ing corps, died in 1884, having been a grad- 
uate of West Point and having done a large 
amount of important government work in ad- 
dition to his gallant service during the civil 
war. He served during the Seminole war, 
also in war with Mexico, being quartermaster 
general in the latter. Katherine Whipple Sib- 
ley became the wife of Charles C. Trowbridge, 
of Detroit. Henry Hastings Sibley was a dele- 
gate from Wisconsin to congress, became the 
first governor of Minnesota and extinguished 
the Sioux rebellion in that state during the 
civil war, having been a colonel in the United 
States army at the time. Augusta became the 
wife of James A. Armstrong, of Detroit. 
Mary married Charles S. Adams, of the same 
city. Alexander Hamilton Sibley was a pio- 
neer in the development of the mines of the 
Lake Superior district and also those of Cali- 
fornia. Sarah Alexandrine never married and 
still remains a resident of Detroit, at the ven- 
erable age of eighty-seven years. Frederic B., 
subject of this sketch, was the youngest of the 
children, and he hkewise remained unmarried 
until his demise. 

Frederic Baker Sibley, to whom this memoir 
is dedicated, was born in the old family home- 
stead, which then stood at the northeast cor- 
ner of Jefferson avenue and Randolph street, 
Detroit, on the 23d of September, 1824, and 
after a rudimentary discipline in the local 
schools he was sent to Flushing, Long Island, 
where he continued his studies under the di- 
rection of Dr. Augustus J. Muhlenberg, a cele- 
brated educator of his day. After thus gain- 
ing adequate academic training Mr. Sibley re- 
turned to Detroit, where he began the study 
of law in the office of the firm of Joy & Porter, 
whose members were the late James F. Joy and 
George F. Porter. It soon developed, how- 
ever, that Mr. Sibley had no natural predilec- 



tion or taste for the law, as he demanded a 
more active life, both temperamentally and for 
the sake of physical wellbeing. He accord- 
ingly became a fur trader, operating through- 
out northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minne- 
sota, in which last mentioned state his elder 
brother, Henry H., was a pioneer, as already 
noted in this context. Frederic B. Sibley did 
not, however, long remain in that region and 
upon the inception of the civil war he took up 
his residence in New York city, where he 
became a successful contractor in army sup- 
plies. After the war he returned to Detroit, 
with whose business and social affairs he 
thereafter continued prominently identified 
until he was called from the scene of life's 
endeavors. 

Of his principal business activities here the 
following account has been given and is con- 
sistently reproduced in this article : "Solomon 
Sibley was an extensive dealer in lands in 
Detroit and Wayne county, as the records 
abundantly show. One of his important ac- 
quisitions, in 1824, by United States patent, 
was in partnership with David Cooper, an 
assignee for Austin E. Wing, and consisted of 
three hundred and twenty acres in Monguagon 
township, Wayne county, on the bank of the 
Detroit river. In this parcel is located a bed 
of valuable limestone, which extends across 
the Detroit river into Canada and forms the 
troublesome reef known as the Lime Kiln 
crossing. The price was probably one dollar 
and a quarter per acre. Subsequently David 
Cooper sold his half interest to Sibley for 
twelve thousand dollars. After the death of 
his father Frederic B. Sibley acquired, in 1856, 
the claims of his brothers and sisters to this 
property, and added to his holdings over four 
hundred acres of farming land adjoining. He 
quarried and sold the stone until 1905, when he 
sold the quarry property, consisting of six 
hundred and sixty acres, to the Sibley Quarry 
Company, and also disposed of several other 
properties. He retained possession, however, 
of his fine farm of over two hundred acres, 
adjoining the quarry property. The abstract 
consideration for the quarry property was four 
hundred thousand dollars." 



304 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Mr. Sibley was a man whose spirit was 
never soiled by unfaithfulness or unkindness. 
His was not a vacillating character and he ever 
had the courage of his convictions, but he was 
tolerant in his judgment of his fellow men, de- 
voted to those allied to him by consanguinity, 
and in a most quiet and unostentatious way 
showed his charitable spirit in effective lines. 
He was of the "old-school regime," but never 
lost his interest in the questions and issues of 
the hour, though he would never appear as a 
candidate for public office. For thirty years 
he was a director in the Detroit Savings Bank 
and he had other capitalistic investments in 
his home city. A noble and gracious person- 
ality indicated the man, and his life was one 
worthy of the honored name which he bore. 
Of the immediate family the only other sur- 
vivor at the time of his death was his maiden 
sister, Miss Sarah A. Sibley. 



DE WITT H. TAYLOR. 

Elsewhere within this volume appears a 
memoir to the late Elisha Taylor, father of 
him whose name initiates this paragraph, and 
as the family history is outlined in said article 
it is unnecessary to repeat the data in this con- 
nection. It may be said, however, that Elisha 
Taylor was one of the honored pioneers of 
Detroit, a distinguished member of the bar of 
the state and a citizen of the loftiest integrity 
and honor. 

DeWitt H. Taylor was born in the city of 
Detroit on the 12th of August, 1848, and like 
his honored father he has attained to promi- 
nence in the legal profession and as a substan- 
tial business man and influential citizen. He 
fully availed himself of the advantages of the 
public schools of his native city and was gradu- 
ated in the Detroit high school as a member 
of the class of 1867. In the autumn of the 
same year he was matriculated in the literary 
department of the University of Michigan, as 
a member of the class of 1871, and after prose- 
cuting his studies for one year in this depart- 
ment he transferred his enrollment to the class 
of 1870 in the law department, in which he 
was graduated in the spring of 1870, with the 
degree of Bachelor of Laws. Shortly after- 
ward he was admitted to practice in the courts 



of the state and the United States district court 
for Michigan. 

About this time there was made to him a 
flattering business proposition, which he ac- 
cepted, thus entering actively into connection 
with commercial affairs of importance. With 
this department of enterprise he continued to 
be identified most successfully for a period of 
three years, giving his entire time and energy 
to the administrative and detailed duties de- 
volving upon him. In the summer of 1874 
Mr. Taylor went abroad, and was absent for 
fifteen months, within which time he traveled 
extensively through Europe and parts of Asia 
and Africa, visiting Greece, Turkey, Syria, 
Palestine and Egypt. On his return to De- 
troit, in the autumn of 1875, he associated him- 
self with his father in the practice of law and 
in the real-estate business, to which he has 
since given his attention in a consecutive way, 
holding prestige as one of the representative 
members of the bar of his native city and con- 
trolling large realty interests in Detroit and 
elsewhere in the state. 

In politics Mr. Taylor is a leader in the local 
ranks of the Republican party, in whose cause 
he has long been an active worker. For six 
years he filled the office of treasurer of the Re- 
publican city committee and he served five 
terms, of two years each, as a member of the 
Detroit board of estimates, of which he was 
president for one year. 

In addition to his large real-estate holdings 
Mr. Taylor is a director and executive oflScer 
in a number of the prominent manufacturing 
corporations of Detroit. He is a member of 
the Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian church and 
is chairman of its board of trustees. He holds 
membership in the Detroit Club, the Detroit 
Boat Club, the Country Club and the Old Club, 
at St. Clair Flats. 

November 5, 1894, Mr. Taylor was united 
in marriage to Miss Alice Andrus, and they 
have two children, namely : Agnus Amelia and 
DeWitt Elisha. 



DEXTER M. FERRY. 

The glory of our great American republic is 
in the perpetuation of individuality and in the 



ENGRAVED BV HENRV TAVLOR JR 



^^'^ (>^^ ^.^^^.-'t--^. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



305 



according of the utmost scope for individual 
accomplishment. Fostered under the most aus- 
picious of surroundings that can encompass 
one who has the will to dare and to do, our 
nation has, almost spontaneously, produced 
men of the finest mental caliber, of true virile 
strength and of vigorous purpose. The cradle 
has not ever been one of pampered luxury, but 
this modest couch of infancy has often rocked 
future greatness. American biography thus 
becomes, perhaps, one of more perfect indi- 
viduality, in the general as well as the specific 
sense, than does that of any other nation on 
the globe. The self-made man is a product of 
America, and the record of accomplishment in 
this individual sense is the record which the 
true and loyal American holds in deepest re- 
gard and highest honor. These statements are 
distinctively apropos of the life history of Dex- 
ter M. Ferry, who as a citizen and as a man 
of affairs wrote his name large upon the an- 
nals of his time. Not in an ephemeral way is 
his name associated with the word progress, 
with moving forward in industrial enterprise, 
with every movement toward civic betterment, 
and not the least of his accomplishments in the 
domain of practical business and commercial 
activity was the building up of the magnificent 
enterprise which perpetuates his name, — the 
great seed house of D. M. Ferry & Company, 
of Detroit, the largest of the kind in the world 
and one which bears to every town, hamlet and 
township in the United States and to a less 
degree, Canada, the reputation of Detroit as a 
distributing center, while at the same time 
causing foreign lands to be cognizant of the 
same fact. The reflex of so great an indus- 
try upon the commercial status of the city in 
which are maintained its headquarters can not 
be overestimated, and in the loyal and appreci- 
ative efforts of those who have conserved the 
development of the greater Detroit there is 
imperative necessity for giving a most gener- 
ous recognition to the subject of this brief 
sketch. The great enterprise of which he was 
for so many years the head, is saturated with 
his personality, with his energy, aggressive- 
ness and sterling integrity of purpose. 

Dexter Mason Ferry was born in Lowville, 



Lewis county. New York, on the 8th day of 
August, 1833, and was the son of Joseph N. 
and Lucy (Mason) Ferry. The genealogy of 
the family is traced to remote French extrac- 
tion, but from England came the first repre- 
sentative of the name in America. In 1678 
there arrived from the "right little, tight little 
isle" one Charles Ferry, who settled at Spring- 
field, Massachusetts, and who figures as the 
founder of the American line. With the his- 
tory of the old Bay state the name became 
prominently identified in the various genera- 
tions, and the sturdy characteristics of the 
progenitor have been fortunately perpetuated 
and have made for useful and honorable citi- 
zenship, loyalty and patriotism. Dexter Ma- 
son, maternal grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch, was a man of influence in the Berkshire 
region of Massachusetts, and represented his 
county in the legislature on several occasions. 
He was a cousin of the late George N. Briggs, 
of Massachusetts. The paternal grandfather 
of Mr. Ferry removed from Massachusetts to 
the state of New York and established his 
home in Lowville, Lewis county, where he 
passed the residue of his life, having been iden- 
tified with agricultural pursuits and other lines 
of enterprise. There was born Joseph N. 
Ferry, and there he was reared to manhood, 
receiving a common-school education. He 
continued to reside there until his death, in 
1836, and his principal vocation was that of 
wagonmaker. Dexter M. Ferry, as compari- 
son of dates indicate, was about three years of 
age at the time of his father's death, and 
shortly afterward his mother removed with the 
family to Penfield, Monroe county, New York, 
eight miles distant from the city of Rochester. 
In this little village the future Detroit "captain 
of industry" passed his boyhood days, being 
afforded the advantages of the local schools 
and making good use of these opportunities. 
At the age of sixteen he initiated his indepen- 
dent career by securing work on a neighboring 
farm, and in compensation for his services he 
received the princely "salary" of ten dollars a 
month. He passed two summers in this line 
of work and in the winter terms attended the 
district schools. He was ambitious to secure 



306 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



more advanced educational training, and with 
this end in view, in 1851, he entered the employ 
of Ezra M. Parsons, who resided in the im- 
mediate vicinity of Rochester, so that the young 
man was able to attend the city schools when 
his services were not demanded on the farm. 
A few months later Mr. Parsons secured for 
his young employe a position in the wholesale 
and retail book and stationery house of S. D. 
Elwood & Company, of Detroit, in which city 
he took up his residence in 1852. He was at 
first errand boy in the establishment mentioned, 
was later promoted to the position of salesman 
and finally became book-keeper. 

Mr. Ferry's identification with the line of 
enterprise with which his name has been so 
long and conspicuously linked, dates from 
1856, when he became one of the organizers 
of the firm of M. T. Gardner & Company, 
seedsmen, joining the same as one of its junior 
partners. Under these conditions the business 
was conducted until 1865, when Mr. Gardner's 
interest was purchased and Mr. Ferry became 
head of the firm, whose title was then changed 
to Ferry, Church & Company. Two years 
later the present title of D. M. Ferry & Com- 
pany was adopted, and in 1879 the business 
was incorporated under this name. Of the 
development of the enterprise into the greatest 
of the sort in the world the' article descriptive 
of the concern gives ample information, and 
thus this sketch will proceed to touch, rather, 
upon the distinct phases of the further career 
of Mr. Ferry. Of this interposition, however, 
the following words, appearing in Farmer's 
History of Detroit and Michigan, are worthy 
of further reproduction : 

The building up of this great industry, which 
is far reaching in its influence, and contributes 
not only to the prosperity of Detroit but also 
to an army of employes, is doubtless a more 
beneficent factor in commercial affairs through- 
out the country than almost any other estab- 
lishment in the west. In its management from 
the beginning Mr. Ferry has had a decisive in- 
fluence, and that its great success is largely at- 
tributable to his persistent energy, sagacity, in- 
tegrity, and rare talent for organization, is 
freely and readily acknowledged by those most 
conversant with its beginning, growth and de- 



velopment. Through this extensive commer- 1 
cial enterprise his name and work have been 
made more widely known than those of almost ] 
any other merchant in the United States. < 

The peculiarly intimate, almost domestic, re- ; 
lationship which this enterprise bears to the i 
average home is what makes the reputation of ' 
the house and of the name of Mr. Ferry so 
far known, for few homes there are in which 
seeds, either flower or vegetable, are not de- 
manded, and no other concern in the world can ' 
claim as ample and high-grade facilities. 

Mr. Ferry was distinctively a man with ideas 
and ideals, and he did not narrow his mental 
horizon within the bounds of personal advance- 
ment and aggrandizement. He was essentially 
loyal and public-spirited as a citizen, but his 
mature judgment kept him from diverging 
from practical lines in public affairs and pri- 
vate benevolences, even as in his business. He 
knew men and placed upon each his legitimate 
valuation, so that he was not one who could 
be cajoled by flattery or made to alter tenable 
opinions based upon honest conviction. Self- 
respect and self-control indicated the man and 
made him strong as a man among men. Such 
a positive nature may at times provoke enmi- 
ties, but these enmities emanate from sources 
which tend to elevate the man himself in the 
estimation of those who best know him and 
who realize his actuating motives. These state- 
ments are made to show that Mr. Ferry's pub- 
lic spirit was not one of mawkish sentiment and 
self-seeking, and the same is true of his chari- 
ties, which were numerous and unostentatious. 
He made for himself a place in the commercial 
and civic life of his home city and from his 
vantage ground nothing could work to dislodge 
him. He held the ground because he had won 
it and merited it. 

Mr. Ferry had numerous other important 
and varied positions and responsibilities aside 
from the great business concern of D. M. Ferry 
& Company. He was, at the time of his death, 
president of the First National Bank, Detroit, 
Union Trust Company, American Harrow 
Company, National Pin Company, Standard 
Accident Insurance Company, and Michigan 
Fire & Marine Insurance Company. He was 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



30r 



also identified with the Wayne County Savings 
Bank, being the last of the original charter 
members, and several other local and outside 
institutions and corporations. He was also 
the owner of a large amount of realty in De- 
troit, including the fine building occupied by 
the extensive dry-goods house, the Newcomb- 
Endicott Company, on Woodward avenue, 
which was the first large building on Wood- 
ward avenue. 

In the midst of the exactions and cares of 
his many business connections, which would 
tax the strength of the strongest, Mr. Ferry 
yet found time to place himself on record as 
an active worker in behalf of his home city 
and also in support of his political party. He 
was unswerving in his allegiance to the "grand 
old party" which had its inception "under the 
oaks" at Jackson, Michigan, and continued to 
be a stalwart advocate of the principles of the 
Republican party, being well fortified in his 
opinions as to matters of public policy and 
having a broad understanding of the agencies 
which rule political destinies as well as those 
of a commercial nature. In 1877-8 Mr. Ferry 
served as a member of the Detroit board of 
estimates, and at the expiration of his term 
declined renomination. In 1884 he was ap- 
pointed a member of the board of park com- 
missioners, by Mayor Stephen B. Grummond, 
and in this office he led a valiant campaign 
against the sale of beer and other intoxicants 
on Belle Isle, the city's beautiful river park, — 
an action which gained for him the approval 
of the best element of the Detroit population. 
In 1900 he was one of the prominent candi- 
dates for nomination by his party to the gov- 
ernorship, but was defeated after a most spir- 
ited three-cornered contest in the nominating 
convention. He was chairman of the Repub- 
lican state central committee from 1896 to 
1898, inclusive, and most effectively directed 
the forces of the party in Michigan through 
the free silver campaign. In 1892, and also in 
1904, he was a delegate at large from the state 
to the national Republican conventions of those 
years, in Minneapolis and Chicago respectively. 
In 1868 Mr. Ferry became actively identified 
with the official management of Harper Hos- 



pital, but later served as vice-president of the 
board of trustees of Grace Hospital. He was 
a trustee of Olivet College and of the Wood- 
ward Avenue Congregational church of De- 
troit, taking a deep interest in and contribut- 
ing liberally to all departments of the church 
work of this denomination. 

On the I St of October, 1867, Mr. Ferry was 
united in marriage to Miss Addie E. Miller, of 
Unadilla, Otsego county, New York, who died 
November 2, 1906. One son and two daugh- 
ters are living, viz. : Mr. D. M. Ferry, Jr., of 
Detroit, Blanche Ferry Hooker (Mrs. Elon 
H. Hooker), of Greenwich, Connecticut, and 
Queene Ferry Coonley (Mrs. Avery Coonley), 
of Riverside, Illinois. The son, Mr. D. M. 
Ferry, Jr., of 1040 Woodward avenue, Detroit, 
in addition to his own interests, was allied very 
closely with his father before his death and has 
now taken his father's place very generally in 
the various companies and banks. He was 
born in Detroit in 1873 and was married 
shortly before his father's death. 

Mr. Ferry died November 10, 1907, in his 
seventy-fourth year, just a year after the death 
of his beloved wife, whose absence undoubt- 
edly hastened his end. He maintained his 
vigor and health throughout, and his sudden 
death, due from the inroads of old age, was a 
great shock to his family and the community 
at large. His body was borne to the grave by 
eight of his co-workers in D. M. Ferry & 
Company. 



JOSEPH L. HUDSON. 

The business career of Joseph L. Hudson 
has been significantly characterized by courage, 
confidence, progressiveness and impregnable 
integrity of purpose. None has a more secure 
status as a representative citizen and business 
man of Detroit and the state of Michigan, and 
in the metropolis of the Wolverine common- 
wealth his name is practically as familiar to 
its people as is that of the city itself. To offer 
in a work of the province prescribed for the 
one at hand an adequate resume of the career 
of Mr. Hudson would be impossible, but, with 
others of those who have conserved the civic 



308 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



and commercial progress of Detroit, he may 
well find consideration in the noting the more 
salient points which have marked his life and 
labors. It may well be said that no citizen has 
shown more implicit trust in the development 
of the larger and greater Detroit, and his con- 
fidence in this respect has been one of action 
and definite accomplishment. Aside from be- 
ing the executive head of one of the greatest 
retail department stores in the Union and hav- 
ing other capitalistic interests of important or- 
der, he has been signally loyal and helpful as 
a public-spirited citizen and as one who has 
been a force in the field of philanthropy and 
general social uplift. To one as familiar with 
his career in Detroit as is the writer of this 
article there comes a feeling of deep apprecia- 
tion and a desire to offer an estimate which 
shall denote the man and the citizen. 

Joseph Lowthian Hudson was born at New- 
castle-on-Tyne, county of Northumberland, 
England, on the 17th of October, 1846, and is a 
son of Richard and Elizabeth (Lowthian) 
Hudson, both of whom were likewise natives of 
England. The father was for many years en- 
gaged in wholesale tea, coffee and spice business 
in Newcastle, but finally encountered financial 
reverses which led him to seek a start anew in 
America, whither he came in 1853, his family 
joining him two years later. He located in 
the city of Hamilton, province of Ontario, Can- 
ada, where he secured a clerical position in the 
employ of the Grand Trunk Railway Company. 
Richard Hudson later removed to Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin, where he was a representative of 
the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Rail- 
road for about a year. In 1864 he became as- 
sociated with Christopher R. Mabley in open- 
ing a clothing store in Ionia, Michigan, and 
he later became successfully identified with 
other lines of enterprise in that place, besides 
buying pine lands upon a somewhat extensive 
scale. He continued to reside in Ionia until 
his death, which occurred in February, 1873. 
He was a man of sterling integrity and much 
business ability, and the subject of this review 
ever gives credit to the father for valuable dis- 
cipline received in the early days of their asso- 
ciation in business, as will be noted in later 



paragraphs. The devoted mother, a woman 
of gracious and noble character, died in April, 
1863. Of the children seven attained to years 
of maturity and of this number all are now 
living. The eldest brother is Professor Rich- 
ard Hudson, one of the leading men at Michi- 
gan University ; James B. Hudson is vice-presi- 
dent and has charge of the Cleveland J. L. 
Hudson Company; William Hudson is vice- 
president of the J. L. Hudson Company, Buf- 
falo. Mr. Hudson's sisters — Mrs. R. B. Tan- 
nahill, Mrs. J. T. Webber and Mrs. Wm. Clay 
— all reside in Detroit. 

Joseph L. Hudson began his educational 
training in his native place, having entered 
school when a lad of five years and having 
been nine years of age at the time when the 
family came to America. In Hamilton, On- 
tario, he continued his studies in the public 
schools, where one of his schoolmates was the 
late Hugh McMillan, of Detroit, brother of 
the late United States senator from Michigan. 
Concerning the school work of Mr. Hudson in 
Hamilton, the following words were written 
in a newspaper article which appeared a num- 
ber of years ago : "Here, as in his native town, 
he was one of the best pupils in the school, 
being clear-headed, gifted with a remarkable 
memory, and, for his years, an expert in mathe- 
matics, and a rapid accountant." He contin- 
ued his studies for four years, at the expiration 
of which he manifested his wish to initiate his 
business career, though only thirteen years of 
age at the time. He accordingly secured a 
position as telegraph messenger at the Great 
Western depot in Hamilton, receiving in com- 
pensation for his services the sum of ten dol- 
lars a month. The messenger service was dis- 
continued two months later and he was com- 
pelled to seek other fields of endeavor, finally 
becoming a clerk in a grocery store, where his 
pay was but five dollars a month. Three 
months later the family removed to Grand 
Rapids, Michigan, where they remained a year, 
the father having in the meantime been em- 
ployed in Milwaukee, from which point he 
made a trip each week to visit his family. The 
subject of this sketch attended school in Grand 
Rapids about six months and during the re- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



309 



mainder of the time was employed on a fruit 
farm near the city at twenty-five cents a day. 
In June, 1861, the family removed to Pontiac, 
Michigan. There Christopher R. Mabley, who 
later became one of the great merchants of 
Detroit, was at the time conducting a small 
clothing store in which Mr. Hudson became 
cash boy, porter, salesman and bookkeeper in 
quick succession. He remained in the estab- 
'lishment for nearly five years, within which 
the annual business had been increased to an 
average of one hundred thousand dollars, about 
half of the trade being of wholesale or jobbing 
order. In the meanwhile Mr. Mabley and 
Richard Hudson, father of the subject of this 
review, had opened a clothing store in Ionia, 
this state, and in February, 1866, Mr. Mabley 
sold his interest in the Ionia business to Rich- 
ard and Joseph L. Hudson, the father and son 
thereafter continuing to be actively associated 
in their business enterprises until the death of 
the former, in 1873, as already noted. Of their 
operations in Ionia the following has been writ- 
ten : "Their capital was limited, but Joseph's 
ability and industry made up for the disad- 
vantage, and at the close of the first year they 
had made four thousand dollars. They also 
went into the stave business, which at first was 
quite profitable. Their next acquisition was a 
flouring mill and the next was a purchase of 
pine land. They made money in a compara- 
tively rapid way and spread out considerably." 
Upon the death of the father the business was 
appraised at a value of forty thousand dollars, 
half of which was owned by Joseph L., who 
continued operations under the original firm 
name of R. Hudson & Son, the interest of the 
father's estate being retained in the business. 
When came the memorable financial panic 
of 1873 Mr. Hudson, though immeasurably 
careful and conservative, encountered his full 
quota of vicissitudes in business. His firm lost 
heavily along first one line and then another, 
and though Mr. Hudsoa made a valiant strug- 
gle to weather the storm of financial disaster 
he finally found himself unable to meet the 
demands placed upon him and succumbed to 
the inevitable in 1876, with liabilities of about 
sixty-eight thousand dollars and with assets 



greatly depreciated from legitimate valuations. 
With typical courage and honesty of purpose, 
he visited his various creditors and after fully 
explaining the situation was enabled to settle 
with all save one on the basis of sixty cents on 
the dollar. The one firm made an abusive pro- 
test and was forthwith paid in full, though this 
so crippled Mr. Hudson as to leave but little 
provision for the ordinary exigencies of life. 
He returned to Ionia and resumed the business 
of selling clothing, and the confidence reposed 
in him by the wholesale trade was shown in 
the fact that his credit continued unimpaired, 
those with whom he had previously had deal- 
ings standing ready to extend him every possi- 
ble courtesy. Through indefatigable applica- 
tion and good management the concern was put 
on good footing again and all debts were paid 
with interest. 

In the meantime Mr. Hudson's old friend 
and employer, C. R. Mabley, had located in 
Detroit, after one of the most spirited and pro- 
tracted contests known in the history of mer- 
chandising in Michigan, his competitor in the 
fray having been "Little Jake" Seligman, who 
later became the street-car magnate of Sagi- 
naw. Mabley had built up a most extensive 
business in Detroit, and he finally placed the 
management of the enterprise in the hands of 
Mr. Hudson while he himself made a trip 
abroad, in 1877. The following description of 
the renewed association of Messrs. Hudson and 
Mabley is worthy of perpetuation in this arti- 
cle: "Mabley went with his family to Europe 
and was back in two months. Then another 
bargain was made, by which Hudson was to 
receive fifty dollars per week during the six 
months terminating January i, 1878, and also 
an honorarium which was to be left to Mab- 
ley's discretion and the amounts of profits real- 
ized during that time. When the six months 
had elapsed, a calculation was made and it was 
found that, counting the cost of Mabley's trip 
to Europe and the fifty dollars per week paid 
to Hudson, there was a handsome profit of 
twenty-five thousand dollars. Mabley was de- 
lighted and handed ten per cent., or twenty-five 
hundred dollars, to his efficient friend and em- 
ploye." The final outcome of this virtual ex- 



310 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



periment was that Mabley offered Hudson a 
quarter interest in the business, with a guar- 
anty of seven thousand five hundred dollars a 
year, on the basis of an association thus main- 
tained for a period of three years. It may be 
said that under the effective generalship of Mr. 
Hudson the business made splendid gains, and 
while it is not consonant that details be entered 
against the peculiar circumstances which finally 
led to the overthrow of the business associa- 
tions and kindly personal relations of Messrs. 
Hudson and Mabley, it is well known that the 
separation came through no fault of Mr. Hud- 
son, but rather was the result of his fidelity to 
the interests of Mr. Mabley. He has never 
lacked the courage of his convictions and he 
maintained them at this time under conditions 
that in retrospect are scarcely more than amus- 
ing. 

Mr. Hudson severed his connection with the 
Mabley establishment in December, 1880, and 
forthwith he secured a lease of the stores in 
the old Detroit Opera House building, pre- 
viously occupied by Newcomb, Endicott & 
Company. Mr. Hudson retired from the Mab- 
ley firm with sixty thousand dollars as his share 
of the profits for the three years, his actual 
withdrawal occurring on the loth of January, 
1881. Soon came the inception of a battle 
royal between this valiant business man and his 
quondam employer and associate, Mr. Mabley, 
and in reverting to this noteworthy business 
contest it must be said that Mabley found a 
"foeman worthy of his steel." The contest was 
protracted and was not even interrupted by the 
death of Mr. Mabley, in 1885. It has well 
been said that the "sacrifice" sales instituted by 
Mr. Hudson and emulated by the Mabley in- 
terests, were "the apotheosis of apparently 
reckless competition, business duels in which 
each merchant tries to outdo his rival. Dur- 
ing the tremendous sacrifice sale in the last 
week of June, 1883, Hudson and Mabley 
fought like tigers for supremacy. After each 
day's sales the respective stores were a hetero- 
geneous mass of odds and ends, the huge piles 
of garments all scattered and mixed, and ev- 
erything in chaos. The clerks worked double 
time and took their meals in the stores, while 



the managers scoured the wholesale stores per- 
sonally and other clothing centers by telegraph, 
to replace their broken stocks. Hudson on this 
occasion demonstrated his phenomenal capacity 
for mental and physical endurance. When the 
sale commenced he arrived at his store on Mon- 
day morning at five o'clock and never left it 
except on business until Thursday night at ten 
o'clock. He rushed home and took only two 
naps, of five hours each, during the whole of 
the fifty-eight hours. His meals were all eaten 
at the store. The specialty of the sale was five- 
dollar suits, and he sold over nine hundred 
suits the first day, besides doing a fair business 
in other goods." 

Thus Mr. Hudson's independent business 
venture in Detroit was made in the thick of 
battle, and the position which he to-day occu- 
pies indicates in an emphatic way that he was 
not worsted in the fray but emerged with the 
well won laurels and dignities of victory. 

The tnie caliber of the man has not been 
shown in a more significant manner than in 
his action relative to the settlement of claims 
which were held against him at the time of 
his business failure in 1876. No legal obliga- 
tion rested upon him to pay on these claims 
more than the percentage which had been 
agreed upon by his creditors, but he never felt 
for a moment but that the moral obligation 
remained his. How few have shown this rec- 
ognition in the world of business is too well 
known to require mention here, save in mat- 
ter of comparison to the lasting honor of Mr. 
Hudson. In 1879, a year after coming to De- 
troit, he went to all his local creditors and paid 
them the extra forty per cent on the claims 
which had been adjusted in 1876 at sixty cents 
on the dollar. In addition to this he insisted 
in paying also compound interest for the inter- 
vening period. In August, 1888, he was able 
to make the same provision with his eastern 
creditors, paying out a total of more than twen- 
ty-five thousand dollars. His course caused ab- 
solute amazement in trade circles, so unprece- 
dented was such an exhibition of scrupulous 
honesty and integrity. Mr. Hudson has ever 
disclaimed any credit for his manly action, 
maintaining that it was the right course and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



311 



modestly warding off praise, as he has done 
in other innumerable instances where he has 
wrought good works and "blushed to find them 
fame." 

In 1 88 1, just before leaving the Mabley es- 
tablishment, Mr. Hudson and his brother, 
James B;, purchased the William Mabley store 
in Toledo, and the business was conducted 
under the iirm name of J. L. & J. B. Hudson 
for many years, that firm being succeeded by 
the J. L. Hudson Company. In 1883 Mr. Hud- 
son started branch stores in Flint, Owosso and 
Saginaw, Michigan, but these were discontin- 
ued when he went forth into broader fields of 
commercial enterprise. In February, 1884, 
Mr. Hudson became associated with Campbell 
Symington in the purchase of the carpet and 
drapery business which had previously been 
conducted by Abbott & Ketchum, and the new 
firm of Hudson & Symington built the enter- 
prise up to a point attained by no other similar 
concern in Detroit. In January, 1885, Mr. 
Hudson bought the Excelsior clothing store in 
Cleveland, one of the finest in the middle west, 
and the same has since been successfully con- 
ducted under his control, doing an average an- 
nual business of many hundred thousand dol- 
lars. 

In a publication of the province assigned to 
the one at hand it is specially gratifying to note 
that Mr. Hudson's most important, most suc- 
cessful and most brilliant achievements in busi- 
ness have been in Detroit, his home city, and 
one to whose every interest he has at all times 
been loyal. His first independent enterprise 
after severing connection with the Mabley in- 
terests was, as already intimated, that involved 
in his opening the clothing store in the old De- 
troit Opera House block, which was later de- 
stroyed by fire. This was the nucleus of the 
mammoth and thoroughly modern establish- 
ment of which he is now the head and which 
is conducted under title of the J. L. Hudson 
Company. He utilized the original quarters 
for a period of five years and then removed 
north on Woodward avenue, to the Henkel 
building, where he remained until September, 
1 89 1, when he took possession of his present 
magnificent building, which he had erected at 
the corner of Gratiot avenue and Farmer street. 



In no way has his confidence in the develop- 
ment of Detroit, the expansion of its retail dis- 
trict and the ultimate centering of the district 
farther north from the Campus Martius been 
better shown than in his making this change 
of location, which was viewed with question- 
able approval and in some instances with defi- 
nite ridicule by the leading business men of 
the city. His prescience as to ultimate results 
has been amply justified, and to him is due all 
of credit for having led the advance march, 
putting to blush those of less faith. In 1889 
Mr. Hudson purchased the land on which the 
building stands — two hundred and twenty-one 
feet on Farmer street and one hundred feet on 
Gratiot avenue, and here he erected what was 
at the time unmistakably the finest business 
block in the city — one which is yet among the 
best. The building is of brick and granite and 
steel construction, is eight stories in height and 
represented an original expenditure, for land, 
building, fixtures and furniture, of about five 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. In 1907 
an addition was completed on the Farmer street 
front, of the same height and architecture of 
the original building and thirty-three feet in 
width, seven new elevators of the latest plunger 
type were installed, as well as a new electric- 
light plant, new fire sprinkler equipment, new 
boilers, an entire new steam plant — the best 
and most complete store service in Michigan. 
The cost of the new building and all the im- 
provements was approximately three hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars. The fine establish- 
ment is now conducted as a general department 
store and is one which compares more than 
favorably with the leading concerns of the sort 
in the largest metropolitan centers of the coun- 
try. It is needless to give details as to depart- 
ments and the facilities and equipment of the 
gigantic trade mart, still the largest of the sort 
in Detroit, but an idea of the magnificent scope 
of the business is afforded when it is stated 
that the annual transactions have now attained 
an average aggregate of two millions of dol- 
lars. The entire building is utilized by the 
Hudson Company, which is capitalized at five 
hundred thousand dollars, under title of the 
J. L. Hudson Company. No one has better 



312 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



deserved the title of "captain of industry," and 
none has done more than Mr. Hudson to for- 
ward the advancement of Detroit along normal 
and substantial lines of business enterprise. As 
an employer he is kind and liberal, but his ad- 
ministrative policy has never been flexible in 
matter of discipline. His faculty for the mar- 
shaling of forces under his command shows 
how thoroughly he appreciates the value of dis- 
cipline, and in his store have been trained many 
whose success in life has been the result of his 
admonition, interest and direction. He is es- 
sentially a man of his word, and in a business 
sense no better commendation can be given than 
to pronounce this dictum. His great business 
enterprise- has been built up on honor, upon 
such integrity as would naturally animate a 
man who insisted on paying a residuum of in- 
debtedness not tallied against him on any other 
score than that of just such high ethical prin- 
ciples. These things adequately designate the 
standing of Joseph L. Hudson in Detroit and 
in the general business world, so that further 
commentary is not demanded in this sketch. 

In all lines of public enterprise Mr. Hudson 
has given his influence and co-operation with 
utmost liberality. He has served as president 
of the Detroit Board of Commerce, and did 
much to further the beneficent plans and enter- 
prises of that valued organization. He is at 
the present time president of Harper Hospital 
and also of the Associated Charities of Detroit. 
He is likewise retained in the presidency of 
each the Municipal League and the Provident 
Loan Society of Detroit; is vice-president of 
the Dime Savings Bank ; a director of the 
American Exchange National Bank; a trustee 
of the Central Methodist Episcopal church; a 
member of the advisory board of the Detroit 
Young Men's Christian Association and also 
a member of the commission having in charge 
the erection of the new building of the associa- 
tion ; and is a member of the advisory board 
of the Young Women's Christian Association, 
and chairman of the board of trustees of the 
McGregor Mission. 

Mr. Hudson is not bound to strict partisan 
lines in the matter of political affiliation, but is 
a believer in the basic principles for which the 



Democratic party stands sponsor. In local af- 
fairs, especially, he exercises his franchise in 
support of the men and measures meeting the 
approval of his judgment, irrespective of party 
allegiance. He is an uncompromising foe to 
the liquor traffic and voices his opinions with- 
out fear or favor, being animated, as in all 
other relations, by high humanitarian princi- 
ples, though ever kindly and tolerant in his 
judgment, by reason of his appreciation of the 
springs of human thought and action and the 
varying limitations of different persons. He 
has been most liberal in his benefactions to 
charitable and benevolent institutions and ob- 
jects, and generous in the matter of private 
benevolences. That he is essentially humanity's 
friend has been proven on so many occasions 
and in such definite ways that no further af- 
firmation of the fact is required in this connec- 
tion. He has not been unmindful of his civic 
duties and, amidst the cares and great exactions 
of his great business interests, he has consented 
to serve in unsalaried municipal offices, having 
served as a member of each the water commis- 
sion and the electrical lighting commission. He 
has, however, never had aught of inclination 
for practical politics and has never sought or 
desired official preferment. Mr. Hudson is a 
bachelor, but, notwithstanding that, he has an 
ideal home life, living in the old David Whit- 
ney house on Woodward avenue, where he has 
with him eight members of his immediate fam- 
ily. The children there think there is no one 
else in the wide world as good as "Uncle Joe." 



CLARENCE M. BURTON. 

It is the earnest desire of the publishers of 
this work to offer in its pages a permanent 
mark of the appreciation due from them to 
Clarence M. Burton, whose able co-operation 
has been most courteously accorded in the re- 
vision of the historical manuscript which has 
entered into this compilation. No resident of 
the state has a wider and more intimate knowl- 
edge of its history, even to the most obscure 
details, than has he, and this fact gives em- 
phasis to the value of his assistance in the colla- 
tion and arrangement of the material for 




LNORAVtO B"-' -tN 




^'""2--^, ^\^_^.1.T^^^-^<-^ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



313 



this publication. A man of the highest liter- 
ary appreciation, of most comprehensive read- 
ing and study, and of distinctive intellectual 
force, he has otherwise contributed in large 
measure to perpetuating matters of historic in- 
terest in Detroit and Michigan. He is a mem- 
ber of the bar of the state, though not engaged 
in the active work of his profession, is a citi- 
zen of insistent loyalty and public spirit, and is 
known as one of the representative business 
men of Detroit, where he has provided and as- 
sembled most complete and authoritative ab- 
stracts of land titles for Wayne county, af- 
fording the best of reference facilities, besides 
which he has for a number of years past been 
an extensive operator in the local real-estate 
field. 

Mr. Burton is a native of fair state of 
California, having been bom in Sierra county, 
on the 1 8th of November, 1853, and being a 
son of Charles S. and Annie E. (Monroe) 
Burton, both of whom were bom and reared in 
Seneca county, New York, — the heart of the 
beautiful lake district of the Empire state. In 
1855, when he was but two years of age, his 
parents removed to Michigan and took up their 
residence in Hastings, the judicial center of 
Barry county. They passed the residue of 
their lives in this state, where the father's prin- 
cipal occupation was that of physician. 

Clarence M. Burton secured his preliminary 
educational training in the public schools of 
Hastings, and in 1869 he was matriculated in 
the literary department of the University of 
Michigan, where he continued his studies for 
three years but did not complete his course. 
In 1872 he entered the law department of the 
same institution, in which he was graduated 
in March of the following year, after a credit- 
able examination. He had previously read 
law under the direction of private preceptors. 
The day succeeding his graduation and inci- 
dental acquiring of the degree of Bachelor of 
Laws, Mr. Burton came to Detroit. As he 
had not yet attained to his legal majority, and 
was therefore ineligible for admission to the 
bar of the state, he entered the law office of 
Ward & Palmer, under whose direction he 
continued his study, with incidental profes- 



sional work of a preliminary order, until the 
19th of November, 1874, when he was admitted 
to practice in the circuit court of Wayne 
county, — the day following his twenty-first 
birthday. The firm with which he had been 
associated for the several preceding years made 
a specialty of extending financial loans on real- 
estate security, and his duties had been largely 
in the examining of land titles. The senior 
member of the firm, John Ward, was also a 
member of the firm of E. C. Skinner & Com- 
pany, engaged in the abstract business, and in 
the well ordered offices of this latter firm Mr. 
Burton found employment at leisure moments 
and at night, with the result that he soon made 
himself an indispensable factor in the enter- 
prise, which was one of large proportions. In 
1883 he secured an interest in the business, of 
which he became the sole manager in the fol- 
lowing year. Since that time he has given the 
major portion of his time and attention to the 
abstract business, in which he has recognized 
priority over all other similar concerns in 
Wayne county. He was associated in this busi- 
ness with his former employer, John Ward, 
until 1 89 1, since which year he has maintained 
the entire ownership and control of the large 
and splendidly organized business to whose up- 
building he had contributed in so large a meas- 
ure. It has been said with all of consistency 
that "A Burton abstract is considered by deal- 
ers in real estate, either sellers or purchasers, 
as good as a deed itself." The perfect system 
of conducting the business finds exemplifica- 
tion in simplicity and absolutely exactitude, 
and neither labor nor expense has been denied 
in the preparation of the abstracts, which num- 
ber fully 150,000. Research and investigation 
have been most careful and exhaustive, so that 
the business is founded upon a basis absolutely 
authoritative. 

Mr. Burton has an eminently judicial mind, 
and a clear and ample knowledge of the science 
of jurispmdence. He had gained no slight 
prestige in the practice of law in the earlier 
(lays and his success in the profession was 
practically assured of being pronounced and 
cumulative had he not found it expedient to 
direct his energies in other fields. He has han- 



314 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



died large and valuable properties in Detroit 
and Wayne county and in his real-estate opera- 
tions been most successful, as'might be inferred 
from his intimate knowledge of values. To his 
fine abstract files recourse is had by practically 
all leading dealers of real estate in the county, 
as well as by those making individual sales or 
purchases. 

While never imbued with political ambition 
Mr. Burton has ever been arrayed as a stalwart 
and appreciative supporter of the principles 
and policies for which the Republican party 
stands sponsor, and he has done effective serv- 
ice in the cause. He was a member of the state 
constitutional convention in the spring of 1908 
and had much to do with shaping the new con- 
stitution to be presented to the people of 
Michigan for ratification in the autumn 
of the present year (1908). He has been an 
influential member of the board of education 
of Detroit since 1902, and his interest in the 
work of the public schools of the city has been 
shown in a determined advocacy of effective 
measures of control and administration. In the 
matter of religion Mr. Burton has ever shown 
a deep respect for the spiritual verities, but he 
is not a supporter of creeds or dogmas, basing 
his opinions upon scientific data and holding 
practically to the agnostic belief. He recog- 
nizes the various religious denominations as 
valuable and worthy moral factors in every 
community and has been a liberal contributor 
to their work, though far from being in accord 
with their canonical tenets. 

It is with special gratification that the writer 
adverts at this point to a work which has en- 
grossed much of the time and intellectual re- 
sourcefulness of Mr. Burton, — that of histor- 
ical and general literary research and apprecia- 
tion. In this field his accomplishment has been 
almost phenomenal, in view of the exactions 
placed upon him by his business affairs. A 
mind particularly enriched and illumined by 
discriminating reading and study of the best in 
classical and historical literature, as well as 
that of contemporary order, has found its 
greatest recreation in deep research work and 
in the accumulation of a most extensive and 
valuable private library, in which are found 



many rare, unique and especially valuable 
works. Mr. Burton's pride in his private ' 
library, one of the best of its kind in the mid- ^ 
die west, if not in the entire Union, is well 
justified, and no man in the state is more in- 
timately informed upon its history, from the , 
earliest period to the present time. His inter- 
est in literature has not, however, been hedged ' 
in by selfishness or the narrow reserve of the 
helluo libroritm. This is shown in a significant | 
way by his presentation to the University of 
Michigan of a great collection of works per- , 
taining to the French revolution and of early 
installments of that colossal and monumental 
publication. "Stevens' Facsimilies of European 
Archives Relating to American Affairs at the 
Era of the Revolution." A fitting recognition 
of his benefactions to the university, as well as 
of his profound delving in the field of litera- 
ture, was given by that institution when it con- 
ferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts, which would have been his had he com- 
pleted his prescribed course in the university in 
his youthful days. Later the university also 
conferred upon him the degree of Master of 
Arts and Bachelor of Laws. He is now in- 
cumbent of the office of city historiographer of 
Detroit. 

It is deemed consonant to reproduce in this 
connection an estimate of Mr. Burton which 
was given by one who has known him intim- 
ately from his childhood and who has regarded 
his career with admiring interest. This esti- 
mate originally appeared in the Cyclopedia of 
Michigan, edition of 1900, and is as follows: 

"Mr. Burton is a man of large physique and 
dignified bearing, of pleasing address, of ge- 
nial disposition and cordial manners; loyal to 
his friends, generous to his employes, and 
courteous to everybody. He has indomitable 
energy, good judgment, and excellent execu- 
tive ability. His mind has a natural legal bent 
and a fair degree of judicial aptitude, coupled 
with fondness for historical research. He at- 
tained a good standing while at the bar, and 
would doubtless have grown to a high position 
in the profession had he remained in it. He 
seems to have had an early taste for the in- 
tricate and knotty problems of realty law. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



315 



which may have had something to do with 
diverting his footsteps into their present path- 
way. He has taken hold of the abstract busi- 
ness with an earnestness that indicates an in- 
tention to make it a Hfe work, and with that 
purpose in view has laid his plans on a broad 
and comprehensive scale ; every item of the 
work is planned and carried out not with ref- 
erence to the immediate profit alone but with a 
forecast of future needs and requirements. Ev- 
erything that bears upon land titles, whether 
historical, topographical or biographical, is 
sure to find in him an interested investigator. 
Working at his desk from eight in the morn- 
ing till six at night, or later if need be, he will 
then sit up till the small hours come around 
again, tinkering in his great library upon some 
literai-y scheme that has attracted his attention. 
His researches have taken him to the early 
archives of Canada and France, whence he 
has unearthed some very interesting informa- 
tion bearing upon the early history of Detroit 
and Michigan. He is never happier than when 
delving into some old, musty records of the 
past. Few men have anything like his knowl- 
edge of the early history of Detroit in its 
minute details. He combines in an uncommon 
way the qualities of a business man who pur- 
sues literary investigations without injury to 
his business, and of a student whose business 
does not interfere with his researches." 

On Christmas day of the year 1872, Mr. 
Burton was united in marriage to Miss Har- 
riet J. Nye, daughter of the late Nelson B. 
Nye, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and they had 
eight children. After the death of Mrs. Har- 
riet J. (Nye) Burton, Mr. Burton married, 
on the 2 1 St of June, 1900, Mrs. Anna (Mon- 
roe) Knox, and they have one child. 

HENRY MARTIN DUFFIELD. 

General Duffield is a representative of one 
of the old and honored families of Detroit ; he 
served with much distinction in the civil war 
and, many years later, in the Spanish-Ameri- 
can war; he is a representative member of the 
bar of the state of Michigan, and as a loyal 
and public-spirited citizen he is widely known 
and honored in his native city and state. He 
is a son of Rev. George Duffield, D. D., and 



Isabella Graham (Bethune) Duffield, whose 
names are held in reverent memory in Detroit. 
An extended sketch concerning the Duffield 
family is incorporated on other pages of this 
work, with special tributes to the parents of 
General Duffield, and in view of this fact it is 
not demanded that the comprehensive data be 
further considered in the article at hand. 

Henry M. Duffield was born in Detroit, on 
the 15th of May, 1842, at which time his hon- 
ored father was pastor of the First Presbyterian 
church of this city, having assumed this charge 
in the year which marked the admission of 
Michigan to the federal Union. General Duf- 
field was afforded the advantages of the public 
schools of Detroit and was graduated in the 
old Capitol high school as a member of the 
class of 1858. He thereafter was a student 
for one year in the University of Michigan, 
and upon leaving this institution he entered 
the junior class of Williams College, at Will- 
iamstown, Massachusetts, in which he was 
graduated in 1861, with the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts. The intrinsic loyalty and patriotism of 
the young collegiate was significantly shown 
almost immediately after his graduation, for 
he promptly tendered his services in defense of 
the Union at the very inception of the civil 
war. On the i6th of August, 1861, he en- 
listed as a volunteer, and incidentally had the 
distinction of being the first student of his alma 
mater to take this action. On the loth of the 
following September he was enrolled as a pri- 
vate in the Ninth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, 
and he was mustered in as sergeant major. On 
the 1 2th of the following month he was pro- 
moted first lieutenant, and three days later his 
regiment was mustered into the United States 
service, with Lieutenant Duffield as adjutant. 
He proceeded with his command to the field 
of operations in Kentucky. Soon afterward 
he was appointed assistant adjutant-general of 
the Twenty-third Brigade, Army of the Cum- 
berland. It was his fortune to be an active 
participant in many of the most important en- 
gagements which marked the progress of the 
great internecine conflict and to win, through 
gallant and meritorious service, successive offi- 
cial promotions. While it is not possible with- 
in the circumscribed limitations of a sketch of 



316 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



this order to enter into full details concerning 
his record in the civil war, it is deemed but 
consonant that the following epitome of his 
service, from the records of the war depart- 
ment, be incorporated for richly merited per- 
petuation : 

"Assigned to McCook's corps. Department 
of the Ohio, afterwards Amiy of the Cumber- 
land, November, 1861. Sixteenth Brigade. 
Department of the Ohio, December. On duty 
at West Point and various other places in Ken- 
tucky, constructing field works and bridges, 
until January 4, 1862. Assistant adjutant-gen- 
eral Twenty-third Brigade, Army of the Cum- 
berland, from February to July, 1862. De- 
tailed as adjutant-general of United States 
forces in Kentucky, stationed at Louisville, 
May, 1862. Pursuit of Morgan, Lebanon, 
Tennessee, May 5. Winchester, June 3 ; Swee- 
den's Cove, June 3; Chattanooga, June 7-8. 
Assistant adjutant -general on staff of General 
T. L. Crittenden, July 17, 1862. Murfrees- 
boro, July 13. Prisoner of war, exchanged 
August 15, 1862. On duty with provost guard, 
headquarters Fourteenth Army Corps, No- 
vember, 1862. Lavergne, December 27; 
Stone's River, December 30-31, 1862, and Jan- 
uary 1-2-3. 1863. By order of General George 
H. Thomas assigned to command of mounted 
provost guard, headquarters Fourteenth Army 
Corps, June 9, 1863. Post adjutant, Chatta- 
nooga, November 9, 1863; Chattanooga, No- 
vember 23. Orchard Knob, November 24; 
Missionary Ridge, November 25. Assistant 
provost marshal general, Army of the Cumber- 
land, on staff of General George H. Thomas. 
March i to October 14, 1864; Army of the 
Cumberland, April 13 to May 18, 1864. 
Rocky face Ridge, May 8-1 1, 1864; Buzzard's 
Roost, May 10; Tunnel Hill, May 10; Resaca, 
May 13-16; Adairville, May 17-18; Caseville, 
May 19-22; Dallas, May 25 to June 4; Pump- 
kinvine Creek, May 27; New Hope Church, 
May 30; Kenesaw Mountain, June 9-30; Big 
Shanty, June 10; Golgotha, June 15; Pine 
Mountain, June 16; assault on Kenesaw. June 
27; Nickajack Creek, July 2-5; Vining's Sta- 
tion, July 5; passage of Chattahoochie. July 
6-10; Peach Tree Creek, July 19-20; siege of 



Atlanta, from July 28 to September 2. Acting 
provost marshal general on staff of General 
George H. Thomas, from Chattanooga to At- 
lanta. Eutoy Creek, August 5-6; Mount 
Gilead Church. August 27; Jonesboro. August 
31 to September 7; Lovejoy Station, Septem- 
ber 2-5. Mustered out and honorably dis- 
charged at Atlanta, Georgia, October 14, 
1864." 

From the above list the student of our na- 
tion's history can gain a definite idea of the 
long and arduous service accorded by General 
Duffield in the great conflict through which the 
integrity of the Union was perpetuated. At 
the inception of the Spanish-American war it 
was again the privilege of this veteran soldier 
to render service in arms. He received, un- 
solicited, a commission, from President McKin- 
ley, as brigadier-general of volunteers, and pro- 
ceeded to the scene of conflict in command of 
the Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Michigan 
and Ninth Massachusetts volunteers. He took 
part in the campaign of Santiago de Cuba and 
in the attack on Aguadores, and after the de- 
parture of General Young he was in command 
of Siboney until stricken down with yellow 
fever, from the effects of which dread scourge 
he did not recover for many months. His 
service in the Spanish war was marked by the 
same fidelity and loyalty as were shown in his 
record during the Rebellion, and he gained 
new honors as a commanding officer of ability 
and discretion. Upon the recommendation of 
General Shafter, President McKinley nomi- 
nated him as brevet major-general. 

General Duffield has ever retained a deep 
interest in military affairs and especially in his 
old comrades of the civil war. He is a mem- 
ber of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, 
and in 1897 he served as commander of the 
Michigan Commandery of this noble organi- 
zation. He was the first commander of De- 
troit Post, No. 384, Grand Army of the Re- 
public, and is still an active member. He was 
also commander of the Michigan department 
of the Grand Army of the Republic and na- 
tional vice-commander in chief. In 1895 he 
was elected president of the Detroit Light 
Guard, the oldest military organization in the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



317 



city, and of this position he is still incumbent. 
In 1874 he was appointed a member of the 
state military board of Michigan, with the 
rank of colonel, and as such he served on the 
staffs of Governors Bagley, Croswell and 
Jerome. Within his tenure of this position the 
militia of the state was reorganized and uni- 
formed. He continued in this office until Jan- 
uary, 1883, when he retired, having been presi- 
dent of the board at the time. In 1885 he was 
again appointed to the same office, by Governor 
Alger, being again chosen president of the 
board, and he served during the administration 
of General Alger as chief executive of the state. 

Reverting to the point at which General 
Duffield completed his service in the civil war, 
it may be noted that he returned to Detroit, 
where he took up the study of law under the 
preceptorship of his brother, the late D. Be- 
thune Duffield, to whom a specific memoir is 
entered on other pages of this work. Under 
such able direction General Duffield made rapid 
progress in his assimilation of the minutiae of 
the science of jurisprudence, and in 1865 he 
was admitted to the bar of his native state. 
During the long intervening period of more 
than forty years he has been engaged in the 
active practice of his profession, in which his 
success has been of most unequivocal order and 
in which he has added to the professional luster 
of the honored family name. He has been 
identified with much of the important litiga- 
tion in the various county, state and federal 
courts, and the records of the same bear evi- 
dence of his pronounced and manifold victories. 
As a counselor also his services have been re- 
tained by many representative corporations and 
business concerns, as well as private individ- 
uals. His knowledge of the law is profound, 
as he has continued a close and appreciative 
student and has a mind peculiarly judicial in 
its bent. He was counselor for the Detroit 
board of education from 1866 to 1870, and it 
is due to his efforts that to the public library 
are diverted the fines collected in the city police 
courts, — now amounting to full thirty thousand 
dollars annually. From 1881 to 1887 General 
Duffield was city counselor, and in this office 
he rendered admirable service in the protec- 



tion and administration of municipal affairs. 
He was the first president of the Michigan 
State Bar Association and has been a member 
of the American Bar Association from the time 
of its organization. He is professor of federal 
practice and jurisprudence in the Detroit Col- 
lege of Law. He served one term as a mem- 
ber of the board of water commissioners, of 
which he was chosen the presiding officer, also 
as a member of the board of park commission- 
ers. At the time of his retirement from the 
water board, in May, 1895, he was presented 
with a beautifully engrossed copy of the reso- 
lutions passed by his associates on the board. 
The testimonial is substantially as follows : 

The members of the board of water commis- 
sioners of the city of Detroit desire to express 
their appreciation of the services rendered to 
this board and to the city of Detroit by Colonel 
Henry M. Duffield, whose term of office as 
water commissioner, covering a period of five 
years, has now expired. Distinguished for uni- 
form courtesy and polished address, a scholar 
by intellectual endowment and liberal educa- 
tion, patriotic and public-spirited, Colonel Duf- 
field combines in a pre-eminent degree those 
qualities that men respect and esteem. As 
president of the board he judiciously and skill- 
fully guided its policy with unassumed and 
quiet dignity, always patient and always con- 
siderate of the opposing opinions of others. 
His wisdom, acquired from long experience 
and familiarity with affairs, became the prop- 
erty of his fellow commissioners, and in the 
company of the wise man we all seemed wise. 
Anxious to obtain the most efficient service 
for the benefit of the city, and mindful that 
public position demands capacity, intelligence 
and honesty, he invariably recommended ap- 
pointments upon merit rather than favor, never 
using his official power for personal ends. We 
are consoled for his loss as a fellow commis- 
sioner by the knowledge that he is still our fel- 
low citizen, — one for whom we shall always 
continue to entertain the highest regard and in 
whose welfare we shall ever feel an earnest 
concern. 

In 1903 President Roosevelt appointed Gen- 
eral Duffield umpire in the German- Venezuelan 
arbitration, and he spent four months in Cara- 
cas as presiding officer of that tribunal. His 
services were commended highly in a joint let- 



318 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ter of the German and Venezuelan commission- 
ers, who thus gave mark of appreciation in such 
terms that the text of the letter was given out 
from the White House to the Associated Press, 
by the direction of the president. 

In his political allegiance General Duffield 
has always been arrayed as a stalwart supporter 
and advocate of the principles of the Repub- 
lican party, in whose cause he has given large 
and effective service. He was chairman of the 
Republican state central committee and a mem- 
ber of the Michigan delegation to the Repub- 
lican national conventions at Chicago and In- 
dianapolis, being foremost in forwarding the 
candidacy of General Russell A. Alger, De- 
troit's honored and distinguished citizen, for 
nomination for the presidency. He was chair- 
man of the Michigan delegation to the national 
Republican convention at Minneapolis. He 
has never sought or desired political prefer- 
ment, though his name has been often sug- 
gested in connection with offices of high public 
trust. He and his wife are zealous and valued 
members of the Presbyterian church and lib- 
erally support its various departments of work. 
The General is an active member of the Union 
League Club and the University Club, both of 
New York city, the Army and Navy Club, of 
Washington, D. C, and the Detroit Club, 
Yondotega Club and Country Club. He is 
identified with a large number of representa- 
tive civic and social organizations, including 
the Sons of the American Revolution and the 
Detroit lodge of Elks. 

On the 29th of December, 1863, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of General Duffield to 
Miss Frances Merrill Pitts, a daughter of the 
late Samuel Pitts, of Detroit, and a direct 
descendant of Mayflower Puritan stock. She 
died in 1906. General and Mrs. Duffield had 
seven sons, all of whom save one have been 
graduated in Harvard University, and all are 
well upholding the honors of an honored name. 
Henry M. Duffield, Jr., is secretary of Detroit 
White Lead Works; Pitts Duffield is presi- 
dent of Duffield & Company, publishers. New 
York; Divie Bethune Duffield is an attorney 
and a partner of his father in the firm of H. M. 
& D. B. Duffield, Union Trust building; Dr. 



Francis Duffield resides at 248 Seminole ave- 
nue, Detroit; Morse S. Duffield is a mining 
engineer, at Salt Lake City; and Graham 
Duffield is general manager of the Michigan 
Equipment Company, Majestic building, 
Detroit. 



CALEB VAN HUSAN. 

Success in any line of occupation, in any 
avenue of business, is not a matter of spon- 
taneity but is the legitimate offspring of sub- 
jective effort, the improvement of opportunity 
and the exercise of the highest functions made 
possible by the specific ability. To trace the 
history of a successful and worthy life must 
ever prove profitable and satisfying indulgence, 
for the history of the individual is the history 
of the nation; the history of the nation that of 
the world. The subject of this memoir at- 
tained to a high degree of success in material 
affairs, having to do with the matters of broad 
scope and influence, and over and above this 
his private life was singularly pure and noble, 
— one altogether worthy of emulation. He 
eminently deserves classification among those 
self-made men who have distinguished them- 
selves for their ability to master the opposing 
forces in life and to wrest from fate a large 
measure of success and an honorable name. 

Mr. Van Husan had his nativity and youth 
encompassed by those environments which 
have ever made for the development of strong 
individuality and sterling attributes of char- 
acter. He was a pioneer of Michigan and his 
name has no insignificant place in her annals 
and those of the city of Detroit. He was born 
at Manchester, Ontario county. New York, on 
the 13th of March, 1815, and was a son of 
William Van Husan, a native of Holland, 
whence he immigrated to America when a 
youth. The subject of this sketch remained 
at the parental home, receiving limited edu- 
cational advantages, until he had attained to 
the age of thirteen years, when his mother 
died. This fact, coupled with the very lim- 
ited financial circumstances of the family, 
proved the impetus which sent the boy forth 
to grapple with life's responsibilities for him- 
self. He became an apprentice to a cabinet- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



319 



maker, was "furnished plain living and scanty 
clothing, but plenty of work, and by agree- 
ment was to have three months' schooling in 
the district school every year." His employer 
failed to provide for the schooling in harmony 
with his agreement and the boy determined to 
secure a release from his apprenticeship. In 
order to compass this result he was compelled 
to furnish security for a suit of clothes pur- 
chased for but withheld from him. Of this 
episode in his early independent career the 
following pertinent statements have been 
made: "Three neighbors, who were struck 
with the diligence and sturdy energy of the 
boy, became security for the clothes. Caleb 
then went to Albion, New York, where he 
worked at his trade and earned the fourteen 
dollars necessary to pay for the clothes, thus 
relieving his friends from their obligation. In 
this we have early evidence of the sterling 
business integrity which characterized him 
through his entire life." 

In February, 1836, when only twenty years 
of age, Mr. Van Husan was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Catherine Jackson, daughter of 
Samuel Jackson, of Palmyra, New York, and 
soon afterward he became associated with his 
father-in-law in the general merchandise busi- 
ness. In November, 1838, he took up his resi- 
dence in Saline, Michigan, which was then a 
small forest hamlet in a sparsely settled sec- 
tion, and there opened a country store. He 
remained there until 1853 and in the meanwhile 
built up a very prosperous business, as meas- 
ured by the standards of the time and locality, 
accumulating a fair property and a high repu- 
tation for fair and honorable dealing as a busi- 
ness man. While a resident of Saline he was 
elected to represent his county in the state leg- 
islature, serving one term, — the session of 
1844. In 1846 he was one of the four dele- 
gates from Michigan who attended the great 
river and harbor convention in Chicago. 

In 1853, realizing the broader opportunities 
ofifered in the metropolis of the state, Mr. Van 
Husan removed to Detroit, where he was en- 
gaged in the mercantile business about two 
years, at the expiration of which he retired, 
though only forty years of age at the time. 



It was not his to remain inactive, however, 
and as his capital increased through his various 
investments he found ample demand upon his 
time and attention. For many years he was 
a member of the directorate of the Detroit 
Locomotive Works; he was also a director of 
the Michigan Insurance Company Bank, which 
later became the First National Bank of De- 
troit ; and he was elected the first president of 
the Detroit Fire & Marine Insurance, remain- 
ing incumbent of this office until the time of 
his death and being one of the dominating fig- 
ures in the building up of the magnificent insti- 
tution. It has well been said that "his business 
habits and well known integrity aided very 
greatly in making that insurance company one 
of the most successful in the country." In the 
great Chicago, Manistee and Muskegon fires 
of 1 87 1 every dollar of the capital stock and 
surplus of the company was lost, but so great 
was the faith of its stockholders in its man- 
agement that each of the number at once con- 
tributed his quota of the one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars necessary to restore the 
capital stock. 

In 1865 occurred the death of Mr. Van 
Husan's first wife, who was survived by five 
children. In 1866 he contracted a second mar- 
riage, being then united to Mrs. Emily C. 
Burr, of Gloversville, New York. Of the sec- 
ond marriage one child, Harry C, survives 
him. Concerning the children of the first mar- 
riage the following brief data are entered : 
Laura J. is the widow of William A. Moore; 
Flora B. is the widow of Silas B. Coleman; 
Katherine is the widow of William H. Wells ; 
Fannie is the wife of John Ward Whitbeck; 
Edward C. is individually mentioned in this 
publication. 

Mr. Van Husan was a stockholder in the 
Buhl Iron Works, one of the great manufac- 
turing concerns of Detroit, and was a director 
of the same at the time of his death. In the 
'60s and '70s he served as a member of the 
Detroit water board, but he was never a seeker 
of public office. In politics he gave his sup- 
port to the Democratic party. 

His own lack of early educational advan- 
tages led Mr. Van Husan to place a high val- 



320 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



uation on the same and he took unquahfied 
satisfaction and pride in affording his chil- 
dren the best possible opportunities in this line. 
He was for many years a member of the board 
of trustees of Madison University, at Hamil- 
ton, New York, and he also took an early and 
active interest in Kalamazoo College, as well 
as all that touched other phases of the work 
of the Baptist church throughout the state of 
Michigan. He united with this denomination 
when but fourteen years of age, at Knowles- 
ville, New York, and ever remained a faithful 
and zealous worker in the church. He was one 
of the pillars of the Baptist church in Saline 
and upon removing to Detroit he united with 
the First Baptist church. He was afterward 
instrumental in organizing the Lafayette 
Avenue Baptist church, now known as the 
Woodward Avenue Baptist church, and of the 
former he was senior deacon at the time of his 
death. He gave months of personal super- 
vision to the erection of the church edifice on 
Lafayette avenue and made a liberal subscrip- 
tion to the erection of the magnificent church 
on Woodward avenue, completed since his 
demise. 

The following appreciative estimate, written 
by one familiar with the life and labors of Mr. 
Van Husan, is properly given reproduction at 
this point : "Mr. Van Husan was emphatically 
a domestic man; his home was his kingdom; 
there he delighted to gather his family and his 
friends; there he was ever at rest, preferring 
the quiet of his fireside to the duties of social 
life. To a large degree he lived in and for 
his children. For two or three years prior to 
his death he suffered greatly from Ireart dis- 
ease. His days and weeks of suffering were 
suddenly and unexpectedly ended in the early 
dawn of August 20, 1884. The twin angels. 
Death and Sleep, exchanged their guardianship 
of a human spirit, and the soul of Caleb Van 
Husan passed through mortal sleep into the 
eternal waking of the heavenly land." 

Kindly, gentle and unostentatious, Mr. Van 
Husan significantly exemplified the faith that 
makes faithful, and on the record of his career 
there rests no suspicion of wrong or injustice. 
He made his life one of usefulness in all its 



relations, and mortal man can not do more. 
He left an impress upon the business life of 
Detroit, and here is given lasting honor to his 
memory. 



CHRISTIAN H. BUHL. 

Any piece of biographical writing shold be 
both an impression and an interpretation, quite 
as much as a summary of facts. Facts, to be 
sure, are of use as wholesome correctives of 
prejudice or whimsey; but in the condensed 
narrative of life there is danger that they may 
tyrannize. In studying a clean-cut, sane, dis- 
tinct character like that of the late Christian 
H. Buhl, interpretation follows fact in a 
straight line of derivation. There is small need 
for indirection or puzzling. His character was 
the positive expression of a strong nature and 
his strength was as the number of his days. 
His name looms large in connection with the 
industrial and civic history of the city of De- 
troit and the state of Michigan, and in a work 
of the province assigned to the one at hand it 
is imperative that an outline of his career be 
given, marked, as it was, by splendid achieve- 
ments and guided and governed by the highest 
personal integrity and honor. 

Christian H. Buhl's lineage may be traced 
to staunch German derivation and he himself 
was a native of the old Keystone state. He 
was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, May 
9, 1812, and was a son of Christian Buhl, who 
was born in Germany, in 1776, and who im- 
migrated to America in 1802, settling in west- 
ern Pennsylvania, where he passed the residue 
of his life, his death occurring in 1864. He 
was a merchant and farmer and was a man 
of worth and influence. The subject of this 
memoir secured his early educational discip- 
line in the common schools of his native com- 
monwealth, where he was reared to maturity 
and where, in his youth, he learned the trade 
of hatter, which he followed for some time in 
the city of Pittsburg. Upon attaining to his 
majority he determined to come to what was 
then considered the far west, and he arrived 
in Michigan in 1833, several years prior to the 
admission of the state to the Union. He made 
the trip from Pennsylvania down the Ohio 





<^<^:^^'^^ee. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



321 



river to the Mississippi and thence to Chicago, 
which was at that time practically nothing 
more than a frontier trading post. From the 
future metropolis of the west he crossed the 
lake to St. Joseph, from which point he made 
his way, by stage and on horseback, to De- 
troit, where he arrived in the spring of the 
year mentioned. He at once identified himself 
with the business interests of the city with 
whose material upbuilding and commercial and 
social advancement he was destined to be so 
largely concerned. He associated himself with 
his elder brother, Frederick, in establishing a 
small manufactory of hats and caps, and with- 
in a comparatively short time they also engaged 
in the fur business, in which department Chris- 
tian H. was the leading spirit in the initial 
stages, though his brother's name later became 
and long continued one of great prominence 
in this connection. Their operations in furs 
steadily broadened and strengthened, and ere 
long covered practically the entire northwest. 
In 1842 they joined the successors of the 
American Fur Company in the purchasing of 
furs throughout Canada and the states border- 
ing on the Great Lakes, and for a decade they 
controlled a very extensive business in this line, 
extending as far to the south as St. Louis. 
After the termination of the combination noted 
Christian H. Buhl continued in partnership 
with his brother until 1855, when he retired 
from the firm and associated himself with 
Charles Ducharme in the wholesale and retail 
hardware business, soon succeeding to the ex- 
tensive trade of Alexander H. Newbold and 
that of Ducharme & Bartholomew, and thus 
creating one of the most extensive enterprises 
of the sort in the west. The retail branch of 
the business was abolished in 1871, and after 
the death of Mr. Ducharme, in 1873, Mr. 
Buhl secured control of the entire enterprise, 
with which his two sons, Theodore D. and 
Frank H., eventually became identified, under 
the firm title of Buhl, Sons & Company, which 
still continues, though Frank H. Buhl is now 
the only surviving member. 

In 1863 Mr. Buhl and others bought the 
Westerman iron works at Sharon, Pennsylva- 
nia, and the name was then changed to the 



Sharon Iron Works. The business has been 
developed into one of the most extensive of 
the sort in the country, and has long been 
under the supervision of Frank H. Buhl, who 
has other large and diversified capitalistic in- 
terests in Pennsylvania. In 1864 the honored 
subject of this sketch purchased a controlling 
interest in the Detroit Locomotive Works, 
which he vitalized and expanded through his 
executive powers and fostering capitalistic sup- 
port. In 1880 the business was incorporated as 
the Buhl Iron Works, and Mr. Buhl remained 
president of the concern until his death. About 
1 88 1, in company with his son Theodore, he 
organized the Detroit Copper & Brass Rolling 
Mill Company, of which he was president for a 
long term of years. This enterprise likewise has 
been developed to magnificent proportions. He 
also gave inception to the Peninsular Car Com- 
pany, purchasing the old Walker car works, 
and his son Theodore D. was the first president 
of this corporation. Mr. Buhl had a notable 
initiative and administrative ability and as suc- 
cess crowned his labors in one field he ampli- 
fied his efforts in promoting other undertak- 
ings which conserved progress and substantial 
industrial and commercial prosperity. He was 
largely concerned in railway construction in 
the eariier days, having been chiefly instru- 
mental in the building of what is now the 
Ypsilanti & Hillsdale branch of the Lake Shore 
& Michigan Southern system and also of the 
Detroit & Logansport Railroad, of both of 
which companies he was president, besides 
being a stockholder in other eariy railroads in 
the state. 

It was but natural that Mr. Buhl should be- 
come largely concerned in banking enterprises 
in his home city as his prestige increased as a 
leading capitalist. In 1845 he was one of those 
instrumental in the reviving of the old Michi- 
gan State Bank, and neariy two score years 
later he took a prominent part in the organiza- 
tion of the Second National Bank of Detroit. 
When the charter of this institution expired 
he assisted in the organization of its successor, 
the Detroit National Bank, of which he was 
elected president in 1887. He was a large 
stockholder in the Union Trust Company at the 



322 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



time of his death and was the owner of a large 
amount of valuable realty in Detroit. 

A man of broad mental ken, Mr. Buhl did 
not hedge himself in with purely personal or 
business interests, but he lived up to the full 
tension of civic duty and responsibility and 
ever took pride in the beautiful city which was 
so long his home. In 1851 he was elected to 
represent the Second ward in the board of al- 
dermen, and from i860 to 1862 he was the 
city's mayor, giving a most creditable admin- 
istration, and that at the climacteric period 
marking the inception of the civil war, in which 
he gave a most loyal support to the Union. It 
was within his term as mayor that the erection 
of the present city hall was instituted. In poli- 
tics he was originally a Whig, but he identified 
himself with the Republican party at the time 
of its organization and thereafter continued 
a staunch advocate of its principles, though he 
was never an active politician. Of him it has 
been written : "Mr. Buhl always responded to 
the demands of charity, and made liberal dona- 
tions to Detroit institutions. He also gave a 
very valuable and complete law library to the 
University of Michigan. He was one of the 
original promoters of the Art Museum and a 
trustee of the Detroit Medical College. He 
was a consistent and valued member of the Fort 
Street Presbyterian church." 

In 1842 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Buhl to Miss Caroline De Long, of Utica, New 
York, and they became the parents of two sons 
and three daughters, all of whom are now de- 
ceased except Frank H., who maintains his 
home in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Mr. Buhl at- 
tained to the age of more than four score 
years, his death occurring in 1893, and his 
widow was summoned to the life eternal in 
1899. The names of both bear distinction on 
the roll of the honored pioneer citizens of the 
beutiful "City of the Straits." Mr. Buhl was 
a man of no little reserve, but he had the power 
of drawing to him close and loyal friends, who 
were appreciative of the sterling attributes of 
his character. His success was won by worthy 
means and upon his career rests no shadow of 
wrong or suspicion of evil. He knew men at 



their true worth and his life was marked by 
tolerance of judgment and by an impregnable 
integrity of purpose. 



WILLIAM A. BUTLER. 

A dominating figure in financial circles in 
Detroit and Michigan for a long term of years 
was the honored pioneer and sterling citizen to 
whom this brief memoir is dedicated. He be- 
came a resident of Detroit prior to the admis- 
sion of the state to the Union and in this city 
he was identified with banking interests in an 
active way for nearly a half century and up to 
the time when he was called from the scene of 
life's endeavors. His was a career of signal 
usefulness and honor and he kept throughout 
a life of prolonged and prolific application an 
escutcheon upon which appeared no semblance 
of blot or stain. He died at his home at 185 
Lafayette avenue, Detroit, on the 6th of May, 
1 89 1, in the fulness of years and accomplish- 
ment and secure in the esteem of all who 
knew him or had cognizance of his exalted 
citizenship. 

William A. Butler was bom in Deposit, 
Delaware county. New York, May 17, 181 3, 
and was a son of Samuel Butler, who was a 
lieutenant colonel in a regiment of New York 
infantry in the war of 1812, serving princi- 
pally on Long Island. For a number of years 
he was engaged in agricultural pursuits in the 
old Empire state, but he eventually came to 
Michigan, passing the closing years of his life 
in the home of his daughter, in Calhoun county. 
His wife died at the time of the birth of the 
subject of this sketch. William A. Butler was 
reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and 
attended the common schools, as opportunity 
presented, until he had attained to the age of 
fourteen years, in the meanwhile having de- 
veloped that spirit of self-reliance and that 
power of consecutive endeavor which so sig- 
nally conserved his success in later life. His 
education was rounded out under that wisest 
of all head masters, experience, and thus he 
effectually made good the handicap of earlier 
years, becoming a man of broad intellectual 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



323 



ken and splendid business acumen. At the 
early age of fourteen years he left the paternal 
roof to become dependent upon his own re- 
sources, having found employment, for varying 
periods, in Catskill, New York city, New 
Haven, Connecticut, and Northampton, Mas- 
sachusetts. 

Mr. Butler first came to Detroit in 1835, and 
here he maintained his residence consecutively 
from 1836 until the time of his death. For 
about a decade after coming to Detroit Mr. 
Butler was engaged in mercantile pursuits, and 
in 1847 he initiated his banking career, thus 
associating himself with the line of enterprise 
in which it was his to attain to so marked dis- 
tinction and so great a measure of success. In 
the year mentioned he formed a partnership 
with Alexander H. Dey, with whom he was 
associated in the private banking business for a 
short interval. He retired to establish a bank 
of his own, in 1848, under the title of William 
A. Butler & Company. When the Detroit 
Savings Fund Institute was started, the follow- 
ing year, with Chancellor Famsworth as presi- 
dent, Mr. Butler, who was a close friend of 
Mr. Famsworth, became the first cashier of the 
new institution. This was open only three 
mornings in the week and Mr. Butler con- 
tinued as cashier only a short time, owing to 
the increasing demands placed upon his time 
and attention by his own banking business. 

From the history of Michigan banks and 
bankers written by that honored contemporary 
of Mr. Butler, Emory Wendell, is drawn the 
following brief record of the banking career of 
the former : 

"In those days the banking business was 
very profitable, and as Mr. Butler was shrewd 
and energetic he soon laid the foundation of a 
handsome fortune. From time to time he in- 
vested his profits in real estate, one of his 
earliest purchases being about thirty-five acres 
and seventy lots on the Cass farm, from Mrs. 
VonLimburg, fonnerly Belle Cass. In later 
years he became a large property owner on 
Woodward avenue and in other parts of the 
city. In 1859 he built the Butler block on 
Griswold street, opposite the postoffice, and 
moved his bank into it the following year. He 



had no partner until 1863, when his eldest son, 
Edward H. Butler, was admitted to partner- 
ship, the firm name remaining as before. In 
1870 the Mechanics' Bank was incorporated, 
with William A. Butler, president, and Edward 
H. Butler, cashier. In 1871 it was reincor- 
porated under a new law just passed. The 
capital from the start was one hundred thou- 
sand dollars and remained at that figure until 
the bank's charter expired, October i, 1901, 
when it was increased to two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. During all these years the 
Mechanics' Bank was very prosperous. It paid 
large dividends and if the stock had been in 
the market it would have commanded a high 
figure, but the stock was always held closely in 
the family, the only exception being the interest 
of Herbert Brown, the bank's attorney." 

The Mechanics' Bank, of which the subject 
of this memoir was president from its organi- 
zation until the time of his death, went into 
voluntary liquidation in 1901, the business 
being transferred largely to the State Savings 
Bank, now known as the People's State Bank. 
At the time of his demise Mr. Butler had been 
longer engaged in banking in Detroit than any 
other citizen. For a long series of years he 
was president and one of the most active trus- 
tees of the Elmwood Cemetery Association. 
For about twelve years he was vice-president 
of the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Com- 
pany and he was then elected president, of 
which office he was incumbent up to the time 
of his death. For many years he served also 
as president of the Detroit Fire & Marine In- 
surance Company. Up to the moment he was 
confined to his home by his last illness, catar- 
rhal pneumonia with complications, he was 
actively engaged in looking after his many 
business interests. 

Although never active in the domain of 
practical politics, Mr. Butler took a keen and 
loyal interest in the issues and questions of the 
day, and in local politics he served on many 
important boards, marking deeply his in- 
fluence upon the administration of the munici- 
pal government during a period of many years. 
During the opening years of the civil war he 
rendered most effective service and aid in or- 



324 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ganizing and equipping the volunteer forces of 
Michigan. He was one of the zealous mem- 
bers and supporters of the First Congregational 
church and was liberal in upholding all re- 
ligious and moral enterprises. He was identi- 
fied with various civic and fraternal organiza- 
tions in Detroit and always took great interest 
in the progress and wellbeing of his home city. 

On the I2th of September, 1839, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Mr. Butler to Miss 
Mary Ann Harter, of Adams, Jefferson county, 
New York, who died January 19, 1908. They 
are survived by three sons, — Edward H., 
William A., Jr., and Frederick E. Butler, all 
of whom were intimately associated with him 
in his business operations. He and his wife 
celebrated the fifty-second anniversary of their 
wedding and his death was the first break in the 
family circle. Mr. Butler was a man of fine 
presence and utmost urbanity and courtesy, so 
that he won and retained the friendship and 
esteem of those with whom he came in contact 
in the various relations of life. He was a man 
of many admirable qualities. He had fine per- 
ceptions of principle, and if one of his nobler 
characteristics stood out in distinct prominence 
above others it was his loyalty to principle. It 
would be difficult to say anything better than 
that of any man. In social life he was one of 
the kindest, most polished and courteous of 
gentlemen. The new era which puts a ma- 
jority of men so long under the lash that they 
have no time for the polite conventions which 
made the old school of gentility so admirable, 
did not swerve him. His life record would 
suggest that long ago he must have adopted 
that fine old rule of living : 

"This above all : to thine own self be true. 

And it must follow, as the night the day. 

Thou canst not then be false to any man." 



HENRY B. BREVOORT. 

In the early history of Detroit the name 
which initiates this article was well known and 
represented a power and beneficent influence 
in local affairs. In compilations of this order 
fitting memorials to such sterling pioneers are 
most consistently incorporated. 



Henry B. Brevoort came of staunch Holland 
Dutch stock and the family was founded in 
America prior to the war of the Revolution. 
He was born in New York city, in January, 
1775, and was a son of Henry Brevoort, the 
maiden name of his mother having been Ber- 
gaw. The parents were natives of Holland, 
whence they immigrated to America about 
1700, taking up their residence in New York 
city, where they passed the remainder of their 
lives. The subject of this memoir was reared 
to maturity in his native city, where he re- 
ceived good educational advantages, as gauged 
by the standards of the period. As a young 
man he left the national metropolis to seek 
adventure and fortune in the western wilds. 
He located in Detroit and entered the United 
States army, in which he was an officer at the 
time of the war of 181 2. At the time of the 
surrender of Detroit to the British he was one 
of those who protested against the action of 
the commander, but was compelled to accept 
the situation with as much equanimity as pos- 
sible, being taken as a prisoner of war and be- 
ing eventually granted a parole. His attitude 
in the regard, as showing his disregard for a 
parole given under such circumstances, was 
indicated by his soon joining the American 
. forces at Put-in-Bay. Official reports show 
that he rendered valiant service after the un- 
called for capitulation of Detroit. After the 
close of the war he returned to Detroit, where 
he became prominent and influential in busi- 
ness and civic affairs and where he continued 
to reside until he was summoned from the 
scene of life's endeavors, his death occurring 
in January, 1857. 

In the year 181 1 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Brevoort to Miss Catherine Na- 
varre, a daughter of Robert Navarre, who was 
born and reared in Detroit, where his father, 
Robert Navarre, Sr., settled in 1728. Mr. 
and Mrs. Brevoort became the parents of four 
sons and one daughter, and all continued to 
make their home in Detroit until death, with 
the exception of Elias, who went into the south- 
west, being one of the early scouts in New 
Mexico, where he was a companion of the 
historic Kit Carson. He was a prominent fig- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



335 



lire in the Indian wars on the frontier and he 
finally established his home in Santa Fe, where 
he served as register of the United States land 
office under the administration of President 
Hayes. His death occurred in 1904 and he 
was known as one of the representative citi- 
zens of New Mexico. Another son, Henry 
B., Jr., was a civil engineer by profession, and 
he' died in Detroit, December 27, 1851. He 
surveyed all the northern counties of the lower 
peninsula of the state and also did consider- 
able work of the sort in the upper peninsula, 
attaining to a high reputation in his profes- 
sion. John, the eldest son, passed his life in 
Detroit and became the owni.- of a large 
amount of valuable realty, Wvmg a substan- 
tial estate at his death, w^>Jch occurred in 
March, 1899. Robert, the youngest of the 
sons, was one of the argonauts to California 
in 1849, and he died in that state, his rela- 
tives having heard nothing from or concern- 
ing him after he left for the Pacific coast. The 
only daughter of the subject of this sketch was 
Mary A., who became the wife of Charles 
Leroy Bristol, in 1838: her husband was a 
prominent business man of Detroit for many 

years. 

Henry B. Brevoort was a man of fine men- 
tality and staunch integrity, and he wielded no 
little influence in public affairs in the city which 
so long represented his home. He never sought 
official preferment, but was known as an ar- 
dent and uncompromising advocate of the 
principles of the Democratic party. 

Henry B. Brevoort, Jr., of whom brief men- 
tion has already been made, was reared and 
educated in Detroit, and his professional train- 
ing as a civil engineer was gained mainly 
through practical field experience. That he 
developed exceptional strength in the line is 
evident when recognition is had of the fact that 
at the age of seventeen years he was granted 
a government surveying contract, which he car- 
ried to successful completion. 

July 13, 1 84 1, was celebrated the marriage 
of Henry' B. Brevoort, Jr., and Miss Sarah 
Jane Macomb, who was born and reared in 
Detroit. She was a daughter of William Ma- 
comb, who died when she was a child of about 



five years. Her grandfather, William Ma- 
comb, Sr., was one of the early settlers of 
Detroit, where he was a prominent business 
man at the time of the war of the Revolution. 
In company with his brother Alexander he 
secured possession of Grosse Isle in 1776, from 
the Pottawatomie Indians. The Macomb fam- 
ily has been one of prominence and influence 
in connection with the history of the state of 
Michigan. To Henry B. and Sarah Jane (Ma- 
comb) Brevoort were born three children. 
William M. sacrificed his life in defense of 
the Union in the civil war, having met_ his 
death in the battle of Cold Harbor, June i, 
1864. He rose from the rank of second lieu- 
tenant to that of lieutenant colonel of the First 
Michigan Cavalry and was a brave and gal- 
lant soldier; he was not married. Thornton 
E., the second son, died in July, 1906. He 
was cashier for the Michigan Central Railroad 
at Grosse Pointe for a period of nine years 
and served as an internal-revenue officer under 
the administration of President Cleveland. 
Henry N., the second of the three sons, is now 
the only representative of the third generation 
of the family in Michigan. He was born in 
Detroit April 3, 1848, and in this city his early 
educational discipline was secured. In 1872 
he took up the study of law in the office of 
the well known firm of Van Dyke. Brownson 
& Moran, and in 1874 was admitted to the 
bar of his native state, well fortified for the 
active work of his chosen profession, which 
he has honored and dignified by his services 
as a legist and jurist. In 1876 he was elected 
prosecuting attorney of Wayne county, re- 
maining incumbent of this office for two terms. 
In 1887 he was honored with election to the 
circuit bench, on which he served six years, 
making a most creditable record and manifest- 
mg marked judicial acumen, reinforced by a 
thorough knowledge of the law. He is still 
engaged in active practice in Detroit and is 
known as one of the representative members 
of the bar of the state. Judge Brevoort is a 
staunch supporter of the principles and policies 
of the Democratic party and has done effective 
service in its cause. His religious faith is 
that of the Catholic church, of which both he 



326 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



and his wife are communicants, as were also 
his parents. 

On the 2 1 St of April, 1898, was solemnized 
the marriage of Judge Brevoort to Miss Neele 
E. Davis, who was born in Kentucky. They 
have no children. 



WILLIAM J. CHITTENDEN. 

The subject of this sketch has occupied a 
prominent place in the civic and business life 
of Detroit for a long period of years, and it 
is doubtful if the name of any other citizen, 
except such as have been incumbent of high 
political positions, is better known to the public 
at large than is his. He stands today as one 
of the pioneer hotel men of the state, having 
long been identified with and the head of the 
old Russell House, which was the leading hotel 
of the state as well as of Detroit for fully 
a half century, and he has held prestige as 
one of the ablest hotel men in the Union and 
also one of the most popular. Aside from 
this Mr. Chittenden, who is now living vir- 
tually retired, in Detroit, has ever maintained 
the highest civic ideals and has done much for 
the promotion of the best interests of the beau- 
tiful "City of the Straits," his allegiance to 
and affection for which have never wavered. 
A man of fine intellectual gifts, urbane and 
gracious personality, progressive ideas and ut- 
most loyalty, he has made his influence felt 
for good in manifold ways and to-day holds 
a secure place in the confidence and esteem 
of the people of Detroit. He continued to be 
identified with the management of the Russell 
House until the historic caravanserie was 
closed, — to be razed to the ground that it might 
give place to the magnificent modem structure, 
the Hotel Pontchartrain, which was opened in 
October, 1907, and of which his youngest son, 
and namesake, is manager, so that the family 
name bids fair to long continue connected with 
the supreme hotel interests of the Michigan 
metropolis. 

William J. Chittenden has been a resident 
of Detroit for more than half a century and 
he has honored the city by his life and attitude 
as a citizen and business man. The name which 
he bears has been long and prominently identi- 



fied with the annals of American history, and \ 
was early known in New England, whence 1 
the original progenitor came from England ' 
in the early colonial days, becoming one of the 
pioneers of Connecticut. Representatives of ' 
the family were found represented as valiant 
soldiers in the various colonial wars, including | 
that of the Revolution. Mr. Chittenden him- 
self is a native of the old Empire state of the 
Union, having been bom at Adams, Jefferson 
county. New York, on the 28th of April, 1835, 
and being a son of Thomas C. and Nancy 
(Benton) Chittenden, the former of whom was 
born in Connecticut and the latter likewise hav- 
ing been a representative of colonial stock. 
Thomas C. Chittenden became a lawyer of fine 
attainments and of marked prominence and 
influence, having been engaged in the practice 
of his profession- at Watertown, New York, 
for many years, and having represented his dis- 
trict in congress from 1840 to 1845. ^^ PO^i" 
tics he was originally and old-line Whig, but 
upon the organization of the Republican party 
he transferred his allegiance to the same, of 
whose principles he thereafter continued a stal- 
wart advocate until his death, which occurred 
at Watertown in 1866; his devoted wife, a 
woman of noble character, survived him by 
several years. " 

The subject of this review was reared to 
maturity in Watertown, New York, and was 
afforded the advantages of the best schools 
of the locality and period. There he gained 
his initial business experience as clerk in a 
mercantile establishment, and in 1853, when 
eighteen years of age, he came to Detroit, lit- 
tle realizing the prominent position to which 
he was destined to attain in connection with 
the city's business and social life. Soon after 
his arrival here he secured a clerkship in the 
retail dry-goods establishment of Holmes & 
Company, but within less than a year he found 
a wider field for the utilization of his talents, 
taking a position in the money-order depart- 
ment of the state postoffice, under Colonel T. 
Broadhead. In 1856 he returned to Water- 
town, New York, where he became bookkeeper 
and teller in the Black River Bank, but the 
lure of Detroit proved sufficient to call him 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



337 



back to this city in 1858, in which year he 
became bookkeeper and secretary to his 
brother-in-law, the late William Hale, who was 
proprietor of the Russell House from 1858 
to 1861. Under these conditions Mr. Chit- 
tenden gained his initial experience in connec- 
tion with the line of enterprise in which he 
finally achieved so much of eminence and suc- 
cess, and it is interesting to note in the con- 
nection that his entire active association with 
the hotel business was with the house with 
which he originally identified himself in the 
capacity mentioned. After the retirement of 
Mr. Hale he held the same official position with 
the former's successor, L. T. Miner, who was 
proprietor of the Russell House from 1861 
to 1863, inclusive. In 1864 Mr. Chittenden 
became associated with Charles S. Witbeck in 
purchasing the business of the Russell, of which 
they assumed control under the firm name of 
Witbeck & Chittenden. This alliance contin- 
ued until the death of Mr. Witbeck, in 1882, 
after which Mr. Chittenden was sole proprietor 
of the hotel until 1890, when Louis A. Mc- 
Creary was admitted to partnership, under the 
firm name of Chittenden & McCreary. This 
firm continued until 1896, when Mr. McCreary 
retired, and thereafter Mr. Chittenden assumed 
individual control of the business, of which he 
- remained the executive head until the hotel 
was closed, in 1905, in which year was started 
the dismanteling of the building, one of the 
landmarks of the city, that the site might be 
utilized for the splendid structure which now 
graces it. With the closing of the house with 
which he had been identified for so many years 
and which he had maintained at the highest 
standard, gaining to it a reputation on a parity 
with that of the city itself, Mr. Chittenden 
virtually retired from active business, though 
he still gives his personal supervision to the 
management of his various capitalistic inter- 
ests and shows an unwaning interest in the 
welfare and progress of Detroit. His circle 
of acquaintances among the representative pub- 
lic men of the state and nation has been par- 
ticularly wide and Michigan has had no bom- 
face more popular with the general public 
Genial and kindly in his intercourse with all 



with whom he has been thrown in contact in 
his long business life of semi-public character, 
appreciative of all that represents the higher 
ideals of life, a man of broad and comprehen- 
sive knowledge and of suave personal dignity, 
Mr. Chittenden has never failed to impress his 
individuality and to gain and retain inviolable 
friendships. He is at the present time, and has 
been for a number of years a member of the 
directorate of the First National Bank of De- 
troit, is president of the Hargreaves Manufac- 
turing Company, makers of picture-frames, 
mouldings, etc., and president of the Michigan 
Wire Cloth Company, while he also has other 
important capitalistic investments in Detroit, 
including valuable realty. He is an honored 
member of the Detroit Club, the Fellowcraft 
Club, the Detroit Boat Club, the Audobon 
Whist Club, and the Old Club, at St. Clair 
Flats, and in the time-honored Masonic fra- 
ternity he has attained the thirty-second de- 
gree of the Scottish Rite, taking a deep inter- 
est in the various Masonic bodies with which 
he is affiliated. In politics he has ever been 
aligned as a stalwart supporter of the princi- 
ples and policies for which the Republican party 
stands sponsor, and while he has at all times 
shown a loyal concern in public afifairs, par- 
ticularly those of a local order, he has never 
consented to accept office, except that of com- 
missioner of the Detroit House of Correction, 
of which he remained incumbent for twenty 
years, having originally been appointed by the 
late Stephen B. Grummond, who was then 
mayor of Detroit. He was reappointed in 
1908 for a term of four years. 

On the 1 8th of January, 1866, was solem- 
nized the marriage of Mr. Chittenden to Miss 
Irene Williams, daughter of the late General 
Alpheus S. Williams, one of the distinguished 
pioneer citizens of Detroit. Mrs. Chittenden 
died in the city of Chicago, April 7, 1907. She 
was taken ill on the train while on her way 
home from the Pacific coast, and about ten 
days later the end of her beautiful life came. 
She had been taken to the Auditorium Annex 
in Chicago, and with her in her last hours 
were the immediate members of her family 
with the exception of her son Frederick L., 



328 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



who was at the time lying critically ill in De- 
troit and who survived her by only two weeks. 
It is certainly fitting that in this article be 
entered a memorial tribute to this most noble 
and gracious woman, who played so important 
a part and was so loved and honored in the 
best social life of Detroit during a long period 
of years. Such a tribute can not be better 
gained than the following, which appeared in 
the Detroit Free Press on the day following 
her demise: 

Detroit had no more splendid example of 
womanhood than Mrs. Chittenden, and it 
would be no exaggeration to say that there is 
none whose loss will be so deeply felt. In 
her activities, both charitable and social, it was 
her province to meet with many persons, and 
to those she endeared herself as a noble, whole- 
souled woman. The eldest daughter of Gen- 
eral Alpheus S. Williams, Mrs. Chittenden was 
born in Detroit sixty-four years ago (January 
3, 1843) ^rid spent her entire life in this city. 
Her greatest activities were centered in St. 
Paul's church, Protestant Episcopal, of which 
she was a lifelong member and always an ac- 
tive worker. It was her proud distinction to 
have held office in every organization to which 
women are eligible in that church. That her 
social and charitable work was highly appre- 
ciated by the many women with whom she was 
associated is evidenced by the honors that have 
been bestowed upon her in the various organi- 
zations to which she belonged. Mrs. Chitten- 
den had just entered upon her sixth year as 
state regent of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution, and, had she lived, would have 
gone to Washington to the national gathering. 
Much of her social activity was centered in 
the patriotic societies. She was past regent of 
Louisa St. Clair Chapter, Daughters of the 
American Revolution, and only a few days be- 
fore her death she had completed her term of 
office as president of the Mount Vernon So- 
ciety. Numerous other organizations claimed 
a share of her attention. She was a charter 
member of the Dames of the Loyal Legion, a 
member of the Founders' and Patriots' Society, 
a member of the state board of the Daughters 
of 181 2, a member of the national board of 
trustees of the Daughters of 1812, a mem- 
ber of the King's Daughters, a member of 
the Colonial Governors, a member of the 
Society of American Memorial Ancestry, 
and a member of the New England So- 



ciety. Her charitable work took a great deal 
of her time, and she was an active worker in 
behalf of the Children's Free hospital of De- 
troit. She was a past president of the board 
of that institution. The Needlework Guild of 
America, an institution recognized throughout 
the land for its worthiness, claimed a share of 
Mrs. Chittenden's activities. She was a mem- 
ber of the board of the Detroit branch of that 
society. 

Besides her social and charitable work Mrs. 
Chittenden had much time for interest in music 
and art. She was a member of the Tuesday 
Musicale Society and the Fine Arts Society. 
She was an active worker in the Twentieth 
Century Club. 

Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Chittenden the following brief data are en- 
tered. Frederick L., who was born in Detroit, 
December 12, 1866, and who passed his entire 
life in this city, died at the family home, 134 
Fort street west, on the 21st of April, 1907, 
exactly two weeks after the death of his loved 
mother. He had suffered an attack of pneu- 
monia and at the time his parents were in New 
Mexico. He was identified with the Russell 
House from his youth and was secretary of 
the company which controlled the hotel at the 
time it was closed. He was well known and 
highly honored in his native city, where his 
circle of friends was limited only by that of 
his acquaintances. He never married. Alpheus 
Williams Chittenden, the second son, is a lead- 
ing architect in Detroit, and William J., Jr., is 
manager of the magnificent new Hotel Pont- 
chartrain, in this city. Margaret C. is the 
wife of William Tefft Barbour, president of 
the Detroit Stove Works; and Mary C. is the 
wife of Henry L. Newman, Jr., of Newman, 
New Mexico. 



THEODORE D. BUHL. 

A native son of the city of Detroit who well 
upheld the prestige of a name honored in the 
history of the city and who marked by distinc- 
tive personal accomplishment a place of his own 
in connection with economic, industrial and so- 
cial affairs in the state's metropolis, was he to 
whom this brief memoir is entered. He is a 
son of the late Christian H. Buhl, of whom 




"a.^'or Jr O^ica^o 



^<7^4^ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



329 



specific mention is made in this volume, so 
that a recapitulation of the family history is 
not demanded in the present connection. So 
intimately was the subject of this sketch asso- 
ciated with his honored father in business op- 
erations of wide scope and importance, that 
to gain a true conception of his life history the 
reader should refer to the review of the career 
of his father on other pages of this work. 

Theodore D. Buhl was born in the city of 
Detroit, August 20, 1844, and his educational 
advantages in his boyhood and youth were 
those afforded in the schools of his home city 
and in an excellent academic institution in the 
east. He began his business career as a clerk 
in the employ of his father and when twenty- 
one years •f age he was admitted to partner- 
ship in the wholesale hardware business which 
had been founded by the father. Thereafter 
he was closely associated with his father in 
his various industrial and capitalistic enter- 
prises, early showing a marked capacity for 
detail administration and for the handling of 
affairs of importance. He continued a member 
of the wholesale hardware concern of Buhl, 
Sons & Company until the death of his father, 
when the business was incorporated under the 
present title of Buhl Sons Company, of which 
he became president, continuing incumbent of 
this office until the time of his demise. 

For more than a decade Mr. Buhl devoted 
his attention principally to the hardware busi- 
ness, but later he became interested in many 
manufacturing and capitalistic enterprises. He 
was associated with his father in the purchase 
and development of the Sharon rolling mills, at 
Sharon, Pennsylvania, and was one of the 
original organizers of the Detroit Copper & 
Brass Rolling Mills. At the time of his death 
he was president of the Buhl Malleable Com- 
pany, the Buhl Stamping Company, the 
Diamond Stamp Ware Company, and the Na- 
tional Can Company. He was also vice-presi- 
dent of the Old Detroit National Bank and 
the Detroit Trust Company, while through 
his connection with other and varied enter- 
prises of prominence he held high rank among 
the influential business men of his native city. 
At the reorganization of the great pharma- 



ceutical manufacturing concern of Parke, 
Davis & Company, one of the largest in the 
world, Mr. Buhl was chosen president of the 
company, an incumbency which he retained 
until his death. 

From even this cursory glance it may be 
seen that Mr. Buhl's connections were with 
some of the most splendid of Detroit's institu- 
tions, and it should be noted that in no case did 
he permit his identification with an enterprise 
to be one of apathetic or nominal order. He 
knew the inward workings of every company 
in which he was concerned and in his official 
capacity gave to each the benefit of his mature 
judgment and keen business acumen. His ca- 
pacity seemed unlimited and his counsel ever 
carried weight and resulted in definite good. 
He was essentially a business man and the 
cares and perplexities of large affairs were not 
sufficient to disturb his equipoise or deflect his 
judgment in the slightest degree. He knew 
what was needed under existing conditions and 
urged his claims with directness and discrim- 
ination, so that he was a valued factor in eveiy 
corporation with which he identified himself. 
His circle of friends was wide and his loyalty 
and integrity were ever inviolable. He had 
friends and admirers because he deserved them 
through his intrinsic worth of character. He 
was a popular member of the Detroit Club 
and the Country Club, as well as other social 
and fraternal organizations. His political al- 
legiance was given to the Republican party, 
but he never entered the arena of practical poli- 
tics and never sought or accepted public office. 
Mr. Buhl died in the city of New York, 
April 7, 1907, having had a stroke of ap- 
poplexy while walking on the street and suc- 
cumbing before he could be carried to his hotel, 
in the immediate vicinity. His wife and other 
members of the family were with him in New 
York at the time when the summons came, and 
the news of his sudden death was received with 
unqualified sorrow and regret in his home city, 
whither his remains were borne for interment. 
Mr. Buhl was united in marriage to Miss 
Elizabeth J. Walker, a daughter of the late 
Hiram Walker, of Walkerville, Ontario, Can- 



330 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ada, and she survives him, as do also three of 
their children, Willis E., Arthur H., and Law- 
rence D. 



BETHUNE DUFFIELD. 

It has been said that "the sons of great men 
seldom attain to distinction, implying that 
more or less of handicap is entailed through 
standing in the shadow of such greatness. 
This may be in many cases true; in fact, the 
annals of our as well as other nations, show 
such to be the fact, but in contradistinction are 
found so many instances where sons have 
added laurels to honored names of fathers 
that there can be naught but perversity of 
spirit and obliquity of view when it is main- 
tained that the above premise is invariably 
well taken. An instance is afforded in the 
career of the subject of this review, who is 
numbered among the representative members 
in Michigan of a profession which his father 
dignified and honored by his exalted life and 
services, and he has achieved precedence 
through his own powers and abilities, not de- 
pending upon hereditary prestige in winning 
the distinctive success which is his in his ex- 
acting vocation. He is a son of the late 
D. Bethune Duffield, who was for many years 
engaged in the practice of law in the state of 
Michigan and who was known as one of the 
most able members of a bar recognized then 
and now for its strength and brilliancy. He 
was one of Detroit's foremost citizens and it 
is fitting that a tribute to his memory be 
incorporated in this volume. Such a memoir 
is thus entered on other pages, and in this 
work is also a more generic epitome of the 
history of the Duffield family. To both of 
these articles the reader should refer in con- 
nection with the present brief sketch of the 
career of one of the able and popular repre- 
sentatives of this old and honored family of 
the Michigan metropolis. 

Bethune Duffield was born in the city of 
Detroit, on the 28th of November, 1861, and 
is the younger of the two sons of D. Bethune 
Duffield and Mary Strong (Buell) Duffield. 
The father was a man of high intellectual 



attainments and it was thus in natural course 
of events that the sons should be afforded the 
best possible scholastic advantages. The sub- 
ject of this sketch is indebted to the public 
schools of his native city for his preliminary 
educational training and after leaving the 
same he entered the Michigan Military Aca- 
demy, at Orchard Lake, in which he com- 
pleted the prescribed course and was grad- 
uated in 1879, as a member of the first class 
to thus leave that excellent institution. He 
was then matriculated in the literary depart- 
ment of the University of Michigan in which 
he completed the classical course, being gradu- 
ated as a member of the class of 1883 and 
receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 

Immediately after leaving the university 
Mr. Duffield began reading law under the 
preceptorship of, his father, making so rapid 
and substantial progress in his accumulation 
of definite knowledge concerning the science 
of jurisprudence that he gained admission to 
the bar of his native state in 1885. Thereafter 
he was associated in practice with his father, 
under the title of Duffield & Duffield, until 
the death of the latter, in March, 1891, since 
which time he has conducted an individual 
professional business. To the wise counsel of 
his father he attributes much of his success 
in the domain of legal work, and their close 
alliance during the period of six years was 
one of mutual helpfulness and satisfaction, — 
a period which will ever remain a source of 
appreciative gratification to the son who is 
perpetuating the professional prestige of the 
father whom he so loved and honored. He is 
known as an able and discriminating trial 
lawyer and conservative counsel, being a close 
student and giving careful thought and prepa- 
ration to every cause which he presents. He 
has been identified with much important liti- 
gation in the state and federal courts and his 
clientele is one of representative character. 
Like his father, Mr. Duffield has ever con- 
sidered his profession as worthy of his undi- 
vided fealty and attention, so that he has never 
had aught of desire for public office, though 
he is known as a loyal and effective exponent 
of the political principles and policies of which 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



331 



the Republican party stands exponent. His 
civic pride is of no equivocal order and his 
interest in all that makes for the well being of 
his home city is of the most insistent type. 
Mr. Duffield clings to the religious faith in 
which he was reared and is a zealous member 
of the First Presbyterian church, of whose 
board of trustees he has been a member for 
many years. 

On the 28th of October, 1885, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Mr. Duffield to Miss 
Eliza S. Muir, daughter of William K. Muir, 
a representative citizen and business man of 
Detroit, and they have four children — Muir 
Buell, Mary Bethune, George, and Marcus 
Brownson. Mr. and Mrs. Duffield are promi- 
nent in the social and religious life of their 
home city and their home is a center of gra- 
cious hospitality. Mr. Duffield is identified 
with various social organizations of a local 
order and is a member of the Detroit Bar 
Association and the Michigan Bar Association. 



J. LOGAN CHIPMAN. 

Not too often and not through the agency 
of too many vehicles can be recorded the life 
history of one who lived so honorable and use- 
ful a life as did the late Judge J. Logan Chip- 
man, of Detroit,— a man, a lawyer and a jurist 
of signal exaltation and purity of purpose, 
recondite in the learning of his profession and 
imbued with the fullest appreciation of its dig- 
nity and responsibility; well disciplined in 
mind> eminently judicial in his natural attitude 
as touching men and measures; guided and 
guarded by the most inviolable principles of 
honor and integrity ; simple and unostentatious 
in his self-respecting and tolerant individuality, 
— such a man could not prove other than a 
dynamic power for good in whatsoever rela- 
tion of life he might have been placed. Judge 
Chipman made a most enviable record on the 
bench of the Detroit superior court, whose im- 
portant functions enlisted his guidance for a 
period of years and from which he retired only 
when called upon to represent his native state 
in the halls of congress, where his abilities and 
labors again came into play in promoting the 



welfare of the people. Thus every work that 
has to do with Detroit and Michigan in an his- 
torical sense is in duty bound to take special 
recognition of the eminent services and the no- 
ble character of this distinguished son. 

In reviewing the life record of any man there 
is propriety in giving a resume also of his an- 
cestral history. Much is gained and much lost 
through heredity, according to the character 
of the bequeathment made through this source, 
and, as taken aside from the incidental inter- 
est in such genealogical data there is given at 
least a modicum of information from which 
may be predicated the influence exerted upon 
the personality of the subject himself. In this 
line Judge Chipman was significantly favored, 
and the name which he bore has been identi- 
fied with the annals of American history from 
the earliest colonial era, while strong men and 
gentle gracious women have been its bearers. 
The common ancestor of all those of the name 
in North America was one John Chipman, who 
was born in Barnstable, England, in 16 14, and 
who immigrated to the American colonies in 
1630, settling on a farm at Barnstable, Massa- 
chusetts, a place named in honor of that of his 
nativity. He married a daughter of John 
Howland, a Mayflower pilgrim, and their son 
Samuel married Sarah Cobb, ten children be- 
ing bom of the latter union and one of the 
number being John Chipman, who was born 
in 1 69 1, who was graduated in Harvard Col- 
lege and who became a prominent and distin- 
guished clergyman at Beverly, Massachusetts : 
he died in 1775. In 1740 Samuel Chipman re- 
moved, in company with his five sons, to Litch- 
field, Connecticut, and was chosen its first rep- 
resentative in the legislature, also receiving ap- 
pointment as judge of the county court. His 
son Samuel married Hannah Austin, of Suf- 
field, Connecticut, and of their six sons Na- 
thaniel was the grandfather of the subject of 
this memoir. 

Nathaniel Chipman, LL. D., was born at 
Salisbury, Connecticut, November 15, 1752, 
and when he was about twenty-four years of 
age, at the time a member of the senior cia.s.i 
in Yale College, he withdrew to enter the ilovo- 
lutionary army, in which he had recc: . - 1 : -'-n- 



332 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



mission as a lieutenant. He was with the 
troops during the winter of privation and suf- 
fering at Valley Forge, and later was a partici- 
part in the battles of Monmouth and White 
Plains. While he was thus in active service his 
alma mater conferred upon him his degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. He finally resigned his com- 
mission, after a period of faithful and gallant 
service, and, after studying law under effective 
preceptorship, he finally removed to Vermont, 
where he passed the residue of his life. He 
married Sarah Hill, and of their seven chil- 
dren the eldest was Henry, father of Judge J. 
Logan Chipman. 

As a young man Henry Chipman went to 
ihe south, and in South Carolina he married 
Miss Martha Logan, daughter of a wealthy 
planter and distinguished citizen of that pa- 
trician old commonwealth, and one who was 
a valiant soldier in the Continental army in 
the war of the Revolution. Of the gracious 
consort thus taken unto himself by Henry 
Chipman the following words have been writ- 
ten : "She was a woman of great energy, as 
became the wife of a pioneer, — benevolent, 
generous, and, withal, possessing a sweetness 
of disposition which was a marked characteris- 
tic of her distinguished son who bore her fam- 
ily name." Henry Chipman came to Michigan 
as a pioneer of the year 1824 and settled in 
Detroit. He was a man of education and cul- 
ture, and yet had the courage, fortitude and 
physical strength so requisite in the makeup of 
a settler in a frontier forest region. He, by 
very virtue of character and ability, at once 
assumed a position of prominence and influ- 
ence in the community. He served as one of 
the territorial judges from 1827 until 1832, 
was chief justice of the county court of Wayne 
county in 1825 and judge of the recorder's 
court of Detroit in 1835. He was senior mem- 
ber of the firm of Chipman & Seymour, who 
published a Whig paper from 1825 until 1829. 
He was a man of strong individuality and 
wielded great influence in public affairs in the 
formative epoch of Detroit and Michigan his- 
tory. Both he and his wife continued to re- 
side in Detroit until their death. Their names 



merit an enduring place on the roll of the hon- I 
ored pioneers of this state. 

John Logan Chipman was born in Detroit, 
which was then the capital of the territory of ; 
Michigan, on the 5th of June, 1830, and from > 
the foregoing subject-matter it may easily be 
inferred that he inherited an alert mentality and | 
a possible predilection for the law. He was 
reared to manhood in his native city, which 
was then but a village, and after duly availing 
himself of the advantages of the common 
schools he continued his studies in the Detroit 
branch of the state university, which great in- 
stitution was then in its infancy. Before com- 
pleting his collegiate work he entered the serv- 
ice of the Montreal Mining Company, for 
which he made explorations in the wilds of 
the upper peninsula of Michigan, in search of 
eligible localities for mining operations. In 
the meanwhile he prosecuted the study of law 
with much avidity and earnestness, even when 
absent in the primitive wilds of the upper coun- 
try, and there he was located at the time when 
he was admitted a member of the bar of his 
native state. His experiences in "roughing it" 
were a source of satisfaction and profit to him 
then and in later years, and he often referred 
to them with appreciative reminiscence. He 
became well acquainted with the Indians and 
their characteristics, and as a man and lawyer 
later championed their interests on many occa- 
sions. He loved nature and was humanity's 
friend, as all who knew him at any period 
could amply testify. He materially aided the 
government in making treaties with the vari- 
ous Indian tribes in this section of the Union. 

After his return to Detroit Judge Chipman 
turned his attention to the active practice of 
his profession. In 1853 he was assistant clerk 
of the house of representatives in the state leg- 
islature, — the last in which the Democratic 
forces held control for at least four decades. In 
1856 he was elected city attorney of Detroit, of 
which office he remained incumbent four years, 
within which he added materially to his profes- 
sional prestige. In 1864 he was elected a mem- 
ber of the state legislature, and in the house he 
made a record for faithful service marked by 
great discrimination and ability. He was never 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 333 

afraid of work and he showed this in the legis- he was elected. From a history o^ the Bench 

Vl : .Vdid he in all other places of trust to and Bar of Michigan issued by the Century 

whic ' was caned t\L he made his Publishing and Engraving ^-P-y'naJSr 1^ 

fir. venture into national politics, as the leader lowing excerpt is gained : He was naturally 

t?l f^rir Democratic ho^pe, making a spirited a law-mak., as he ^^;^^;^^ 

campaign as a candidate for congress but bemg judge. He was a ^^PJ^^^^i^ , y^-^^-, 

unablefoovercomethegreatoddsagainsthim. -ss and civ. mter sts^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

though he carried the city of Detroit by a gan, and Jf^ staunch friends a g P^^^ 

splendid majority and further cemented the P ^-g^^^^^.^^^f.^,,,^^^ and his 

ties which bound him to his native place and of the ^^"^^.^^'^^f^J^g America. He 

its people. In 1867 Judge Chipman became -- J^ ^ej^^^^^^ 

attorney for the city police board and he re- had ^" ^f J^ J^'.^ld cause 'our flag to 

niained in tenure of this office until his eleva- which ^^J'^^^\^^^ ^^^, ^een and which 
tion to the bench of the Detroit superior court, Aoat ^h re otheJ^^.sJ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^ 

in 1879. Prior to this he had devoted a quar- would give us a ^^'^ .^^^ ^,e 

er of a century to the practice of his chosen of the globe out of which other ^^^ ^ 

profession, in e'very function of which he ex- -^^^^fJ^^^^^^^Z^^^^^^^^^ P-tected his 
celled, being known as one of the ablest trial fnend of ^^e soMier, a y^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ 

lawyers of Michigan at the time. Few have ,nterests^ -i^'Jemen of the Great Lakes and 
lent more of dignity and honor to the bench f^^os^^ '^?ro.^^^nt^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ 

than did this eminent lawyer. While he was foresaw an «^ ^f^^,,^ , ,,gorous for- 
a versatile master of the science of junspru- west ^o .he ocean. He ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^ 

dence and familiar with the minuti. of the -S" P° ^y^^f/Xout voicing the thought 
same and with precedents, in his rulings he ^ P^^^^ ^^^^f ^j^^^^^; be annexed to the Union, 
followed the innate promptings of equity and that C^n^da sh ^^^ representative are 

justice. In every cause presented before him His <^^'^^' ^ ^J ^ of the nation, and 
L sought to marshal the facts before him and P-^^-^^^e is se ure^ He filled many posi- 
to determine the right in the case. Apropos of here ^ ^ P^^" ^^ ^^^"^ ^ record without a stain, 
his services in this connection the following ex- '^-'fj^'^^l^^^,^ ,894, while yet in the 
tracts from a memorial address delivered m He ^^J^.^^pe'^did powers. Fifty thou- 
the house of representatives of congress, at the ^^^ZZ Is^t^d upon the funeral tram 
time of his death, by Mr. Weadock, of Michi- ^^"^ P^, ^^^^^^i^^ through the streets of 
gan, are fittingly reproduced here: "When he which bo e hs -^ ^ /^^^^ ^...ting place in 
faw what ought to be the law, he fearles^y ^J^lJ^^^^^'^^eLV. He was stricken down 
proceeded in the faith that it was the law. This Elmwood cernet j ,tions for his 

is undoubtedly the reason why, in repeated in- -\ll^X%tshZon, but in the face of dan- 
stances, the Michigan supreme court has ap- journey ^^JT ^^^^^^f^" ^^^ He grew worse and 
provingly quoted his nisi prius decisions as g" ^e went to the capital ^^^ ^^^^^ 

Ling almost perfect crystallizations of the lega was carded to ^^^^o^P^^^^^ ,pp,,ent and 
principles governing the case in point. Ihe character ^^ ^^^^ 

Le of justice was a dominating characteristic he -^t cou^d -^J^^^^ J^^ ,,, ..id: 
of the man, and he applied its pnnciples to ^e hand of h s ta P ^ ^.^^ ^^, ^^^ 

rich and poor alike, pomp and POwer being Wi^^^, repea^t^the^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^.^^ ^^^ ^^.^ ^.p^ 
inadequate to awe him. At the expiration ot congress and the country 

his first term of six years on the bench he was ^e J^^ f ^Pj^^;^ ^^,, f.fthful and useful rep- 
elected as his own successor, and when he be- '^f jn^.;;/,?''' 
came the candidate of his party as representa- resen _ ^^^^ 



334 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ices, in which were delivered eulogies of the 
dead jurist and legislator, — a total number of 
fifteen addresses, and these were ordered 
printed by resolution of the house, the senate 
concurring, eight thousand copies being issued. 
In his home city, where he was held in affec- 
tionate regard by all classes of citizens, there 
was a spontaneous tribute of grief and respect 
when the last obsequies were held over his 
mortal body, — a tribute that of itself alone in- 
dicated the true worth of the man who could 
call it forth after his soul had pierced the veil 
of eternity. 

THE DUFFIELD FAMILY, 

By reason of the prominence of this ster- 
ling family in connection with the history of 
Detroit, where numerous representatives of the 
name have lived and labored to goodly ends, 
it is consistent that a genealogical review 
should be incorporated in these pages, as com- 
plementary to the individual sketches of mem- 
bers of the family. 

The lineage is traced to patrician French- 
Huguenot origin, and at the time of the revo- 
cation of the Edict of Nantes the family fled 
from religious persecutions thus entailed and 
sought refuge in England, whence representa- 
tives later went into Ireland, and from there 
came the original American progenitor. The 
name was originally spelled DuField. The 
founder of the American line was George Duf- 
field — or Dufell, as he spelled the name, — who 
was born in Ballymena county, Antrim, Ire- 
land, in 1690, and who emigrated thence to 
America, between 1725 and 1730. He was 
accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth, and by 
their two sons. They settled in Octorara town- 
ship, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, whence 
they later removed to Salisbury, that state. 
George Duffield (I) died in the old Keystone 
state, in 1774. Of his children the following 
brief record is given: William was bom in 
Ireland and died in Pennsylvania, on the 7th 
of January, 1799; his wife passed away Sep- 
tember 3, 1804. They became the parents of 
seven children,— George, John, William, Da- 
vid, Samuel, James, and Susan. George, John 
and Samuel became physicians, and Susan mar- 



ried a man named Bell. John Duffield, second 
son of the founder of the family in America, 
was born in Ireland and died in Pennsylvania 
in 1772. He married and became the father of 
five children, — George, John, Elizabeth, Fran- 
cina and Margaret. George (II), third son of 
George (I), was born in Piqua, Pennsylvania, 
October 7, 1732, and figures as the ancestor of 
the Duffields of Detroit. Samuel, who was 
born in Piqua, Pennsylvania, in 1730, died in 
Philadelphia, November 14, 1814. His chil- 
dren were six in number. Mary, the next in 
order of birth, married a Mr. Mcllvaine, and 
they had two sons, — George and Andrew. 

George Duffield (II), progenitor of those 
of the name in Michigan, was twice married. 
His first wife, whose maiden name was Eliza- 
beth Blair, died in 1757, without issue. In 
1759 he married Margaret Armstrong, a 
daughter of James Armstrong, a noted Indian 
fighter on the frontier, and a sister of General 
John Armstrong, of Revolutionary fame. 
John Armstrong held the rank of major gen- 
eral in the Continental army and in 1778-9 
was a member of the provincial congress from 
Pennsylvania. 

George Duffield (II) was educated at 
Newark, New Jersey, and in Princeton Col- 
lege, that state, where he was graduated in 
1752. He was for some time a classical tutor 
in Newark. On the nth of March, 1756, he 
was licensed to preach, by the presbytery at 
Newcastle, Pennsylvania, and he was formally 
ordained a minister of the Presbyterian church, 
at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, September 25, 1761. 
Soon after the inception of the war of the 
Revolution this noble patriot joined the Con- 
tinental forces, assuming the office of chap- 
lain, with the rank of colonel. He accompa- 
nied his command to New Jersey and he and 
the Rev. John Eller were known as the "fight- 
ing parsons." While with the colonial troops 
he continued his earnest warfare against the 
"world, the flesh and the devil," preaching to 
the soldiers and exerting a powerful influence. 
Enlisted in a righteous cause, his loyalty was 
of the most strenuous order and he did effective 
service in behalf of the cause of independence. 
So great was his enthusiasm and his power 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



335 



over the men in the ranks that he was recog- 
nized by the enemy as a formidable antagonist, 
and at one time the British officers placed a 
bounty of fifty pounds on his head. He ac- 
companied the army on its retreat through New 
Jersey and was one of the very last to cross 
the bridge south of Trenton before it was de- 
stroyed by General Washington. Prior to the 
war, in conjunction with Bishop White, he had 
served as chaplain of the provincial congress. 
After victory had crowned the arms of the 
valiant colonies he was specially active in re- 
organizing the Presbyterian church, and he 
contmued active in good works, a strong and 
noble character — until his death, which oc- 
curred in the city of Philadelphia, on the 2d 
day of February, 1790. Concerning his chil- 
dren the following brief data are entered: 
Elizabeth died unmarried; John A. died in 
1763; George (III) was born in 1767; John 
Edward was born in 1769 and died in 1770. 
George Duffield (III) was born in Phila- 
delphia, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of July, 
1767, and was there reared and educated, be- 
coming one of the prominent and influential 
citizens of his native city, where he was en- 
gaged in the mercantile business for a number 
of years. For nine years he was incumbent of 
the office of state comptroller general of Penn- 
sylvania. He was an elder in the Presbyterian 
church, with whose history in America the 
name has been conspicuously linked since the 
colonial epoch. George Duffield (III) mar- 
ried Miss Faithful Slaymaker, a daughter of 
Judge Henry Slaymaker and a descendant of 
Matthias Slaymaker, who came as a pioneer 
to America in 17 10, settling on what were 
known as the "London lands," a tract of one 
thousand acres, in Pennsylvania, this name 
having undoubtedly been given by him. The 
Slaymaker family was one of prominence in 
connection with the affairs of the American 
colonies, and representatives of the same were 
aligned as valiant soldiers in the Continental 
line in the war of the Revolution. George and 
Faithful (Slaymaker) Duffield became the 
parents of two sons and two daughters, of 
whom the eldest was George (IV), the founder 
of the Detroit branch of the family; Sophia, 



who was born in 1796, became the wife of 
Mark Hodgson, of New London Cross Roads, 
Pennsylvania; Henry was born in 1805; and 
Amanda became the wife of Amos Alexander, 
of New London Cross Roads. 

George Duffield (IV) was born at Stras- 
burg, Pennsylvania, on the 4th of July, 1794, 
and his early educational training was secured 
in the common schools, after which he entered 
the University of Pennsylvania, in which he 
was graduated at the early age of sixteen years. 
He then became a student in the theological 
seminary of the Reformed Presbyterian church 
in New York city, and in 18 15 he was licensed 
to preach. His first pastoral charge was at 
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he remained for 
a period of nineteen years, loved and revered 
by his flock, as was he also by those over whom 
he later ministered. After leaving Carlisle he 
held an important pastorate in Philadelphia for 
two years, at the expiration of which he ac- 
cepted a call to the Broadway Tabernacle, New 
York city, where he remained as pastor until 
1837, when he came to Detroit, Michigan, as 
pastor of the First Presbyterian church. He 
continued as pastor of this church until his 
death, in 1868, and his efforts were fruitful in 
the extreme, making for the promotion of 
both the spiritual and temporal welfare of the 
organization. His name is inscribed with all 
of honor and reverence upon the history of 
this church, and his consecration and zeal were 
equalled only by his fine intellectual gifts and 
his power as an exemplar of the faith which he 
professed. He received the degree of Doctor 
of Divinity and was recognized as a power in 
the church to whose work he gave so many 
years of his long and useful life. He con- 
tinued a resident of Detroit until his death, 
which occurred on the 24th of June, 1868. 

On the nth of September, 181 7, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Rev. George Duffield, 
D. D., and Isabella Graham Bethune, who 
was a daughter of Divie and Joanna (Gra- 
ham) Bethune. Her father was born at Ding- 
wald, Rosshire, Scotland, in 1771, and as a 
young man came to America, eventually be- 
coming a successful merchant in New York 
city. Dr. and Mrs. Duffield became the parents 



336 



DETEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



of five sons and one daughter, of whom 
George (V) was the eldest; Divie Bethune, 
who became one of the most eminent members 
of the Wayne county bar, is the subject of a 
special memoir in this volume; William W., 
a civil engineer by profession, died in the city 
of Washington, D. C, on the 22d of June, 
1907: he was a brigadier general in the civil 
war, having gone into service as colonel of the 
Ninth Michigan Volunteer Infantry, at the in- 
ception of the war and having served until 
the battle of Murfreesboro, in which he was 
so severely wounded as to incapacitate him 
for further field service : he was also a valiant 
soldier in the Mexican war; Samuel Pierce 
Dufiield was the third son; and Henry M., 
the youngest of the sons, likewise attained to 
distinction as an officer in the civil war, in 
which he held the rank of colonel at the time 
of his discharge : he has been for many years 
engaged in the practice of law in Detroit and 
is individually mentioned in this work ; the only 
daughter, Isabella Graham, became the wife of 
Dr. Morse Stewart and died May 27, 1888. 



JOSEPH H. BERRY. 

The man whose enterprise has included 
within its grasp wide commercial traffic and 
the production of valuable commodities has 
really achieved a greater triumph and won far 
more than the warrior who has led conquer- 
ing hosts over desolate homes and amid ruins 
of sacked cities; and if this peaceful hero uses 
his wealth as wisely as he acquires it, and by 
his progressiveness and beneficence contributes 
to the happiness and contentment of thousands, 
then are his victories greater than those of any 
marshaled host whose garments are stained 
with human blood, for his have been triumphs 
over the forces of worldly opposition and the 
selfish passions of men. "He that ruleth his 
own spirit is greater than he that taketh a 
city." Among the heroes of such worthy ac- 
complishment in the city of Detroit Joseph H. 
Berry is entitled to an exceptionally high place 
of honor and distinction. No one man has 
done more to augment the industrial supremacy 
of the metropolis of Michigan; his strength 



was as the number of his days; and during 
a long and successful commercial life, charac- 
terized by broadness and liberality, he ever 
maintained a reputation for the highest honor 
and principle, no unworthy word or deed ever 
linking itself with his name and no citizen of 
Michigan having made better or more unos- 
tentatious use of his powers and his resulting 
accumulations. 

Founder and head of the great concern of 
Berry Brothers, varnish manufacturers, and 
president of and largest stockholder in more 
than a score of important business enterprises, 
Mr. Berry was known as a man of almost phe- 
nomenal capacity in a detail and administrative 
way and as a financier of profound wisdom 
and judgment. The great varnish works 
which he founded have represented one of the 
most important factors in the industrial de- 
velopment of Detroit and there is no larger 
concern of like character in the world, its trade 
territory extending to the most distant lands. 
For more than half a century Mr. Berry lived 
and labored in Detroit, utilizing his splendid 
talents and energies to the supreme and wield- 
ing an influence which permeated the entire 
civic and business life of not only the city but 
also the state, to both of which his loyalty was 
of the most pronounced type. 

So nearly as authentic data determine, 
Joseph H. Berry's lineage traces through the 
sturdiest of English stock, and his father was 
the founder of the immediate family in 
America. Mr. Berry was born in the historic 
old city of Elizabeth, Union county. New Jer- 
sey, on the loth of March, 1839, and was a 
son of John Berry, a native of Lewes, England, 
who came to the United States in 1835, and 
located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he 
engaged in the tanning business, thus resuming 
the work of a trade which he had learned in 
his native land and which he had there followed 
from his boyhood until the time of his immi- 
gration to America. His eldest son, John A., 
was the first of the family in Detroit, and the 
father and other members of the family came 
here in 1855, — a date sufficiently early to en- 
title them to pioneer honors. The subject of 
this memoir passed his boyhood and early 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



337 



youth in his native town, where he was ac- 
corded such educational advantages as were 
afforded in well ordered private schools of the 
locality and period. From the date of his 
birth, as noted previously, it will be seen that 
he was sixteen years of age at the time of the 
family removal to Detroit, where his parents 
passed the remainder of their lives, and within 
a short time after the home was established in 
the "City of the Straits" Joseph H. secured 
employment in the wholesale chemical estab- 
lishment of the late Theodore H. Eaton. 

His association with this line of enterprise 
was undoubtedly that which led to his found- 
ing of the industrial enterprise which proved 
the basis of his great success in an inde- 
pendent business career. While employed in the 
chemical house, realizing the inefficacy of ex- 
isting varnishes, he initiated a series of experi- 
ments with various gums and finally succeeded 
in producing what seemed to him a very satis- 
factory article of varnish. In 1858, about three 
years after his advent in Detroit, and practi- 
cally without anything definite in the way of 
financial resources, he courageously established 
himself in business for himself, confident that 
his new product would eventually meet with 
popular approval. He had already made slight 
introduction of his varnish in a local way, 
being his own salesman and having as his 
manufacturing apparatus one small copper ket- 
tle. From this modest beginning has been 
built up the great industrial enterprise now 
conducted by the firm of Berry Brothers, Lim- 
ited. In the year last mentioned Mr. Berry 
effected the lease of a small frame building 
in Springwells, at the extreme western section 
of the city of Detroit, and this constituted the 
original plant of the concern. With charac- 
teristic vigor he pushed forward his business, 
amplifying and perfecting his facilities as his 
income justified, and in i860 he admitted to 
partnership his brother Thomas. In that year 
were erected the first buildings on the site of 
the present extensive plant, at the foot of Leib 
street, and the growth of the business is in- 
dicated in a measure by the fact that the build- 
ings of the firm cover at the present time a 
total of five acres, being of substantial con- 



struction and having unrivaled equipment for 
the facile production of the high-grade pro- 
ducts, — varnishes and kindred articles, — which 
have gained to the concern a world-wide rep- 
utation and supporting patronage. Such pro- 
gress and prestige could be made possible only 
through the application of just such courage, 
tireless vigor and great executive ability as 
characterized the founder of the business. 

In 1870 there was established in Chicago 
a western branch of the parent concern, and 
the continued expansion of the business 
brought about the opening of a similar branch 
in New York city in 1875, under the manage- 
ment of Alfred Hooper, who also opened like 
branches in each the cities of Philadelphia, 
Boston and Baltimore in the following year, 
while later, branches were established in Cin- 
cinnati and San Francisco. In 1893 the firm 
became a limited partnership, under its present 
title, and the interested principals at the time 
were Joseph H. and Thomas Berry and Alfred 
Hooper. Thomas Berry retired from active 
work about 1878, and interested in the concern 
at the present, is the estate of the founder, 
Thomas Berry and also Mr. Alfred Hooper, 
who has likewise been a distinct factor in for- 
warding the success of the magnificent in- 
dustry. 

Concerning the subject of this review the 
following estimate has been given by one fa- 
miliar with his career : "The energy with which 
Mr. Berry pushed the manufacture and sale 
of his varnish, and the indefatigable applica- 
tion, tenacity of purpose and complete com- 
prehension of detail which characterized him 
in every subsequent business enterprise which 
enlisted his interest, bore speedy results, and 
his rise in the commercial field was very rapid. 
From the drug clerk of 1855 to leadership 
among Detroit's captains of industry, executive 
head of separate firms or corporations, cover- 
ing a province remarkably varied and one with 
whose changing conditions he ever kept in 
close touch, — betokens a distinct man and in 
many senses a remarkable man. Though his 
business enterprises meant so much to Detroit 
he was probably among the least known and 
understood of her citizens who have been to 



338 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



any extent identified with her growth and de- 
velopment. The genius of business possessed 
him; business was the keynote of his Hfe. Up 
to the day of his death he was broadly active ; 
years made no difference in his close personal 
attention to business, and his later days were 
consumed with the same ceaseless toil and con- 
centration, the same persistence and tension 
as if he were just initiating a business career." 
It has been said that Mr. Berry was a man 
without sentiment, but to those who knew him 
best the glaring incongruity of the statement is 
prima facie. He was indeed immured in busi- 
ness, and who would not be, with so great and 
varied interests placing exacting demands upon 
his time and powers, but he well understood 
and appreciated the springs of human motives 
and actions, placed a true valuation upon his 
fellow men and to them meted out the judg- 
ment and treatment naturally merited. He was 
not intolerant save of meanness, duplicity and 
voluntary wrong-doing, and in the most ob- 
scure way his benefactions were extended to 
an extent that few of even his personal ac- 
quaintances have known. 

He was uniformly courteous, quiet and re- 
tiring in his disposition, and his home life was 
ideal, comprehending as much of his time as 
was not demanded by his business, while avoid- 
ance of publicity was one of his marked char- 
acteristics. His suburban residence at Grosse 
Pointe Farms is one of the most beautiful in 
that village of attractive homes, and there he 
built his conservatories, known to those inter- 
ested in floriculture throughout the country, 
by reason of the studied breeding of blossoms 
and foliage plants therein, as well as their re- 
markable collection of rare species, including 
orchids, of which latter the collection is one 
of the largest, most varied and most famed in 
the United States. The few hours of relaxa- 
tion which Mr. Berry permitted himself to en- 
joy were usually spent among his flowers, for 
which he had a great appreciation and fond- 
ness. 

In spite of his great wealth and the exigent 
demands upon his time, he was one of the 
most approachable of men, extremely demo- 
cratic in the granting of an audience to any one 



who had legitimate claim upon his attention, 
no matter how poor or humble, and in his 
quiet way he gave thousands of dollars to the 
needy and suffering. As an employer he was 
deeply interested in the welfare of the men and 
women who depended upon the wages drawn 
from the institutions under his direction, and 
their homes, their outside affairs and their gen- 
eral welfare were a constant study to him. Be- 
lieving that the liquor traffic was the influence 
most productive of unhappiness to the men and 
their families, he was a stalwart advocate of 
temperance. He personally used neither to- 
bacco nor spirituous liquors, and he put forth 
every effort to keep saloons out of the 
neighborhood in which he lived. He was a 
member of the Presbyterian church, to which 
he was a large contributor, as was he also to 
the work of other denominations. He was one 
of the most liberal contributors to the edifice 
of the Protestant church at Grosse Pointe and 
gave freely to the subsequent support of the 
religious work there carried on. 

He was deeply interested in the beautifying 
of his home city, the entire east side of which 
owes much to his taste for public improvement. 
Here he redeemed a large area of waste land 
and was largely concerned in the upbuilding of 
Fairview into one of the desirable residence 
districts of the city as well as affording to 
persons of moderate means an opportunity to 
purchase homes on easy terms. This was char- 
acteristic of the man. His modesty was on a 
parity with his philanthropy and it was his 
earnest desire to keep his name out of the 
newspapers. Though frequently solicited by 
these mediums for information of public in- 
terest concerning himself, his invariable refusal 
was accompanied by the words, "Wait until I 
have done something worth while." 

The last enterprise of which Mr. Berry was 
the originator and which will be of inestimable 
value in the future development of the eastern 
section of the city in a manufacturing way and 
a monument to a career of unusual usefulness, 
was the promotion of the outer-belt line, in 
1906, known as the Detroit Terminal Railway. 
The preliminary expenses of the enterprise, 
including the right of way, were all borne by 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



339 



Mr. Berry, but he enjoined secrecy upon the 
part of those engaged in the completing of the 
enterprise, desiring to avoid all publicity at- 
taching to himself as the one who made it 
possible of success. 

In the early part of 1907 Mr. Berry central- 
ized a number of his most important holdings 
by the incorporation of the Lake Superior Iron 
& Chemical Company. The companies in- 
cluded in this merger, and in all of which he 
was the president and' controlling stockholder, 
were as follows : Ashland Iron & Steel Com- 
pany, of Ashland, Wisconsin ; Manistique Iron 
Company and Burrell Chemical Company, of 
Manistique, Michigan ; Michigan Iron Com- 
pany, Limited, and the Superior Chemical 
Company, of Newberry, Michigan; Northern 
Charcoal Iron Company, of Chocally, Michi- 
gan; Elk Rapids Iron Company, of Elk Rap- 
ids, Michigan; and the Boyne City Iron Com- 
pany, of Boyne City, Michigan. He was also 
president of the Dwight Lumber Company, the 
Detroit Heating & Lighting Company, the 
Antrim Chemical Company, the Welded Steel 
Barrel Corporation, a director in the Commer- 
cial National Bank of Detroit, and a stock- 
holder in other leading financial institutions. 
As a manufacturer of charcoal iron he was one 
of the largest producers in the United States, 
as was he also of wood alcohol ; he controlled 
the fly-paper trade of the country ; was an ex- 
tensive manufacturer of car wheels, electric- 
welded steel barrels and lumber ; was the owner 
of large tracts of timber land, and his landed 
estate in Wayne county probably exceeds in 
acreage that of any other person. 

It is difficult to determine with exactitude 
the secret of a man's success, but it may be 
said of Joseph H. Berry that he combined 
technical knowledge and experience with busi- 
ness grasp and executive ability, — qualities 
which are all but incompatible and which, when 
found blended in one individual, must invari- 
ably beget definite success. Mr. Berry's death 
is an unquestioned loss to Detroit and the state 
at large, and it will be difficult to find for the 
industries with which he was concerned 
another guiding hand so firm and able. He 
was summoned to the life eternal on the 22d 



of May, 1907, and the simple funeral services 
were held from his late residence at Grosse 
Pointe Farms, services marked by that modesty 
which he himself would have directed. The 
pallbearers were selected from among his old- 
est employes, and many there were who felt 
the deep sense of personal bereavement when 
this strong and worthy man was called from 
the scene of life's mortal endeavors. 

In 1868 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Berry to Miss Charlotte Dwight, daughter 
of Alfred A. Dwight, who was a prominent 
lumberman of Michigan. Mrs. Berry died in 
1875, and they are survived by three daugh- 
ters, all residents of Detroit, — Charlotte, the 
wife of Professor Henry G. Sherrard; Alice 
Dwight, the wife of Dr. Edwin Lodge; and 
Miss Lottie, who remains at the old homestead. 



FRANK D. TAYLOR. 

This well known and honored business man 
of Detroit, where he now has the distinction 
of being the oldest dry-goods merchant in ac- 
tive business, is a member of one of the ster- 
ling pioneer families of the state and his 
achievement is such as to have gained to him 
marked precedence in commercial circles and 
a secure place in the confidence and esteem of 
the community which has so long represented 
his home. 

Mr. Taylor was born at Dryden, Lapeer 
county, Michigan, June 11, 1842, and is a son 
of Nathaniel T. and Laura (Winchell) Taylor, 
both of whom were representatives of families 
founded in America in the early colonial epoch 
of our national history. Nathaniel T. Taylor 
was a son of Rev. John Taylor, who immi- 
grated from Massachusetts to Michigan and 
took up his residence in Macomb county in 
1832, several years prior to the admission of 
the state to the Union. This honored ancestor 
was one of the pioneer clergymen of the Con- 
gregational church in the state and was the 
founder of the Congregational Academy at 
Romeo, an institution which had high standing 
in its day. The Taylor family is of pure Eng- 
lish extraction and its founder in America 
was Rev. Edward Taylor, who crossed the 



340 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Atlantic in 1662 and settled in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, whence he later removed to West- 
field, that state, where he passed the residue of 
his life. He was a dissenting clergyman in his 
native land and was one of the first represent- 
atives of his denominational faith in the New 
England colonies, where he attained to marked 
prominence and influence and where his name 
was held in lasting honor. He was a man of 
distinctive intellectuality and his labors counted 
for good in all relations and exigencies. 

In 1848 Nathaniel T. Taylor removed with 
his family to Detroit, and in 1850 he went to 
California, where he opened a general store, 
and where he died in 1852, at the time of the 
great cholera epidemic, of which he was a vic- 
tim. His wife survived him by a number of 
years. They became the parents of three sons 
and two daughters, all of whom are now de- 
ceased except the subject of this review. 

Frank D. Taylor was six years of age at the 
time of the family removal to Detroit, whose 
public schools he attended until he had attained 
to the age of twelve years, when he gave in- 
ception to his business career by entering the 
employ of L. F. Harter, a tea and coffee mer- 
chant of Detroit. In i860 he became an em- 
ploye in the retail dry-goods house of Farrell 
& Brother, and when, in 1866, this firm was 
succeeded by that of Newcomb, Endicott & 
Company, Mr. Taylor became one of the part- 
ners in the new concern. In 1880 he became 
associated with A. W. Wright and J. B. 
Woolfenden in organizing the firm of Taylor, 
Woolfenden & Company, which soon gained 
high rank among the leading dry-goods houses 
of the city. In 1894 the business was incor- 
porated, under the title of the Taylor- Woolfen- 
den Company and Mr. Taylor was elected vice- 
president, of which office he has since been in- 
cumbent, having been continuously identified 
with the dry-goods trade in Detroit for a 
longer period than any other person now thus 
engaged here. To the upbuilding of the mag- 
nificent enterprise now conducted under the 
title noted he has given the best of his splendid 
energies, and he is known as a broad-minded 
and progressive business man, one richly 
meriting the high esteem in which he is held 



in the city which has been his home from his 
boyhood days and in which he has risen to I 
prominence and influence through his own ef- 
forts and abilities, being numbered among the 
most substantial business men of a city long 
noted for its financial stability and conserva- 
tism. 

Mr. Taylor is a valued member of the Board 
of Commerce, and is one of the prominent 
members of the Woodward Avenue Congrega- 
tional church. He has been specially active in 
charitable enterprises, to which he has con- 
tributed liberally of time and influence as well ' 
as in a financial way. He was one of the or- 
ganizers of the Detroit Young Men's Christian 
Association and has been president of the state 
organization of this body. He holds member- 
ship in the Detroit Boat Club, the New Eng- 
land Society and the Sons of the American '1 
Revolution. ^ 

In 1866 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. 
Taylor to Miss Phoebe E. Shourds, daughter ' 
of James Shourds, of Detroit, and she died in 
1885, at the summer home of the family at ' 
Orchard Lake. She is survived by three 
daughters, — Miss Florence G., of Detroit; 
Harriet, who is the wife of Bertrand S. Sum- 
mers, of Chicago; and Mabel, who is the wife 
of Clarence S. Fleming, of Detroit. In 1890 
Mr. Taylor contracted a second marriage, be- 
ing then united to Mrs. Eleanora H. Snover, 
of Detroit, his present companion. 



CHARLES ENDICOTT. 

So intimate was the business and personal 
association of the subject of this memoir and 
Cyrenius A. Newcomb that to gain a sym- 
metrical idea of the business career of the one 
practically necessitates a reviewing of that of 
the other. On this score the reader will do 
well to refer to the epitome of the life history 
of Mr. Newcomb, appearing on other pages 
of this work. The two were the founders of 
the great dry-goods house of Newcomb, Endi- 
cott & Company and continued to be allied in 
its ownership until death severed the asso- 
ciation, Mr. Endicott having been summoned 
to the life eternal on the i8th of January, 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



341 



1896. Data relative to the upbuilding of the 
magnificent enterprise of the firm and later cor- 
poration of Newcomb, Endicott & Company, 
of Detroit, may be found in the sketch rela- 
tive to the career of Mr. Newcomb, and thus 
a repetition of the same is not demanded in the 
present article. 

Charles Endicott played a large part in the 
business history of Detroit for a long term of 
years, and upon his record as a citizen and 
business man rests no shadow of wrong or in- 
justice. He was a man of unswerving in- 
tegrity of purpose and absolute rectitude of 
character, while in connection with material 
affairs he held a high reputation as a business 
man of marked finesse and ability, his powers 
being best exemplified and his reputation being 
best indicated by the monument which remains 
to-day in the magnificent business house in 
whose upbuilding he and Mr. Newcomb were 
the principal factors, in fact the only factors. 

The old Bay state, that cradle of so much 
of our national history, figures as the native 
place of Mr. Endicott, who was born at Bev- 
erly, Massachusetts, in the year 1836. He was 
a son of William and Joanna (Lovett) Endi- 
cott, both representatives of families founded in 
New England in the early colonial epoch. The 
family line touches that of the historic char- 
acter, John Endicott, and in the various gen- 
erations have been found men of worth and 
prominence in the various vocations which 
represent the normal productive activities of 
life. The parents of Mr. Endicott were like- 
wise natives of Beverly, and they passed their 
entire lives in Massachusetts. The father was 
born in 1799 and died in 1899, within two 
months of his one hundredth birthday anni- 
versary. He was a representative merchant 
in Beverly and was a man of prominence and 
influence in the community which represented 
his home during a life prolonged far beyond 
the usual limit. Of his children four sons and 
one daughter attained to years of maturity, 
and of the number four are now living. 

Charles Endicott was reared in his native 
town and was indebted to its common schools 
for his early educational discipline. As a youth 



he initiated his business career by securing a 
clerkship in the dry-goods house of C. F. 
Hovey, of Boston, and he remained in that 
classical old city for a number of years, within 
which he gained wide and valuable experience 
in connection with the line of business in which 
he eventually achieved so noteworthy a success 
in an independent or individual way. In the 
early '60s he came to the west, and in 1865 he 
purchased an interest in the dry-goods busi- 
ness of T. C. Chapman, of Milwaukee, Wis- 
consin, with which he was identified two years, 
at the expiration of which he sold his interest 
to his partner. It is interesting to note that the 
Chapman dry-goods establishment is still in 
existence in the metropolis of Wisconsin, even 
as is that of Newcomb, Endicott & Company, 
of Detroit, whose history is of almost equal 
duration. 

In 1868 Mr. Endicott came from Milwaukee 
to Detroit, where he associated himself with 
C. A. Newcomb in purchasing the dry-goods 
stock and business of James W. Farrell, and 
from this nucleus was built up the great retail 
house with which he continued to be connected 
until his death. This house ever received the 
major part of his time and attention and his 
energy, progressive ideas and close application 
had much to do with vitalizing and amplifying 
the great enterprise. He was a member of 
the directorate of the Detroit National Bank 
at the time of his demise and had other capi- 
talistic investments, though, as already inti- 
mated, he found ample demand upon his time 
and energies in connection with the firm of 
Newcomb, Endicott & Company. He was held 
in unqualified esteem as a citizen and was well 
known in business and social circles in his 
home city. Though essentially public-spirited, 
Mr. Endicott never took any active part in the 
conflicts of the political arena, and was inde- 
pendent of partisan lines to a great extent. 
He was a member of the Unitarian church and 
was a liberal contributor to its work in the 
various departments. 

In 1863 was solemnized the marriage of 
Charles Endicott to Miss Caroline Leach, who 
was born and reared in Massachusetts. Her 



342 



DETROIT A^D WAYNE COUNTY 



father was a captain in the East India trade, 
following the sea during the greater part of 
his life. Mrs. Endicott is still living and 
makes her home with her children. Mr. and 
Mrs. Endicott became the parents of five chil- 
dren, concerning whom the following brief 
record is given : Alice and Charles are de- 
ceased; Caroline is the wife of Charles W. 
Rantoul, Jr., of New York city; Grace is the 
wife of William B. Kendall, of New York; 
and Edith is the wife of Gilbert M. McMillan, 
of Gorham, New Hampshire. 

In the present generation of the Endicott 
family there is only one to bear the name, — 
John Endicott, a nephew of the subject of this 
review. He also was born at Beverly, Mas- 
sachusetts, and is a son of Robert R. Endicott, 
the next older brother of Charles. Robert R. 
Endicott was a prominent merchant of Bev- 
erly, was president of the Beverly Savings Bank 
for a long term of years, and was also a direc- 
tor of the First National Bank of Beverly. John 
Endicott received excellent educational advan- 
tages, including a course at Phillips Exeter 
Academy and Harvard University, in which 
latter institution he was graduated in 1889. As 
a young man he located in the west, and for 
some time he held a clerical position with the 
Union Pacific Railroad, at Omaha and Sioux 
City. In 1 89 1 he came to Detroit and took 
charge of the books of Newcomb, Endicott & 
Company, having had thorough experience as a 
bookkeeper and accountant, and upon the death 
of his uncle he became a member of the firm, 
which was later incorporated under the same 
title. He is now treasurer of the concern and 
has proven a worthy executive successor of his 
honored uncle. In politics he gives his alle- 
giance to the Republican party and his religious 
faith is that of the Unitarian church. He is 
identified with various fraternal and social or- 
ganizations in Detroit and is known as an en- 
terprising and progressive business men. 

In 1893 Mr. Endicott was married to Eliza- 
beth Martha Watson, who died in 1900. In 
1902 he married Mary Elizabeth Booth, and 
they have two children, — Robert Rantoul En- 
dicott, and Elizabeth Thorndike Endicott. 



WILLIAM A. MOORE. 

To have gained high prestige as one of the 
leading members of the bar of the state of 
Michigan was the good fortune of the subject ' 
of this memoir, whose abilities were of the 
most solid and definite order and whose char- 
acter was one marked by inviolable integrity 
and honor. In his death, on the 25th of 
September, 1906, Detroit lost one of her 
most honored citizens and most distinguished 
lawyers. 

William Austin Moore was born near Clif- 
ton Springs, Ontario county, New York, April 
17, 1823, and was the seventh son of William 
and Lucy (Rice) Moore. The ancestry in the 
agnatic line is traced to Scotch-Irish origin, 1 
and Mr. Moore was a great-great-grandson of 
one of the historic McDonald clan, which was 
slaughtered at the massacre of Glencoe, Scot- , 
land, February 13, 1692. The widow of this 
valorous ancestor fled with her children to Ire- 
land, where the family remained until 1718, 
when they immigrated to America, being num- 
bered among the first settlers of Londonderry, 
New Hampshire. The youngest son, John, 
married and became the father of seven chil- 
dren, the third of whom, William, married 
Jane Holmes, December 13, 1763. He re- 
moved to Peterboro, New Hampshire, and he 
became a valiant soldier in the Continental line 
in the war of the Revolution, having taken part 
in the battle of Bennington, July 19, 1777. 
Of the twelve children in his family the young- 
est was William, father of the subject of this 
memoir. William Moore was born April 9, 
1787, and at the age of eighteen years he 
removed to Phelps, Ontario county. New 
York, where his marriage to Lucy Rice was 
solemnized November 7, 1806; she was bom 
in Massachusetts. William Moore followed 
agricultural pursuits as a vocation and served 
in various local offices of public trust. He was 
a soldier in the war of 1812, in which he was 
present at the burning of Buffalo and the sortie 
at Fort Erie. 

In the summer of 183 1 William Moore re- 
moved with his family to Michigan and be- 
came one of the early settlers of Washtenaw 
county. In 1832 he was appointed justice of 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



343 



the peace, which office he held until Michigan 
was admitted to statehood, and he afterward 
held the same office twelve years by election. 
He was a member of the first constitutional 
convention of the state, served as a member of 
the first state senate, and in 1843 represented 
Washtenaw county in the lower house of the 
legislature. He was one of the most promi- 
nent and influential men of his day in Wash- 
tenaw county, where both he and his wife con- 
tinued to reside until their death. 

William Austin Moore passed his boyhood 
days on the home farm, having been eight 
years of age at the time of the family immi- 
gration to the wilds of Michigan, where he 
lived up to the full tension of the pioneer epoch. 
His early educational advantages were limited 
to a somewhat desultoiy attendance in the 
primitive pioneer schools, where he pursued 
his studies during the winter terms, when his 
services were not in demand on the farm, which 
he assisted in reclaiming to cultivation. The 
discipline was such, however, as to develop the 
individuality of the youth, and when twenty 
years of age he determined to prepare himself 
for the profession of law, — an undertaking that 
would seem formidable indeed to a young man 
similarly situated at the present day. In April, 
1844, Mr. Moore began a preparatory course 
of study at Ypsilanti, where he remained two 
years. He then entered the University of 
Michigan, in which he was graduated in 1850, 
as a member of the fifth class to be graduated 
in that institution, which is now the pride of 
the state. After his graduation Mr. Moore 
went to Salem, Mississippi, where he was en- 
gaged in teaching school for about eighteen 
months. In April, 1852, he began the study 
of law in the office of Davidson & Holbrook, 
of Detroit, and in January of the following 
year he was admitted to the bar. He imme- 
diately began the practice of his profession in 
Detroit, and he continued to follow the same 
until his death, eventually building up a large 
and representative business, — the result of in- 
defatigable effort and unswerving devotion to 
his chosen profession. In the early years he 
gave special attention to the admiralty branch 
of practice, which was then one of importance 



in the legal business of Detroit, and he became 
one of the leaders in this field of practice, in 
which he figured in nearly all important cases 
tried in Michigan, besides being often called 
to Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago and Milwaukee. 
He became known as an able trial lawyer, but 
his tastes and inclinations made him especially 
strong as a counselor, in which department of 
practice his services were in much demand at 
all times. Concerning him these pertinent 
words have been written by one who knew him 
long and well: "He united a judicial and in- 
dependent character of mind, long familiarity 
with the principles of law, excellent foresight, 
sound judgment, and, above all, unquestioned 
integrity, — qualities which admirably fitted 
him to act the part of conciliator and har- 
monizer of conflicting interests. His convic- 
tions were not reached without careful investi- 
gation and consideration, but a stand once 
taken was not abandoned for any mere ques- 
tion of policy or expediency. All his influence 
was cast on the side of morality, good govern- 
ment, obedience to law, and the elevation of 
his fellows. No responsibility ever laid upon 
him was ever neglected or betrayed. Many 
persons of far less worth have attracted a 
larger share of public attention, but few have 
done more to conserve in various ways the 
best interests of the city." 

Mr. Moore was always amply fortified in his 
convictions as to matter of public polity, and 
was unswerving in his allegiance to the Demo- 
cratic party, in whose cause he was a zealous 
worker, though never a seeker of official prefer- 
ment. From 1864 to 1868 he was chairman of 
the Democratic state central committee, and 
from the latter year until 1876 he was the 
Michigan representative as a member of the 
Democratic national executive committee. Mr. 
Moore withheld not his influence and services 
in connection with the administration of public 
affairs of a local nature. From 1859 to 1865 
he was a member of the Detroit board of edu- 
cation, and for three and one-half years of that 
period he was president of the board. He 
served for many years as attorney of the board 
of police commissioners; in 1881 he was ap- 
pointed a member of the board of park com- 



344 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



missioners, to which position he was reap- 
pointed in 1884. He was twice elected presi- 
dent of this board, but resigned before the 
expiration of his second term. 

Mr. Moore was one of the organizers of 
the Wayne County Savings Bank and of the 
Detroit Fire & Marine Insurance Company, 
of both of which he served many years as di- 
rector and attorney. He was also a member of 
the directorate of the American Exchange 
National Bank. He was ever appreciative of 
the spiritual verities of the Christian faith and 
was a zealous member and supporter of the 
Baptist church. 

December 5, 1854, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Moore to Miss Laura J. Van 
Husan, daughter of the late Caleb Van Husan, 
of Detroit, and she survives him, as does also 
their only child, William V., of whom indi- 
vidual mention is made in this work. 



HAZEN S. PINGREE. 

He gave the best of an essentially strong, 
noble and loyal nature to the service of the 
people of Michigan ; his life course was guided 
and governed by the highest principles of in- 
tegrity and honor; he was humanity's friend 
and labored with all of zeal and devotion for 
the uplifting and aiding of his fellow men. It 
is then but a matter of imperative consistency 
that every publication touching the history of 
Detroit and the state of Michigan should give 
due measure of recognition to Hazen S. Pin- 
gree, former governor of this commonwealth 
and former mayor of the metropolis of the 
state. Both in public life and in connection 
with industrial affairs was Mr. Pingree a dis- 
tinct force, and his name is honored by all who 
had cognizance of the true worth of the man 
and the great value of his services. 

Mr. Pingree was born on the parental farm- 
stead, at Denmark, Maine, on the 30th of Au- 
gust, 1840, and was a scion of that staunch 
Puritan stock which settled New England and 
made that section the cradle of so large a part 
of our national history. The direct founder 
of the Pingree family in America was Moses 
Pingree, who came from England in 1640, 
just twenty years after the landing of the Pil- 



grims at Plymouth Rock. He settled at 
Ipswich, Massachusetts, and in that locality the 
family continued to reside for nearly one and 
one-half centuries. In 1780 representatives of 
the name were identified with the settlement of 
colonies at Rowley and Georgetown, Massa- 
chusetts, and from the old Bay state finally 
went members of the family to establish homes 
in the wilds of the state of Maine. 

The future governor of Michigan was reared 
to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and 
his educational advantages in his youth were 
confined to the somewhat primitive common 
schools of the locality and period. When but 
fourteen years of age he initiated his independ- 
ent career by going to Saco, Maine, where 
he secured employment in a cotton factory. 
Two years later he went thence to Hopkinton, 
Massachusetts, where he learned the trade of 
cutter in a shoe factory. Here he remained 
several years and here he gained an intimate 
knowledge of the branch of industry in which 
he was destined eventually to gain so much of 
prominence and commercial success. 

The intrinsic loyalty and patriotism of 
young Pingree was signally manifested when 
he tendered his services in defense of the 
Union, whose integrity was jeopardized by 
armed rebellion. In the early part of 1862 he 
enlisted as a private, to fill a quota of forty- 
seven in the little town of Hopkinton, and with 
his comrades he proceeded to Virginia, where 
he became a member of Company F, First 
Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, which was at 
that time assigned to duty in the defense of 
the national capital. The regiment was ordered 
to the front during Pope's Virginia campaign 
and took an active part in the battle of Bull 
Run. It then returned to duty in defense of 
Washington, taking a position at Arlington 
Heights, Virginia, where it remained until 
May 15, 1864, when it was again ordered to 
the front, being assigned to duty as infantry in 
the Second Brigade of Tyler's Division, Sec- 
ond Army Corps. With this command it par- 
ticipated in the fights at Fredericksburg Road, 
Harris's Farm, and Spottsylvania Court 
House. In the memorable battle at the point 
last mentioned the regiment opened the engage- 




ENG BY HENRY TAVuOR JR-CHICAGC 




DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



345 



merit, during which it lost in killed and 
wounded many of its men. It was then as- 
signed to the Second Corps, Third Division, 
in the Army of the Potomac, with which it 
took part in the battle of North Anna, May 
24-5. While on special duty on the latter day 
of this fight Private Pingree and some of his 
companions were captured by a detachment 
from Mosby's command, and Mr. Pingree was 
thereafter held at various southern prisons, 
including the notorious Andersonville, where 
he remained six months, finally being taken to 
the stockade at Millen, Georgia, at the time of 
Sherman's march to the sea. From this prison 
he was returned to the Union lines under 
parole, having gained his liberty by clever sub- 
terfuge, and in November, 1864, his exchange 
was effected, whereupon he rejoined his regi- 
ment, in front of Petersburg. From that time 
forward his command was engaged in almost 
ceaseless fighting by day and marching by 
night, and it was present at the surrender of 
General Lee, after which it took part in the 
Grand Review of the victorious troops in the 
city of Washington. The regiment made an 
admirable record and was complimented in 
special orders from Generals Mott and Pierce, 
"for gallantry in the last grand charge on 
Petersburg, in which it held a leading position 
and was greatly depleted in numbers." It is 
a matter of official record that of all the regi- 
ments in the Union service there were only 
fourteen whose total loss in battle exceeded 
that of the First Massachusetts Heavy Artil- 
lery. The regiment was mustered out on the 
15th of August, 1865. 

After the close of the war Mr. Pingree re- 
turned to his home, but shortly afterward he 
started for the west. He came to Detroit, 
where he secured a position as salesman in the 
boot and shoe establishment of H. P. Baldwin 
& Company, of which the late and honored 
Henry P. Baldwin, likewise a former governor 
of Michigan, was the head. Shortly afterward 
he engaged in buying produce and shipping 
the same to the east ; in this connection he was 
associated with C. H. Smith. In 1866 the 
firm of Pingree & Smith was formed, and in 
that year was laid in a most modest way the 



foundation for the great shoe manufactory 
which was so long conducted under this title, 
and which still perpetuates the name of Mr. 
Pingree, in the operations of the Pingree Com- 
pany, one of the largest concerns of the kind 
in the United States. In instituting their new 
venture Pingree & Smith purchased a srnall 
quantity of inferior machinery from H. P. 
Baldwin & Company, who had found it un- 
profitable to continue the manufacturing of 
boots and shoes, and the entire capital of the 
new firm did not exceed fifteen hundred dol- 
lars. At the start the force of employes num- 
bered only eight persons, but with the forceful 
and intelligent policy brought to bear, the sales 
for the first year reached the notable aggregate 
of nearly twenty thousand dollars. From the 
Cyclopedia of Michigan published in 1900, 
prior to the death of Governor Pingree, are 
taken the following statements regarding the 
upbuilding of the fine industry with which the 
.subject of this memoir was so prominently con- 
cerned during a long period of years : "The 
growth of the business has been steady and 
gradual, until now the output of the factory 
is exceeded by that of few factories in the 
entire country. Several removals to larger 
quarters were from time to time found neces- 
sary to do the increasing business. In 1883 
Mr. Smith retired from the firm and Messrs. 
F. C. Pingree and J. B. Howarth, who had 
been the senior member's right-hand men, were 
admitted to partnership. A disastrous fire in 
March, 1887, which destroyed the entire plant, 
threatened to sweep the firm out of existence, 
but the indomitable energy of the members 
enabled them to recover, and they now stand 
at the head of all western shoe manufacturers 
and occupy their own immense new building, 
fitted with every modern appliance. Over this 
very extensive business Mr. H. S. Pingree had 
supervision from the beginning, and it is owing 
principally to his wise and faithful control that 
the firm made such a remarkable success in a 
field where so many others have failed." 

Mr. Pingree gained a high reputation as a 
business man uf sterling integrity and great 
administrative a'oility, and he early won the 
confidence and esteem of the people of Detroit, 



346 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



fhough he was so immersed in his business 
affairs that he did not become a factor in pubhc 
life until after many years of residence in 
the Michigan metropolis. His interest in civic 
matters had, however, been deep and helpful, 
and he was known as a citizen of great public 
spirit and of progressive civic ideas. In 1899, 
after having refused many previous overtures 
to become a candidate for municipal office, Mr. 
Pingree was made the unanimous nominee of 
the Republican party for the office of mayor of 
Detroit. His acceptance of the nomination 
was prompted by a sense of civic duty and 
fealty, since at this election was made the 
attempt to overthrow the corrupt "ring" ad- 
ministration in municipal affairs. He was ac- 
corded the support of the better class of citi- 
zens, irrespective of partisan affiliations, and 
was elected by a splendid majority over all 
other candidates. As has been stated, "his 
inclination to decline the nomination was 
headed off by the importunities of some of the 
best men in both parties. He then practically 
delegated his private business to his partners, 
Mr. F. C. Pingree and Mr. J. B. Howarth, and 
threw himself heart and soul into the duties 
of his new office. He set about righting 
wrongs and reforming many of the antiquated 
ways of doing the city's business. He especial- 
ly confronted the street-railway companies and 
the city gas companies, and secured for the 
people many valuable concessions. He exerted 
a favorable influence in settling the great 
street-car strike which occurred shortly after 
his inauguration. He also, by his veto, averted 
the extending of the street-railway franchise, 
which would have been most detrimental to 
the city. In 1891 he received a renomination 
for mayor, and was again triumphantly elected. 
In 1893 the same thing occurred, and in 1895 
he was once more persuaded to accept the nom- 
ination for mayor, and was again triumphantly 
elected. His entire incumbency as mayor of 
Detroit was devoted largely to the opposition 
of monopolistic corporations. During this 
time also the city entered upon many modern 
improvements, very notably in the case of pav- 
ing many of her more important thoroughfares 
with asphalt, and Detroit has come to be 



known as one of the cleanest and most beauti- 
ful cities in the Union." 

Mayor Pingree was essentially loyal and 
fearless in his administration, which was 
marked by the insistent policy of securing the 
greatest good to the greatest number. He was 
sure in his premises as to matters of civic con- 
trol ; was the friend and protector of the rights 
of the people; and to him was accorded the 
most unequivocal popular endorsement, 
though, as a natural sequence, he had the an- 
tagonism of strong and influential corporate 
interests which had long fed at the people's ex- 
pense. No mayor of Detroit has given a more 
clean, business-like and able administration, 
and the Pingree standard is one invariably 
referred to as representing the ultimate of ex- 
cellence. Public charities and benevolences 
gained from the mayor careful consideration 
and aid, and he did a noble work in alleviating 
the distress and suffering of the poor within 
the gates of the fair metropolis of Michigan. 

To a man who had thus proved himself and 
shown such illuminating ideals, it was but 
natural that higher honors should come in the 
gift of the people. His reputation had now 
permeated the state, and in 1896 he was made 
the nominee of his party for the office of gov- 
ernor of Michigan. He was elected by a large 
majority, and in 1898 similar mark of popular 
approval was given in his being chosen as his 
own successor in the gubernatorial office. It 
is scarcely necessary to say that in his admin- 
istration of state affairs he held the same en- 
lightened and progressive policy that had 
marked his regime as mayor of Detroit. Re- 
form, protection of the rights of the people, 
determined antagonism of monopolistic inter- 
ests working against the general welfare, — all 
these gained to him a secure place in the con- 
fidence, esteem and affection of the people of 
Michigan. He labored earnestly to secure 
equal taxation and to protect the rights of the 
individual. His fame can not be other than 
enduring, for it rests upon the broadest plane 
of humanitarianism. The hold Governor Pin- 
gree had upon the people of Michigan is meas- 
urably typified in the magnificent bronze statue, 
of heroic size, which stands in Grand Circus 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



347 



Park, Detroit, and which represents the con- 
tributions of all classes of citizens throughout 
the Wolverine commonwealth. The inscrip- 
tion on the bronze entablature is as follows: 
"The citizens of Michigan erect this monu- 
ment to the cherished memory of Hazen S. 
Pingree, a gallant soldier, and enterprising and 
successful citizen, four times elected mayor of 
Detroit, twice governor of Michigan. He was 
the first to warn the people of the great danger 
threatened by powerful private corporations, 
and the first to initiate steps for reforms. The 
idol of the people. He died June i8, 
MDCCCCI, aged sixty years." 

During the administration of Governor Pin- 
gree occurred the Spanish-American war, and 
he showed the greatest solicitude for the Mich- 
igan soldiers who were arrayed for the serv- 
ice. Another memorial has said of him in this 
connection : "Governor Pingree was known as 
the soldiers' friend, for day and night he de- 
voted himself and all of his energies to the 
welfare of the troops that Michigan supplied; 
he saw to their proper clothing and other 
equipment, claiming that the state had a right 
to provide her men with the best of every- 
thing that they required ; he visited the camps 
and individually looked after the welfare of 
the Michigan troops; when many were lying 
in southern hospitals, sick of the deadly south- 
ern fevers, he caused a thoroughly equipped 
hospital train to be sent to the southern camps 
to bring home all of those who were able to 
travel, and thus was probably the means of 
saving the life of many a man who had nobly 
offered himself to the service of his country." 

Further reference to the administration of 
Mr. Pingree as governor and mayor is to be 
found in the department of this work devoted 
to general history. 

There can be no impropriety in recording 
the fact that the determined policy, fearless- 
ness and independence of Mr. Pingree in the 
offices of mayor and governor gained to him 
bitter antagonisms on the part of those whom 
he attacked with implacable vigor, for their 
nefarious practices and their self-aggrandize- 
ment at the expense of the people, nor should it 
be inconsistent to state also that these antago- 



nisms, emanating in many cases from high 
sources, led to petty persecution of Mr. Pin- 
gree in his business and social relations and 
even extended to the members of his family, — 
actions worthy of only execration and denun- 
ciation. 

Hazen S. Pingree was a man who kept the 
needle of life true to the pole-star of hope, and 
he guided his course with a full sense of his 
responsibilities and with the strength of con- 
scious rectitude. His name merits a large 
place in the annals of the state and city to 
which he gave so great and fruitful service. 
He completed his second term as governor and 
then returned to Detroit to resume his control 
of business affairs. His death here occurred 
on the 1 8th of June, 1901, and it may well be 
said that "his works do follow him." He was 
a stalwart advocate of the principles of the 
Republican party, and he attained to the 
thirty-second degree in the Ancient Accepted 
Scottish Rite of Masonry. He was an appre- 
ciative and valued member of Detroit Post, 
No. 384, Grand Army of the Republic, and 
was identified with various social and civic 
organizations of a representative order. 

In the year 1872 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Pingree to Miss Frances A. Gil- 
bert, of Mount Clemens, Michigan, who died 
in 1908. They became the parents of three 
children, two of whom are living, — Hazen S., 
Jr., and Hazel, who is the wife of Sherman L. 
Depew, of Detroit. The family still maintain 
their home in Detroit. 



GEORGE H. BARBOUR. 

One of those especially deserving of the title 
of captain of industry in the city of Detroit 
figures as the subject of this sketch. His in- 
fluence has permeated in many directions but 
more especially in the building up of the mag- 
nificent industrial enterprise conducted by the 
Michigan Stove Company, recognized as the 
largest and most progressive concern of the 
kind in the world. A record of the company 
appears elsewhere in this work, with due de- 
scription of the plant and business. Mr. Bar- 
bour is first vice-president and general man- 



348 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ager of the concern and is also an interested 
principal and officer in a number of other im- 
portant industrial and financial concerns which 
are factors in maintaining the high commercial 
prestige of Detroit and the state. 

George Harrison Barbour comes of the 
staunchest of New England stock, the original 
American progenitor having been Thomas 
Barber, who immigrated from England to 
America in 1634, reaching his destination on 
the 20th of June. From that early date to 
the present time the name of Barbour has been 
prominently identified with the commercial, 
political and civic annals of New England, 
especially of the state of Connecticut, where 
yet remain many descendants of the ancestor 
mentioned as being the founder of the Ameri- 
can branch of the family. Of later years, how- 
ever, the city of Detroit has gained many mem- 
bers of the younger and more active genera- 
tion, and even the pages of this work will 
clearly indicate to how marked a degree the 
prestige of the honored name has here been 
upheld. 

He to whom this sketch is dedicated 
was bom in Collinsville, Hartford county, 
Connecticut, on the 26th of June, 1843, ^"d is 
a son of Samuel Thompson Barbour and 
Phoebe (Beckwith) Barbour, both of whom 
were likewise natives of Connecticut, where 
the former was born in the year 1800 and 
where he continued to live until his death, in 
i860, his wife surviving him by a number of 
years. Of their three sons and three daughters 
only George H. is now living. The father was 
a well known and successful merchant in the 
above named town and was prominent and in- 
fluential in connection with the growth and 
development of the section in which he so long 
lived and labored. He was an upright busi- 
ness man and in all the relations of life was 
dominated by the highest principles of in- 
tegrity and honor. He retired from active 
business in 1857 and was succeeded by his 
youngest son, George H., subject of this 
sketch, who later became associated in the 
business with his brother-in-law, Julius Earl 
Goodman, under the firm name of Goodman & 
Barbour. Mr. Barbour secured his early edu- 



cational training in the common schools of his 
native town and early began to assist his father 
in his business affairs, so that his youthful dis- 
cipline was of a sort to foster self-reliance, 
pragmatic ability and energy. None can doubt 
that Mr. Barbour has reason to feel that his 
life has counted for much and that he has had 
the prescience to grasp and improve oppor- 
tunity, thereby wresting from the hands of fate 
a large measure of success and a reputation 
indicative of the most sterling attributes of 
character. Mr. Barbour continued in the gen- 
eral merchandise business at Collinsville, Con- 
necticut, until 1872, when he was tendered the 
office of secretary of the Michigan Stove Com- 
pany, having been well known to a number of 
those concerned in founding the new enter- 
prise. He promptly disposed of his business 
interests in his native town and accepted the 
position tendered him in Detroit, where he has 
maintained his home since the year mentioned. 
He has never had cause to regret the change 
which he made in the connection noted. 

Much of the success of the Michigan Stove 
Company is directly due to his indefatigable 
efforts and aggressive business policy, and for 
more than a quarter of a century he has been 
a potent factor in commercial circles in Michi- 
gan. He has made judicious investments of 
his capital and by personal influence as well 
has done much to further tire upbuilding of 
many prominent commercial and financial cor- 
porations in his home city. Of him it has been 
said that "he possesses the rare faculty of 
being able to separate the chaff from the wheat 
and of connecting himself with only meri- 
torious and successful enterprises, while he has 
the reputation of being most conservative and 
acute in all matters pertaining to the lines of 
business which have enlisted his executive and 
financial support." As a banker he is widely 
and favorably known and has been conspicu- 
ously successful. A few of his more promi- 
nent associations are here noted: He is first 
vice-president and general manager of the 
Michigan Stove Company; president of the 
Ireland & Matthews Manufacturing Company ; 
vice-president and director of the Dime Sav- 
ings Bank; president of the Michigan Copper 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



349 



& Brass Company; and a member of the di- 
rectorate of each the People's State Bank, and 
the Michigan Fire & Marine Insurance Com- 
pany. He served as secretary of the Michigan 
Stove Company for the first five years, since 
which time he has been incumbent of his pres- 
ent dual office in the corporation. He was 
i president of the National Association of Stove 
j Manufacturers in 1888-9 ^"d '^^^ *^ ^^^^ 
president of the Michigan Manufacturers' As- 
! sociation. He has long been active also as a 
I member of the National Association of Manu- 
i facturers, of whose legislative committee he 
was chairman in 1902, in which connection he 
I appeared several times before various commit- 
tees of both houses of congress, in connection 
with pending legislation pertaining to the regu- 
lation of manufacturing enterprises, and more 
I especially in connection with the consideration 
of a measure then pending in reference to the 
eight-hour labor law. He was the first presi- 
dent of the Detroit Board of Commerce and 
has at all times shown himself to be a loyal and 
progressive citizen, doing all in his power to 
forward the advancement of Detroit along all 
normal lines. He was one of those actively 
concerned in organizing the Detroit Expo- 
sition, which was for a number of years most 
successful and creditable and which passed out 
of existence only when it had fulfilled its mis- 
sion. He is a trustee of the Detroit Museum 
of Art, of which he formerly served as presi- 
dent, and he has been a liberal supporter of the 
said institute from the time of its inception to 
the present, having distinctive appreciation of 
those elements which make for the higher ideals 
in life. He was a member of the Michigan 
board of commissioners of the World's Co- 
lumbian Exposition in 1893, and in 1897 v^^as 
chairman of the Michigan commission at the 
Pan-American exposition, in Buffalo. In this 
connection he had the distinction of returning 
to the state treasury after the close of the ex- 
position somewhat more than ten thousand out 
of the fifty thousand dollars originally appro- 
priated by the state. All expenses of the com- 
mission had been paid and the refunding of 



such a sum to the state was practically 
unprecedented in the history of such affairs. 
Mr. Barbour is a staunch Democrat of the 
Cleveland type, unswerving in his advocacy 
ofThe basic principles of this historic old or- 
ganization. He has, however, never been in 
the least ambitious to enter the arena of prac- 
tical politics or to become incumbent of public 
office. In 1888, while he was absent from 
home, he was made the party nominee for rep- 
resentative of the fourth ward on the board of 
aldermen, and was later elected, though the 
normal Republican majority in the ward was 
about one hundred and seventy-five votes. He 
served two years as a member of the board 
and was its president the first year. He has 
since been importuned by personal and party 
friends to accept the nomination for mayor of 
the city, but has invariably refused the honor, 
feeling that the exactions of his many business 
interests were too great to justify him in as- 
suming any official position to which he might 
be elected in the municipal government. He is 
a member of the Masonic fraternity, is ex- 
president and a popular member of the Detroit 
Club, a life member of the Fellowcraft Club, 
a member of the Country Club, at Grosse 
Pointe Farms, and is identified with other so- 
cial organizations. He is chairman of the 
board of trustees of the Fort Street Presby- 
terian church and also chairman of the music 
committee of the board. 

On the 23d of June, 1870, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Barbour to Miss Katherine 
Hawley, daughter of William H. and Susan 
(Robertson) Hawley, of Collinsville, Connec- 
ticut, and they became the parents of two sons 
and two daughters, — Edwin S., George H., 
Jr., Grace L., and Estelle. Edwin S. Barbour 
resides at 1707 Jefferson avenue, Detroit, and 
George H. Barbour, Jr., at 134 Lafayette ave- 
nue, this city. Grace became the wife of 
Joshua Rhodes, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 
and her death occurred in December, 1906; 
Mr. Rhodes died June 30, 1908, shortly after 
arriving, with his two little daughters, for a 



350 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



visit at the Grosse Pointe home of his father- 
in-law, Mr. Barbour. Estelle is the widow of 
George S. Stillman, of New York city, and 
now resides at 134 Lafayette avenue, Detroit. 



SAMUEL T. DOUGLAS. 

The bar of the city of Detroit has as one 
of its representative members Samuel Town- 
send Douglas, who is a native of Michigan 
and a member of a family whose name has 
been known and honored in connection with 
the history of the state. He was bom in the 
city of Ann Arbor, on the 2d of August, 
1855, and is a son of Dr. Silas H. and Helen 
(Welles) Douglas, both representing families 
founded in New England in the early colonial 
epoch of our national history. The Douglas 
family was especially prominent in the annals 
of early New England, where was the cradle 
of so much of our nation's history, and the 
subject of this sketch is a representative in the 
seventh generation from the original American 
progenitor, who was a native of England. 

Dr. Silas Hamilton Douglas was bom at 
Fredonia, Chautauqua county, New York, on 
the i6th of October, 1816. His native place 
was the seat of an academy, in the New Eng- 
land sense of the name, and in this institution, 
the first of its kind in western New York, the 
Doctor supplemented the educational training 
which he had received in the somewhat prim- 
itive common schools of the locality and pe- 
riod. His ambition led him to seek a higher 
academic education, and he was eventually able 
to enter the University of Vermont, in which 
he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts. In 1838, the year after the admis- 
sion of Michigan to the Union, he came to 
Detroit, where he took up the study of med- 
icine in the office of Dr. Zina Pitcher, one 
of the able and honored pioneer physicians of 
the city and state. He later pursued his tech- 
nical studies in the medical department of the 
University of Maryland and he became speci- 
ally well fortified in his profession, particularly 



in the department of chemistry, to which ' 
science he was destined to devote many years ) 
of his signally useful life. On the 12th of » 
August, 1844, by action of the board of regents J 
of the University of Michigan, which was then » 
in its infancy, Dr. Douglas was engaged to ' 
assume the chair of chemistry in the institu- 
tion, during the absence of Professor Douglas I 
Houghton, the regular incumbent. On August 
5, 1846, after an informal ballot, the board of I 
regents elected Doctor Douglas to the perma- 
nent professorship of chemistry, whereupon he 
withdrew from the practice of medicine to 
devote his entire time to his university work. 
He was the founder of the chemical laboratory 
of the university, in whose service he contin- 
ued from 1844 to 1877, — a period of thirty- 
three years. From an article read at the exer- 
cises of Founders' Day in the University of 
Michigan, on the 22d of Febmary, 1902, are 
taken the following brief statements in regard 
to Dr. Douglas: "He was the first to teach 
the subject of chemistry in this, the earliest of 
the state universities of the northwest. It 
was under his charge that chemistry had its 
successive beginnings on this ground, its 
growth here for a third of a century, its many- 
sided applications, and its part in the develop- 
ment of the laboratory method in education. 
Professor Douglas was enlisted in the service 
of the university as a whole. He labored in 
it for six years before the opening of the 
first professional department. Besides chem- 
istry, other branches of science were in his 
hands, especially in the earlier years. Miner- 
ology he carried until 1870, and he taught geol- 
ogy until 1 85 1. He was closely allied to the 
first president, Henry L. Tappan, through his 
administration. Of the department of medi- 
cine and surgery Professor Douglas was, in- 
deed, one of those who laid the foundations, 
one who framed substantial supports." From 
the minutes recorded by the faculty of med- 
icine in the university at the time of the death 
of Dr. Douglas, in 1890, are taken the fol- 
lowing words of appreciation : "To the labora- 
tory and its development he gave the best 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



351 



years and powers of his life. It was due to the 
ance strongly knit in his nature that labora- 
tories of science gained an early and vigorous 
growth in this institution. We remember his 
service with thanksgiving and write his name 
with honor." 

Samuel Townsend Douglas, the immediate 
subject of this review, was afforded the ad- 
vantages of the public schools of Ann Arbor, 
and in 1869 he was matriculated in the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, in which he was graduated 
in 1873, with the degree of Bachelor of Phil- 
osophy. He then took a post-graduate course, 
in medicine and chemistry, and upon the com- 
pletion of this work he came to Detroit and 
began reading law in the ofUces of the firm 
of Douglas & Bowen, of which his uncle, the 
late Samuel T. Douglas, one of the first mem- 
bers of the supreme court of the state, was 
the senior partner. He made rapid advance- 
ment in his absorption and assimilation of the 
science of jurisprudence, and in 1879 he was 
admitted to the bar of his native state. In 
1881 he was admitted to partnership in his 
uncle's firm, whose title was then changed to 
Douglas, Bowen & Douglas, and this profes- 
sional alliance continued until the retirement 
of Judge Douglas, in 1884. Shortly after- 
ward Frederick W. Whiting was admitted to 
'the firm, and the title then became- Bowen, 
Douglas & Whiting. Upon the admission, at a 
later period, of James O. Murfin, the present 
firm name of Bowen, Douglas, Whiting & 
Murfin was adopted. This is known as one 
of the leading law firms of the state and to 
Jts prestige and precedence Mr. Douglas has 
contributed in large measure, being recognized 
as a lawyer of distinctive ability and power in 
the various departments of professional work, 
and having been concerned in much important 
litigation. The firm has always controlled a 
large and representative practice. 

In politics Mr. Douglas gives a staunch al- 
legiance to the Republican party, and while he 
has rendered effective service in its cause he 
has never sought the honors or emoluments of 
political office. He was the first to suggest 
the organization of the Detroit Club, the most 
prominent organization of its kind in the city, 



and he drafted its first articles of association, 
besides being chosen a member of its first 
board of directors, on which he served until 
1894, — a period of twelve years. He is a 
prominent and valued member of the Michigan 
Society of Colonial Wars, of which he was 
elected governor in 1907. He is a director of 
the Detroit Trust Company and also of the 
Central Savings Bank, and is president of 
the Mount Clemens Gas Company and the 
Ypsilanti Gas Company. He is progressive 
and public-spirited as a citizen, and takes a 
lively interest in all that tends to conserve the 
advancement and prosperity of his home city. 
He has served as a member of the board of 
health for the past eight years, and has twice 
been elected its president, of which office he 
is incumbent at the present time (1908). 

In 1 89 1, Mr. Douglas was united in marriage 
to Miss Marion L. Dwight, daughter of the 
late David F. Dwight, who was for many 
years a prominent merchant and influential 
citizen of Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Douglas have 
two children,— David Dwight, and Marion 
Howe. 

ALFRED HOOPER. 

In the exercise of important administrative 
functions, Mr. Hooper is identified with one 
of the great industrial enterprises of Detroit, 
and is recognized as a progressive business man 
of advanced ideas. He is first vice-chairman 
and general manager of the great varnish man- 
ufacturing institution of Berry Brothers, Ltd., 
of which specific mention is made in the 
memorial tribute to its founder, the late Joseph 
H. Berry, on other pages of this work. 

Alfred Hooper was born in the city of Lon- 
don, England, on the 2d of May, 1855, and 
is a son of Cleeve Woodward Hooper and 
Myra John (Batty) Hooper, both representa- 
tives of staunch old English stock. The father 
was a tanner and leather merchant by vocation, 
and was for many years engaged in business at 
Bermondsey, London, Southeast. He retired 
from active business about five years prior to 
his death, and his wife likewise is now deceased. 

Alfred Hooper was given the advantages of 
the schools of his native city, but initiated 



352 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



his business career when but fourteen years 
of age. He at that time secured employment 
in the shipping department of an extensive 
wholesale house in London, where he remained 
until 1870, when he came to America. Here 
he is the only representative of his immediate 
family. The vessel on which he made the voy- 
age consumed thirty-one days in effecting the 
trip, owing to irregularities in the ship's com- 
pass. This was the maiden trip of the boat, 
and after its eventful voyage it was finally 
towed into the port of Quebec. From the 
historic old Canadian city Mr. Hooper came 
forthwith to Detroit, and during the interven- 
ing period of more than a quarter of a century 
he has been continuously identified with the 
firm of Berry Brothers, Ltd., to the promotion 
of whose interests he has contributed most 
effectively. Under his personal direction have 
been established the various branch establish- 
ments of the concern, and all were placed by 
him on a paying basis before he withdrew from 
their active supervision. He passed nearly fif- 
teen years in New York city and other lead- 
ing cities in thus expanding the business facili- 
ties of the firm of which he is now general 
manager, with established headquarters in De- 
troit. For the past twenty years he has held 
membership in the Union League Club of New 
York city. 



HIRAM WALKER. 

Measured by its beneficence, its rectitude, 
its productiveness, its unconscious altruism and 
its material success, the life of the late Hiram 
Walker counted for much, and in this history 
of Detroit, in which city he long maintained 
his home and to whose progress and prosperity 
he contributed in large degree, it is but con- 
sonant that a review of his career be incorpo- 
rated. His name is perpetuated in the town of 
Walkerville, Ontario, which he founded, and 
through the great industrial enterprise which 
owes its inception and upbuilding to him. It 
is not the name alone but the man himself that 
it is hoped this article will reveal, so that a 
tribute of honor may be perpetuated where 
honor is well due. 



Hiram Walker was born in Douglas, Mas- 
sachusetts, on the 4th of July, 1816, and was 
the third child of Willis and Ruth (Buffum) 
Walker. In the records of the history of 
"Early New England Families" at Boston, his 
descent is traced back to Thomas Walker, who 
lived in Boston in 1661, and who moved in 
1664, to Sudbury, Massachusetts, where the 
records state that "he received encouragement 
to keep a free school," and where he died in 
1699. Mr. Walker's ancestry seems to have 
been entirely English with the solitary excep- 
tion of Pierre Chamois, a French Huguenot 
who, as Peter Shumway, came to Oxford, 
Massachusetts, about 1650. Another of Mr. 
Walker's lineal ancestors was a soldier and 
was wounded in the great Narragansett fight 
in 1675. -f" ^^ct, the lines of his family his- 
tory run into some of the oldest families of 
New England and carry the right of admis- 
sion to the Society of Colonial Wars, Sons of 
the American Revolution, etc. Beyond the 
first immigrant, Thomas Walker, already men- 
tioned, the family genealogy has not been defi- 
nitely traced by representatives in America 

Hiram Walker's early years were uneventful. 
He was afforded the advantages of the public 
school in his native town and later was em- 
ployed in a dry-goods store in Boston, but, 
having made up his mind to "go west," he 
came to Detroit in 1838, being then twenty- 
two years of age. Here his first employment 
was in a store on Atwater street, and some- 
what later he ventured into business on his 
own account, opening a grocery store on At- 
water street near Bates street. Not meeting 
with success, he then entered into partnership 
with Jeremiah Ingersoll, establishing a tannery 
on Dequindre street and engaging in dealing 
in leather. The tannery was finally destroyed 
by fire and the partnership was dissolved, after 
which Mr. Walker again engaged in the gro- 
cery business, on the lower part of Woodward 
avenue. Here he again met financial disaster, 
in the panic of 1857, but repeated misfortune 
seemed merely to prompt renewed effort, and 
he resolved to enter business in Canada, where 
his prosperous career was initiated and where 



£,iGRAV£D Bf MLNW -AvlOR jH . C"iCACO 



/V^sl^z-^ JhuJti<.^ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



353 



success continuously rewarded his efforts from 
that time forward. 

In 1857 Mr. Walker purchased the land 
^cross the river from Detroit forming the site 
of the present town of Walkerville, and there 
built a steam flouring mill and distillery. In 
1858 active business operations were instituted 
in the new plant, and the enterprise rapidly as- 
sumed large proportions under his effective 
guidance. The products of the distillery thus 
established by him are now known in every 
part of the world. The flour-mill branch of 
the business was continued for more than a 
score of years, and was then closed, as Mr. 
Walker found that his distillery required the 
greater part of his time and attention. The 
now flourishing manufacturing town of 
Walkerville, on the Canadian side of the De- 
troit river, opposite the eastern part of the city 
of Detroit, is the concrete outcome of Mr. 
Walker's indomitable perseverance and un- 
tiring energy. 

In March, 1859, Mr. Walker removed with 
his family from Hamtramck, the eastern sub- 
urb of Detroit, to Walkerville and took up his 
residence in "The Cottage," a frame house on 
the river bank. This house was built about 
1840 and at the time he purchased the prop- 
erty it was surrounded by a large garden,— 
the site of the present distillery offices. Here 
he lived until 1864, when he resumed his resi- 
dence in Detroit. 

It is not absolutely certain in what year the 
name of Walkerville first came into use. At 
the first the place was familiarly known as 
Walkerstown, and it is within the remembrance 
of several now living that Walkerton would 
have been selected as the name had there not 
already been a place of that title in the same 
province. It may be taken as certain, how- 
ever, that the name Walkerville was decided 
upon prior to 1864, and it is probable that the 
name was adopted at the time the Great West- 
ern Railway built a switch into Mr. Walker's 
yards, — about 1862. The first government ac- 
ceptance and recognition of the name came 
March i, 1869, when a postoffice was estab- 
hshed under the name of Walkerville. Prior 
to this time Windsor was the nearest and, in- 



deed, the only postofifice within reasonable dis- 
tance. Mr. Walker's place of business was 
known for many years as the Windsor Distil- 
lery & Flouring Mills. Until 1863 the business 
was carried on under his own name alone, and 
he then admitted to partnership Mr. McBride, 
of Detroit, who had been in his employ as a 
traveling representative, but in 1867 the part- 
nership was dissolved and Mr. McBride re- 
turned to Detroit and engaged in business for 
himself. During the continuance of this part- 
nership the firm name was Hiram Walker & 
Company; from 1867 to 1871 it was again 
Hiram Walker, and in the latter year, upon 
the admission of Edward Chandler Walker to 
partnership, the title of Hiram Walker & Son 
was adopted. Later, as the younger sons were 
admitted, the firm became Hiram Walker & 
Sons. In 1890 the distillery business was or- 
ganized as a joint stock company, under the 
name of Hiram Walker & Sons, Limited, and 
still so continues. Outside interests remained 
the property of the partnership existing be- 
tween Mr. Walker and his sons, being dis- 
tinguished by the name of Walker, Sons & 
Company until 1895, when Mr. Walker retired 
and the present firm title of Walker Sons was 
adopted. 

Upon Mr. Walker's arrival in Walkerville 
the place was part of an early settled but thinly 
peopled township, known as Sandwich East. 
The future town had no name and consisted of 
but a very few dwellings, and until 1890, when 
the town of Walkerville was incorporated by a 
special charter, Mr. Walker was a somewhat 
unique municipal figure, being practically 
mayor, council, board of works, controller of 
fire, water and light department, and board of 
education,— all in one. As the distilling busi- 
ness grew and advanced, Mr. Walker en- 
couraged and associated himself with other 
manufacturing interests, besides the different 
industries growing, out of his own distilling 
business, and all of these stand to-day as evi- 
dences of his ceaseless energy and marked busi- 
ness ability. He built a church and when a 
new public-school section was organized he 
acted as one of the original trustees. He in- 
vested largely in farm lands, and became one 



354 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



of the largest land-owners in the dominion of 
Canada ; he engaged in the growing of hops, 
the raising of cattle and horses, had a tobacco 
plantation of more than one hundred acres, 
and built a railway and the summer-resort 
hotel known as the Mettawas, at Kingsville, on 
Lake Erie. Even these enterprises did not 
exhaust Mr. Walker's wonderful capacity for 
work. The Ontario Oil & Gas Company, 
which for years furnished natural gas to Wal- 
kerville, Windsor and Detroit, was organized 
and made a success by him, and in other 
numerous enterprises he was the guiding spirit. 
But from 1858 forward the distillery business 
occupied his chief attention, and by it he was 
most widely known. His success in this line 
of enterprise was not due to accident or so- 
called luck, but was the result of many years 
of close attention, hard work and careful man- 
agement, on the part not only of Mr. Walker, 
but also of his sons. 

Mr. Walker's interests in Detroit were many 
and varied. In a number of concerns he was 
the controlling stockholder, while his name was 
sought by and he held shares in many enter- 
prises to which he was unable to give his per- 
sonal attention. Among the enterprises with 
which he was thus connected may be mentioned 
the following: The Detroit Car Works, De- 
troit Transit Railway, Detroit & Bay City Rail- 
way, Detroit National Bank, Detroit Chamber 
of Commerce, Hamtramck Iron Works, De- 
troit Medical College, Wayne County Agricul- 
tural & Industrial Society, Minong Mining 
Company, Cove Land & Mining Company, 
Michagamme Company, Detroit & Ontonagon 
Mineral Lands Company, Michigan Land & 
Immigration Company, St. Clair Mining Com- 
pany, and Valverde Mining Company. He 
was also a member and shareholder of the De- 
troit Club, the Grosse Pointe Club, the North 
Channel Club, and the Detroit Driving Club. 
This list, imperfect as it is, shows that his 
large interests in Canada by no means absorbed 
the whole of Mr. Walker's time and thought, 
and affords strong evidence of his enterprising 
spirit. His real-estate holdings in Detroit were 
also very large, including much valuable prop- 
erty in the central business district of the city. 



Mr. Walker's charities were large and 1 
varied, and as a citizen he was moved by deep 
public spirit. He was a generous contributor \ 
to the support of the cause of the Republican 
party. At one time he contemplated endowing 
a school for manual training in Detroit, but ', 
his daughter suggested to him the need of 
some hospital for helpless little ones. From ' 
this suggestion resulted the Children's Free 
Hospital, on the corner of Farnsworth avenue I 
and St. Antoine street, which was built by Mr. 
Walker in 1896, in memory of his daughter, 
Jennie Melissa, who died in 1870. He not only 
gave the land and the admirable building but 
also left a substantial endowment for the sup- 
port of the institution. He also endowed a 
room and, in addition, a bed, in Harper Hos- 
pital, and his donations to that institution were 
most generous. The training school for nurses 
in conection with this hospital always had his 
deep interest and loyal support. The Child- 
ren's Free Hospital stands as a noble and last- 
ing memorial to the man who made it possible, 
— an evidence of his generosity, a proof of his 
deep human sympathy and kindliness of heart, 
■ — and while it represents only a part of Mr. 
Walker's benefactions it is sufficient to mark 
his life a success. The town of Walkerville, 
which was practically created by Mr. Walker 
and which — though it has grown and improved 
immensely since its owner passed away — was 
moulded and fashioned on his plans, may well 
be called a model town. It has been called the 
"Birmingham of Canada," but it is noted as 
much for its comfortable homes as for its fac- 
tories. It has well paved streets, lined with 
beautiful shade trees ; it has a splendid water 
system ; it has one of the best school buildings 
on the continent ; and St. Mary's church, built 
in 1904, as a memorial to Hiram Walker and 
his wife, by their sons, is one of the most beau- 
tiful church edifices in Canada. This church 
was consecrated in 1904 and presented as a free 
gift, with an ample endowment, to the Angli- 
can diocese of Huron. The town of Walker- 
ville as it exists to-day bears strong evidence 
of the wisdom and energy of the man to whom 
it owes its existence, and here his memory is 
cherished by all who knew him. After so 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



355 



strenuous a career and so successful a life as 
Mr. Walker's, it may be asked, — what re- 
mains? Such a life must always leave marked 
results, and in this instance there is no dififi- 
culty in pointing out what those results were; 
they are clearly indicated in the statements of 
this all too brief memorial tribute. 

Mr. Walker was an Episcopalian, having 
been a pew-holder in old St. Paul's church of 
Detroit, and having served for many years as 
a member of the vestry of this historic parish. 
Not only did he give largely to the church it- 
self, but its affairs could always rely on his 
substantial aid for any worthy object at home 
or abroad. 

Personal power was the strongest trait in 
Mr. Walker's character, and this, coupled with 
a phenomenal capacity for work, was the secret 
of his success. He never occupied any public 
position, but he was a natural leader in thought 
and action. Warm-hearted to a degree, a lov- 
ing husband and father and a loyal friend, he 
lived to a good old age. Both in Detroit and 
Walkerville he will long be remembered for 
strength of character which wovild have made 
him a man of mark anywhere, and for personal 
qualities which attracted and held all with 
whom he came in contact. He died at his 
Detroit home on the I2th of January, 1899, at 
the age of eighty-three years, and his remains 
rest in beautiful Elmwood cemetery. 

In 1895 Mr. Walker decided to retire from 
active participation in the various business en- 
terprises he had organized and, for so many 
years, controlled, and to entrust them to his 
three sons, of whose business capacity he had 
full knowledge. He therefore executed deeds 
of sale to them of the greater part of his real 
estate, including all situated in Detroit, besides 
the bulk of his lands in Canada. He also 
transferred to them his shares in the various 
incorporated companies in which he was inter- 
ested. Among various conditions attached to 
these deeds and transfers was one that within 
three years of his death his sons should pay 
twenty thousand dollars to Harper Hospital, 
and this payment was made in 1902. His sum- 
mer residence. Isle aux Peches, and his yacht, 
"Lurline," he left to his daughter, Mrs. Buhl, 



and he provided generously for a number of 
relatives and family connections. By his will 
he bequeathed to the Children's Free Hospital 
seven-eighths and to Harper Hospital one- 
eighth of all property of which he might be 
possessed at the time of his death, "to be used 
by said hospitals for the care and maintenance 
of the worthy sick poor," except household 
furniture and other personal property, which he 
devised to his four surviving children. 

It is most gratifying to enter brief record 
concerning Mr. Walker's domestic life, which 
was one of singailarly idyllic order. On the 
5th of October, 1846, he married Miss Mary 
Abigail Williams, daughter of Ephraim Smith 
Williams and Hannah Melissa (Gotee) Will- 
iams, of Silver Lake, Michigan. Mrs. Walker 
was born in 1826, the first white child born in 
the Saginaw valley, where her father was 
serving as paymaster for the Indians, and her 
death occurred in 1872. She was a descendant 
of Robert Williams, of Welsh lineage, who 
sailed from Norwich, England, in the year 
1638 and settled at Roxbury, Massachusetts. 
On the maternal side Mrs. Walker was a di- 
rect descendant of James Harrington Gotee, 
who served seven years as a patriot soldier in 
the war of the Revolution. 

Mr. and Mrs. Walker became the parents of 
five sons and two daughters. The two de- 
ceased are: Willis Ephraim, who died in 
1886, having been engaged in practice as a 
solicitor and notary in Detroit; and Jennie 
Mellisa, who died in 1870, at an early age.. 
The surviving daughter, Elizabeth J., is the 
widow of Theodore D. Buhl, of Detroit, to 
whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of 
this work. Mrs. Walker was a woman of 
gentle and gracious personality and was an 
earnest and devoted church woman. She main- 
tained a deep interest in charitable enterprises 
and objects and was one of the founders and 
zealous supporters of St. Luke's Hospital, De- 
troit. In her memory the first church edifice 
in Walkerville was named St. Mary's, as is also 
its successor, the present beautiful edifice, of 
which mention has already been made. 

Concerning the surviving sons of Mr. 
Walker the following brief data are consist- 



356 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ently entered. E. Chandler Walker was born 
in Detroit, in 1851, and since the death of his 
father he has been president of the distilling 
company. In 1897 he married Miss Mary E. 
Griffin, daughter of the late Thomas Griffin, 
of Detroit, and they reside in Walkerville, 
where their home, "Willisstead," is recognized 
as one of the finest residences in Canada. Mr. 
Walker is a director of the Detroit Museum 
of Art, which owes much to his generosity. 
Franklin H. Walker was born in Detroit, in 
1853, and was graduated in the University of 
Michigan as a member of the class of 1873. 
He is now vice-president and managing di- 
rector of Hiram Walker & Sons, Limited. In 
1874 he married Miss May Holbrook, daughter 
of the late DeWitt C. Holbrook, of Detroit, 
and their residence is at 850 Jefferson avenue, 
this city. Their only child, Ella, is now the 
wife of Count Manfred von Matuschka, of 
Bechau, Silesia. J. Harrington Walker was 
born in Walkerville, Ontario, in 1859, and he 
now resides at 857 Jefferson avenue, Detroit. 
In 1883 he married Miss Florence A. Hol- 
comb, of Bridgewater, Connecticut, who died 
in 1887 and who is survived by two sons, — 
Harrington and Hiram. In 1889 Mr. Walker 
married Margaret Caldwell, daughter of the 
late William S. Tallman, of Detroit, and they 
have one son and two daughters. Mr. Walker's 
entire business career has been one of identifi- 
cation with the great industrial enterprise 
founded by his father, and he is associated 
with his brothers in the conduct and control of 
the same. 



DAVID CARTER. 

To have accomplished so notable work as 
did the late David Carter in connection with 
lake-marine navigation would prove sufficient 
to give precedence and reputation to any man, 
were this to represent the sum total of his 
efforts; but Mr. Carter was a man of broad 
mentality, strong initiative and distinct indi- 
viduality, — one who left not only a lasting 
impression in the field of enterprise mentioned 
but was also a most potent, though unostenta- 
tious, factor in the commercial, religious and 
social life of Detroit, of which city he became 



a resident in the spring of 186 1. To him the ) 
city is indebted for the establishment and de- 
velopment of the superb service of the Detroit , 
& Cleveland Navigation Company, with which J 
company his name is indissolubly linked, the > 
organization of which was the result of his ; 
ideas and efforts, and in the conduct of whose , 
affairs, its policies and its operation, his was , 
the controlling spirit from the time of its in- 
corporation, in 1868, until his death, in No- 
vember, 1901. The last year saw the accom- ! 
plishment of plans which he had long cher- 
ished, — the organization of a company to en- 
gage in the passenger and freight business 
between the ports of Detroit and Buffalo. The 
company had been incorporated as the Detroit 
& Buffalo Steamboat Company, two steamers 
had been built and were to be placed in com- 
mission the following season, and Mr. Carter 
had been elected general manager of the line. 
His death occurred while he was engaged in 
outfitting the steamers for which he held the 
contracts. A brief history of the above named 
companies is published on other pages of the 
volume, and to this record the reader is 
referred for supplemental information. 

David Carter was born in Ohio City, now 
included in the corporate limits of the city of 
Cleveland, Ohio, on the 27th of February, 
1832, and was a son of David and Maria 
Louisa (Davis) Carter. His ancestors, both 
paternal and maternal, were among the early 
settlers of Massachusetts colony and num- 
bered among them were men who achieved dis- 
tinction in the early history of our country. 
John Carter, the first of the family to settle 
in America, was a native of England and an 
ardent supporter of King Charles I. Upon the 
execution of that monarch by Cromwell he 
escaped to America and settled in Salisbury, 
Massachusetts colony, in 1600. His son 
Thomas was the next in line of direct descent 
to David Carter. Thomas Carter was born in 
Salisbury, in 1610, and died in 1684. He was 
sent by his parents to England to complete his 
education, and he received from historic Cam- 
bridge University the degree of Master of 
Arts. He returned to America, entered the 
ministry and became a prominent and highly 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



357 



esteemed member of the clergy. He was a 
man of fine intellectuality and attained to great 
influence in the colony. His son Samuel, 
1 655- 1 772, was the next in descent. Thomas, 
1 685- 1 772, the son of Samuel, was next in 
line. Samuel, 1 734-1 821, son of Thomas, was 
a soldier in the Continental line in the war of 
the Revolution and was commissioned lieuten- 
ant. He was an influential citizen of Warren, 
Connecticut, and his son Samuel, Jr., was the 
grandfather of David Carter. He married 
Sarah Newcomb, a member of the historic 
Newcomb family, and they continued residents 
of Warren throughout their entire lives. Their 
son7David Carter, Sr., father of the subject of 
this review, received his education in the 
schools of Warren. When a young man he 
removed to Ohio, then in the early stages of 
its colonization, and located in what is now 
the city of Cleveland. Here he experienced 
the vicissitudes and endured the labors which 
fell to the average pioneer. He died in 1840, 
and in 1843 ^""'s widow contracted a second 
marriage, her demise occurring many years 
afterward. 

David Carter passed the first eleven years 
of his life in and about the city of Cleveland, 
and there received his rudimentary education 
in the common schools. In 1843 he accom- 
panied his mother and stepfather on their re- 
moval to St. Clair county, Michigan. In 1845 
an uncle, Captain John M. Coyle, of Sandusky, 
Ohio, visited the Carter home, and on his re- 
turn to Sandusky was accompanied by his 
young relative, David Carter. In his uncle's 
family the latter passed the succeeding three 
years, being employed as clerk in a small lum- 
ber yard in the summer months and attending 
school during those of the winter. During 
the summer of 1848 he first engaged in sailing 
on the great lakes, a member of the crew of 
the three-masted schooner "North Hampton," 
then the most popular vessel plying between 
Sandusky and Bufifalo. On the close of navi- 
gation he returned to Sandusky and again en- 
tered the lumber business, filling in order the 
positions of clerk, bookkeeper and manager. 
In 1849 the city was visited with the cholera 
plague. Mr. Carter was among those afflicted 



with the usually fatal disease and one of the 
few to recover from its effects. During his 
connection with the lumber business his ability 
as an accountant and manager (although a 
boy in his 'teens) was keenly observed by the 
lessee of the Mad River Railroad Company. 
He was tendered and accepted the position of 
bookkeeper and cashier of this company — in- 
terests including the railroad docks, warehouses 
and elevators, — in which position he remained 
until the death of the lessee, in 1852. His 
entrance in the lake-marine passenger and 
freight service of the Great Lakes, in which he 
was destined to become one of the most suc- 
cessful, widely known and most highly honored 
of the many men who have been identified with 
its growth and development, occurred in 1852, 
when he was made clerk of the new steamer 
"Forest City," which had been completed that 
spring for John Owen, of Detroit, and which 
was placed on the line between Detroit and 
Cleveland. He continued in a like capacity 
on various steamers plying between these ports, 
virtually managmg them, until the close of 
navigation in i860. On March 4, 1861, Mr. 
Carter removed from Cleveland, which had 
been his home for several years, and located 
permanently in Detroit. He engaged in the 
storage, forwarding and commission business, 
as junior member of the firm of Keith & Car- 
ter, their place of business being at the foot 
of Shelby street. He also filled the position 
of agent of the line of steamers plying be- 
tween Detroit and Cleveland, at that time a 
private enterprise, the various boats being 
owned by different owners, and the allied in- 
terests, operated under the management of the 
late John Owen as the Detroit & Cleveland 
Steamboat Line, and in connection with the 
Michigan Central Railroad, afifording the lat- 
ter company a water route to Cleveland from 
Detroit, at that time its eastern terminus. The 
service was known and advertised as the Michi- 
gan Central Rail Road Line, operating the 
steamers "Morning Star" and "R. N. Rice." 
Mr. Carter was made general agent of this 
line and at the same time continued the busi- 
ness of Keith & Carter, in which he had pur- 
chased his partner's interest. During his con- 



358 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



nection with the last named line he conceived 
the idea of organizing a company to take over 
its business; a company to be controlled by 
Detroit capital and with the ultimate welfare 
of the city and state in view. His reputation 
as a successful manager of interests intrusted 
to his care, as well as of his personal business, 
enabled him to secure the requisite capital, re- 
sulting in the incorporation of the Detroit & 
Cleveland Steam Navigation Company, with 
an authorized capital of three hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and of this company Mr. Carter 
was elected secretary and general manager, 
which office he retained until his death. The 
growth and expansion of this company under 
his direction, a detailed account of which ap- 
pears under the title of the company on other 
pages of the work, furnishes an interesting and 
instructive chapter in the history of the com- 
merce of the Great Lakes. The results 
achieved show his remarkable executive and 
constructive ability, his full confidence in the 
future, and the implicit trust placed in him by 
his associates, who from time to time were 
called upon to furnish large capital which was 
largely committed to his care and which was 
necessary for the purchase of added tonnage 
and equipment. Through his foresight and 
industry he constantly added to the value of 
the investment; by his fairness and courtesy 
he attached to himself the vast number of ship- 
pers who constantly transacted business with 
his line. His continued insistence that at all 
times the vessels of the line should excel in 
the controlling essentials of safety, speed and 
comfort, his spirit of enterprise and his confi- 
dence in the appreciation by the public of the 
improvements for its benefit, advanced in a 
very marked degree the commercial develop- 
ment of the city and state. 

Mr. Carter was known for his fairness to 
his employes. If he had a grievance, either 
real or fancied, no man occupied a position too 
lowly to get the ear of the general manager, 
who was held in affectionate esteem by those 
who, under his direction, were filled with loy- 
alty and zeal by being made to feel that they 
were integral parts of the institution they 
served. In 1900 the directors of the company. 



in appreciation of the long and highly satis- 
factory ser\^ice performed by Mr. Carter, ap- 
pointed him to the rank of commodore and 
presented him with the regulation commodore's 
pennant. The policies which he inaugurated, 
the system which he established for the con- 
duct of the business and of its employes, and 
the esteem in which these are held by the di- 
rectorate of the company, are well illustrated in 
the following extract from resolutions passed 
by the directors at the time of his death : "To 
those who follow him in his position of great 
responsibility we can ofifer no better advice 
than that they follow in his footsteps and be 
guided by his principles. In no more certain 
way can they promote the interests of this com- 
pany and insure for themselves the confidence 
and esteem of this community." 

Mr. Carter was an interested principal in the 
commercial activities of Detroit and an in- 
fluential but unassuming member of its social 
and religious life. He was president of the 
Leonard & Carter Furniture Company for ten 
years, during which time he was one of the 
leading spirits of that successful enterprise. 
The company was known particularly in the 
matter of high-grade office furniture, of which 
it made a specialty. Mr. Carter resigned the 
presidency of the company and subsequently 
disposed of his stock, in 1895. During his 
career he contracted for and outfitted eight 
steamers for the lines of which he was general 
manager, as well as the steamers "City of 
Buffalo" and "City of Erie," of the Cleveland 
& Buffalo line. He had partly completed his 
contract for the new Detroit & Buffalo line 
boats, "Eastern States" and "Western States," 
at the time his death occurred, the completion 
of the outfitting devolving upon his son, David 
S. Carter, of whom individual mention is made 
in this work. Mr. Carter was an influential 
member of the Republican party, and, while 
having neither time nor inclination for office, 
he never neglected his civic duties. In 1855 
he was commissioned judge-advocate, with the 
rank of major, by Governor Bingham, and 
served with credit to himself under Colonel 
Saunders, then commander of the Michigan 
state militia. In the same year he became a 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



359 



member of the Masonic order, joining the 
Lodge at Trenton, Michigan. He was a mem- 
ber of the Country Club, the Detroit Golf Club 
and identified with the Pointe au Barque Sum- 
mer Resort Association, besides other social 
and business organizations. In religious faith 
he was a Presbyterian. Shortly after his ar- 
rival in Detroit he was made leader of the choir 
of the First Presbyterian church and continued 
its head for twenty-six years. He was an ac- 
complished vocalist, possessed a most excel- 
lent tenor voice, and the organization of which 
he was the leader was one of the most popular 
and efficient in the city. He served as chair- 
man of the building committee of the First 
Presbyterian church previous to and during the 
erection of the present edifice on Woodward 
avenue, and its construction was made possible 
and is largely due to his persistent efforts and 
generosity. He sers'ed as a member of the 
board of trustees of this organization for 
twenty years. Shortly before his death the 
highest office in the gift of this church was 
tendered him, that of ruling elder, but he in- 
stantly declined with the characteristic reply, "I 
am not worthy." In his charities Mr. Carter 
was a generous and unostentatious giver. In 
the giving, however, he preferred to work 
through the agency of others. For many years 
he devoted considerable time to the affairs of 
the Home of the Friendless, in whose work he 
was deeply interested. 

On Christmas day, 1856, Mr. Carter mar- 
ried Miss Fannie J. Leonard, daughter of Rev. 
R. H. Leonard, D. D., of Cleveland, Ohio. 
Mr. Carter is survived by his widow and two 
children: David S. Carter, who is mentioned 
elsewhere in this volume, and Jessie J., the wife 
of Murray W. Sales, of Detroit. 

Mr. Carter was in all respects a high type of 
the conservative, unostentatious American, 
diligent in business, and conscientious in all 
things. The tributes of respect, and in many 
cases affection, called forth by his death, have 
seldom been equaled in the city of Detroit 
under similar conditions. His own standard 
of life was high and it was seen in the devel- 
opment of what grew to be under his direc- 
tion one of the most successful transportation 



companies in the country. What may be 
termed his life work was finished ; it had met 
the fullness of his ambition. But infinitely 
more precious and of personal consequence to 
him was the fact that he died rich in the pos- 
session of a well earned popularity, in the es- 
teem which comes from honorable living, and 
in the affection that slowly develops only from 
unselfish works. In his business life he was 
the embodiment of honor, as in his social and 
domestic life he was the perfection of love and 
gentleness. 

HENRY P. BALDWIN. 

Taking just pride in bearing the full name 
and being a nephew of that honored pioneer 
and distinguished citizen of Michigan, the late 
Governor Hemy Porter Baldwin, of Detroit, 
to whom a memorial tribute is paid elsewhere 
in this publication, the subject of this sketch 
has himself been a resident of Detroit for 
forty years and has long been numbered among 
its honored citizens and representative business 
men, well upholding the prestige of the name 
which he bears. 

Mr. Baldwin was born in Albany county, 
New York, on the 24th of January, 1845, ^"<i 
is a son of Samuel H. and Sarah B. (Wheeler) 
Baldwin, the former of whom was born in 
Rhode Island and the latter in Massachusetts. 
The mother was a daughter of Nathaniel 
Wheeler, a prominent pioneer cotton manufac- 
turer of Massachusetts. An outline of the gen- 
ealogical history of the Baldwin family is given 
in the memoir of Governor Baldwin, to which 
reference has been made above. Samuel H. 
Baldwin was reared at Dansville, Massachu- 
setts, where he received a common-school edu- 
cation, and as a young man he learned the 
trade of machinist. He finally took up his resi- 
dence in Cohoes, New York, where he engaged 
in the manufacturing of machinery for knit- 
ting mills, besides turning out other mechan- 
ical products. He later removed to Sandy Hill, 
New York, where he continued to be engaged 
in business until his death, which occurred in 
1848. His wife survived him by a number of 
years, and of their three children two are liv- 
ing, — Henry P. and Catherine B. 



360 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



The subject of this review was reared to ma- 
turity in the old Empire state, where he was 
afforded good educational advantages in his 
youth, having prosecuted his studies for some 
time in private schools at Sand Lake. In 1866, 
shortly after attaining to his legal majority, he 
came to Detroit and took a clerical position in 
the wholesale boot and shoe house of his uncle, 
return of the family to America he entered 
the late lamented governor. In 1870 he was 
admitted to the firm, and thereafter he grad- 
ually assumed all the executive cares and bur- 
dens which had previously rested upon his 
uncle in connection with the concern. The busi- 
ness was amplified into that of manufacturing 
shoes, and the factory was the first of the sort 
west of the Niagara river. In 1896 a reorgan- 
ization took place and the title became Bald- 
win, McGraw & Company, which has since 
been retained. Since that year also the business 
has been exclusively of the jobbing order, man- 
iifacturing having been abandoned. The con- 
cern controls a large and representative trade, 
extending throughout Michigan and into Ohio 
and Indiana. Mr. Baldwin is still actively iden- 
tified with the management of the business, and 
is also interested in other local enterprises of 
important order. He was one of the organizers 
of the Detroit Trust Company and is a member 
of its board of directors, has been a director of 
the Old Detroit National Bank since 1893, ^"^ 
is a member of the directorate of the Detroit 
Fire & Marine Insurance Company. Practical- 
ly his entire business career has had Detroit as 
its scene of action, and it is scarcely necessary 
to state that Mr. Baldwin has a definite loyalty 
and affection as touching all things pertaining 
to the welfare of the city. He is a believer in 
and has aided materially the promotion of the 
larger industrial Detroit, and the advancement 
has been a source of unalloyed gratification to 
this earnest, straightforward business man and 
pubHc-spirited citizen. 

Mr. Baldwin's political allegiance is given to 
the Republican party, but he has never sought 
to enter the field of practical politics. Like his 
honored uncle, he is a communicant of St. 
John's church, Protestant Episcopal, and is 
prominent in its work. He has been a member 



of the church vestry and its treasurer contin- 
uously for thirty-five years and senior warden 
for the past six years. He is identified with the 
Masonic fraternity, in which he has advanced 
to the degree of Knight Templar, being a mem- 
ber of Detroit Commandery, and he is a mem- 
ber also of various local organizations of a 
social or semi-business character. 

On the 7th of June, 1871, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Baldwin to Miss Mary E. 
Walton, who died September 13, 1883, and 
who is survived by no children. 



GEORGE B. RUSSEL, M. D. 

Dr. George B. Russel was one of the favored 
mortals whom nature launches into the world 
with the heritage of a sturdy ancestry, a splen- 
did physique, a masterful mind and energy 
enough for many men. Added to these at- 
tributes were extraordinary intellectual attain- 
ments and the useful lessons of a wide and va- 
ried experience stored away. Such a man 
could not obscure himself. Planted in a me- 
tropolis, he would have used his talents in com- 
peting with and uplifting his fellow men. 
Planted in the wilderness, he used them in de- 
veloping the things that the environment 
needed. He was the type of a true gentleman, 
and a representative of the best of the com- 
munity, dignified and yet possessed of an affa- 
bility that won him warm friends among all 
classes and conditions of men. A compilation 
of this nature could not commend itself with- 
out due tribute to this sterling pioneer of the 
city of Detroit and state of Michigan. 

Dr. Russel was born in the cross-roads vil- 
lage of Russelville, Chester county, Pennsyl- 
vania, March 7, 18 16, in the house built by his 
grandfather's father prior to the war of Inde- 
pendence. His paternal great-grandfather, 
Hugh Russel, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, 
in 1726, and fought at Culloden for Bonnie 
Prince Charlie in 1746. After the disastrous 
defeat of the Scotch patriots he escaped to Ire- 
land with a number of his countrymen. From 
Ireland he immigrated to America with three 
brothers, also patriot refugees, and took up his 
residence in Russelville, Pennsylvania. An- 
other of the brothers went to Kentucky and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



361 



founded there the town of the same name. 
His son, Alexander Russel, was born July 4, 
1756, at Russelville, and died there in 1799. 
His son Francis, the Doctor's father, was born 
in Russelville, June 14, 1783, and died there in 
1859, having been a colonel in the United 
States troops in the war of 18 12. 
■ Dr. Russel's mother was a Whiteside, and 
her mother a Ross, both of which families emi- 
grated from Ireland to America in 1718 and 
settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, — 
at Coleraine and the city of Lancaster. His 
uncle, John Whiteside, was a member of con- 
gress from Lancaster district, predecessor of 
James Buchanan. 

Dr. Russel's early schooling was obtained in 
Lancaster. His intellectual capacity was early 
manifested. He was a student in West Ches- 
ter Academy, where he came under the in- 
struction of Professor Fuller, to whom he ever 
afterwards gave credit for the systematic train- 
ing of his mind and the remarkable knowledge 
of languages which he acquired. This school 
was one of no little celebrity at the time and 
famous for its corps of teachers, yet such was 
Dr. Russel's proficiency that he was permitted 
to act as a tutor when he was only fourteen 
years of age and to give instructions in mathe- 
matics and Latin. At the age of seventeen he 
completed the course at Franklin and Marshall 
College, and could read the Bible in five differ- 
ent languages. In 1836, at the age of twenty, 
he received his degree of M. D. from Jefferson 
College, Philadelphia, since absorbed into the 
University of Pennsylvania. His favorite pro- 
fessor was Dr. McClellan, the father of Gen- 
eral George B. McClellan. He studied under 
and became the intimate companion of Dr. 
Humes, the most celebrated physician in Lan- 
caster. The city of Lancaster was then the 
largest inland town in the United States. He 
also was closely associated, and in reality be- 
gan actual practice with, the famous Dr. John 
L. Atlee. One of his friends, with whom he 
was associated during the years 183 1 to 1834, 
was General George B. Porter, afterwards gov- 
ernor of Michigan Territory, and the governor 
invited him to come to Michigan to practice 
when he had finished his education. 



After his graduation, in 1836, Dr. Russel, 
being still under age and too young under the 
laws of the state of Pennsylvania to carry on 
his profession there for himself, determined to 
come to Michigan in accordance with the invi- 
tation of Governor Porter, although Governor 
Porter had died of cholera in 1834. After an 
adventurous trip by stage coach and canal, and 
by vessel from Cleveland, Dr. Russel arrived 
in Detroit April 24, 1836, and at once — almost 
on the same day — began a busy and successful 
medical career. He found here Drs. Chapin, 
Rice, Porter, Hurd and a number of others. 
After two years of busy practice, especially in 
combating the dreadful smallpox epidemic, he 
returned to Philadelphia in 1837-38 and took 
a post-graduate course (1837-8), listened to 
lectures by the most famous practitioners of 
the country, and added largely to his store of 
professional knowledge. He returned to De- 
troit in 1839 and was associated in practice 
with Dr. Adrian R. Terry and established the 
intimate friendship which lasted through life 
with Dr. Zina Pitcher. 

Concerning Dr. Russel's early labors in his 
chosen field the following record has been writ- 
ten: "In those days the practice of local 
physicians was difficult and arduous. Dr. Rus- 
sel's medical and surgical circuit was on both 
sides of the Detroit river. In Canada it ex- 
tended from Amherstburg to Belle river, a dis- 
tance of thirty-three miles; on the American 
side it ramified from Trenton to Lake St. Clair, 
and inland along the four leading avenues of 
Detroit to Mt. Clemens, Romeo, Royal Oak, 
Birmingham, Pontiac, Farmington, Dearborn 
and Wayne. All these routes were traveled on 
horseback, and in the saddle-bags were carried 
the needed drugs, with scales and measures to 
perfectly fill his prescriptions, as well as sur- 
gical instruments. Of the six thousand in- 
habitants of Detroit in 1838 about four thou- 
sand were French speaking. The roads were 
very bad, and many hardships were encoun- 
tered. Dr. Russel was in the saddle for 
twenty-seven years, and then retired from gen- 
eral practice. 

"As a physician his memory will always fill 
a beautiful place in the annals of Detroit. He 



362 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



was a skilful healer and a philanthropist. He 
gave every day of his time and skill and money 
to poverty-stricken and suffering humanity. In 
his daily ministrations among the poor his 
beneficence was perennial, and grateful thanks 
from the recipients were scattered at his feet 
like flowers. He was an educated and scien- 
tific man, fully abreast with medical science, 
and, being a wise physician, he was a John the 
Baptist, who recognized that his only mission 
was to prepare the way for a greater than 
himself — Nature. 

"He was very active in epidemics of small- 
pox and cholera, and successfully treated many 
cases of the former disease shortly after he ar- 
rived in Michigan. In October, 1837, a tribe 
of seven hundred Indians from the Saginaw 
region arrived in Detroit to receive their an- 
nual presents, and camped on Conner's creek, 
near Gratiot avenue, a few miles from De- 
troit. The Doctor learned that smallpox had 
broken out among them, and he proceeded 
there at once. He found that about twelve 
Indians, living in five tents, were infected. 
Aided by Richard Conner, the proprietor of 
the farm, and Sister Therese. of the Sisters of 
Sainte Claire, whose convent at that time was 
at the southwest corner of Larned and Ran- 
dolph streets, he treated the sick persons and 
also vaccinated, or rather inoculated, every 
member of the tribe. This work occupied 
fully twenty-four hours and was performed 
without rest or sleep. A daughter of Henry 
R. Schoolcraft, the famous Indian ethnologist 
and historian, was visiting friends in Detroit, 
and afterward related this episode to her father 
at Albany. Schoolcraft promptly informed the 
United States Indian bureau, which procured 
an appropriation of seven hundred dollars, 
which was presented to Dr. Russel in 1842. 
In the same year the Doctor built a smallpox 
hospital on the present site of the House of 
Correction, on Russell street. In this hos- 
pital he gratuitously treated about two hundred 
cases, principally colored people and white im- 
migrants. He was also active and efficient 
during the cholera seasons of 1849, 1852 and 
1854." 

In 1838, during the so-called Patriot war. 



there was an engagement between the insur- 
gents and the British forces and Canadian ' 
militia at Fighting Island, a few miles below ! 
Detroit on the Detroit river. On February 
28, 1838, the Patriots were defeated and driven 
from the island, and the wounded men were { 
brought to Detroit. Here they were attended 
by Dr. Russel. In cases of several of the I 
wounded amputation was necessary. This \ 
fact was related to the British minister at j 
Washington, and Dr. Russel was surprised 
one day to receive a letter of thanks and one 
year's pay as assistant surgeon in the British 
army from the British government. 

As chief physician and one of the trustees 
of Harper Hospital for about a quarter of a 
century, Dr. Russel greatly advanced the in- 
terests of that noble Detroit institution. Nancy 
Martin, the old and well known market woman, 
loved and respected him, and through his in- 
fluence donated part of the land which is the 
site of the present hospital. 

Dr. Russel was a man of broad mental ken 
and great capacity and versatility. In addition 
to the distinction he achieved as a physician 
he was a remarkable business man, and the 
pioneer of Detroit's greatest enterprises. His 
masterful, energetic, clear-headed methods soon 
brought him into the front ranks of manufac- 
turing industry. In 1863 he relinquished the 
general practice of his profession, although he 
continued treating his family and relatives and 
indigent persons to his latest day. In the early 
'50s he built the first car-ferry boat, the "Union 
Express," which plied between Detroit and 
Windsor, Ontario, and which brought over the 
first locomotive in 1854 — which year marked 
the connecting of the Great Western Railway 
(now the Grand Trunk wi*-h Detroit. He 
founded the Detroit Car Works, which was 
afterward merged in the Pullman Car Com- 
pany. He originated the projects upon which 
George M. Pullman, John S. Newberry and 
James McMillan rose to fortune. 

T.' Dr Russell is due the credit for having 
built the first iron furnace and produced the 
first ton of pig iron at Detroit. He built the 
first large steamer of more than thirty-foot 
beam on the Detroit river and the first steamer 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



363 



especially designed to carry iron ore upon the 
Great Lakes, and was the leading spirit in 
building up the ferry system now controlled 
by the Detroit, Belle Isle & Windsor Ferry 
Company. He also built a very large number 
of houses in Detroit and vicinity, and owned 
thousands of acres of land in the city and 
suburbs, most of which is now built over and 
worth millions of dollars. He suffered some 
losses in the panic of 1857, but recouped his 
fortunes, and was one of the prominent con- 
structive men of affairs in Detroit in the late 
'60s. In 1880, following in his footsteps, his 
son George H. established the Russel Wheel & 
Foundry Company, which is now an extensive 
concern employing many hundred hands, and 
of which the latter and two other sons, Walter 
S. and John R., are now the principal owners 
and officers. Dr. Russel also established and 
equipped important ship yards, where he built 
the steamers "Marquette" and "B. L. Webb," 
and other vessels. He emulated the great 
ironmasters of Pennsylvania, whom he had 
known in his youth, and contributed largely to 
the development of iron industries. He was 
one of the earliest of the pig-iron manufac- 
turers of the state, and was the first of the car 
builders. His son John R., also following in 
the father's pathway, was the projector of the 
present important shipbuilding company, the 
Great Lakes Engineering Works, of which he 
is a large owner and secretary and treasurer. 
His brother, George H. Russel, is vice-presi- 
dent of that company. 

For a number of years prior to his death Dr. 
Russel spent most of his time upon his farm 
on the banks of Lake St. Clair, in Canada, 
opposite Grosse Pointe. His son Walter S. 
had a fine summer house there, but the Doc- 
tor preferred to live in a cabin near by and, 
with a man servant to help him, lived free and 
independent — the truly "simple life." He cut 
down trees, repaired fences, working vigor- 
ously with his own hands, and enjoyed living 
close to nature. 

Dr. Russel's longevity was the result of his 
sane mode of living. In early life he was im- 
pressed by a work entitled "The Art of Liv- 
ing," by Kitchener. Following the advice 



given in that book, he was a persistent drinker 
of water alone, eschewing liquor and tobacco. 
He ate lean meat and drank plentifully of milk, 
was very regular in his habits and rose at six 
o'clock every morning. He was a large man, 
weighing over two hundred pounds, but was 
active in his movements, never lost his mental 
alertness, read two newspapers every day and 
kept in close touch with the advances made in 
medicine and surgery, by perusing the latest 
medical periodicals. He disdained formality 
in his speech and -.habits, being outspoken, 
hearty and genial in conversation. He was a 
remarkably handsome man, and, as a gentle- 
man of the old school, always dressed in fine 
broadcloth and wore a silk hat. His face was 
ruddy, his complexion clear, and his eye quick 
and penetrating. He frequently said he 
thought he would reach the century mark, and 
had he not met with an accident, he would 
probably have verified the prophecy. The Doc- 
tor met with a painful accident on August 24, 
1903, at the corner of Woodward avenue and 
Congress street. He stepped off the curb to 
board a car and was struck in the back by a 
bicycle, which threw him to the ground. Be- 
fore he could regain his feet a delivery wagon 
ran against him and the wheels passed over 
his hands. He was taken to his home, at 149 
McDougall avenue, and though no bones were 
broken and his superficial injuries were rap- 
idly healing, a reaction came after a few days 
and he passed quietly to eternal rest on August 
31st, at one o'clock in the afternoon, in his 
eighty-eighth year. 

As a youth Dr. Russel had the advantage of 
recourse to one of the finest private libraries in 
dative student. For many years he held the 
the Union at that time — that of his uncle, John 
Whiteside — and he ever remained an appre- 
reputation of having the best knowledge of 
English literature of any citizen of Michigan, 
and he memorized large portions of the Bible, 
Shakespeare and other standard English and 
classical authors, especially the poets. 

He was married in Detroit, July 7, 1845, to 
Miss Anna E. Davenport, daughter of Lewis 
Davenport, of whom a memoir appears in this 
work. Mrs. Russel was born in Detroit, and 



364 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



was one of the good women of the city, and 
equally well known and beloved in the com- 
munity with her husband. She died June 8, 
1888. From her death until the end came Dr. 
Russel lived a widower in his home on McDou- 
gall avenue and upon his Canadian farm, the 
patriarch of a large and affectionate family of 
children, grandchildren and numerous other 
relatives. Six of the children survive. The 
four sons are all representative business men 
and leaders of affairs in Detroit — George H., 
president of the People's State Bank; Henry, 
head of the law firm of Russel, Campbell, 
Bulkley & Ledyard and general counsel of the 
Michigan Central Railroad Company; Walter 
S., president and general manager of the Rus- 
sel Wheel & Foundry Company; John R., sec- 
retary and treasurer of the Great Lakes Engi- 
neering Works: of the two daughters, Sarah 
is the wife of Jere C. Hutchins, president of 
the Detroit United Railway, and Miss Anne D. 
Russel, the younger daughter, lives with her 
brother, John R. Russel. 

It may be truthfully recorded of Dr. Russel 
that in professional, business, manufacturing 
and social life none have occupied a more im- 
portant position. His own accomplishments 
and the impress which he left through his 
family and others whom he stimulated to use- 
ful endeavor will remain a conspicuous part of 
the history of the city. He is buried in Elm- 
wood cemetery, which he and Henry Ledyard 
originally projected, and by the side of his 
good wife rests beneath a granite celtic cross, 
upon which is inscribed, "Their children rise 
up and call them blessed." 



SAMUEL T. DOUGLASS. 

Among the many noble figures that have lent 
dignity and honor to the bench and bar of the 
state of Michigan a place of special distinction 
must be accorded to the late Judge Samuel T. 
Douglass, who at the time of his death was 
the Nestor of the Detroit bar and who served 
with great ability in the early days as judge 
of Wayne circuit court, in which connection 
he was, ex officio, also a member of the Michi- 
gan supreme court as then constituted. His 



life was one of large and distinct accomplish- 
ment, and his name is graven deeply upon the 
annals of the state in which he so long lived 
and labored. 

The family of which Judge Douglass was a 
worthy scion was founded in New England in 
the early colonial era, and he was in the sev- 
enth generation of direct descent from the 
original American progenitor. He was bom 
in Wallingford, Rutland county, Vermont, on 
the 28th of February, 1814. While he was a 
child his parents removed from the old Green 
Mountain state to the village of Fredonia, 
Chautauqua county. New York, where he was 
reared to manhood and received his academic 
education. There also he studied law under the 
preceptorship of Judge James Mullett, who 
was for many years a member of the supreme 
court of New York. In 1832 Mr. Douglass 
took up his residence in Saratoga, New York, 
where he continued his technical studies under 
the direction of Esek Cowen, one of the most 
distinguished members of the bar of the 
Empire state. 

In 1837, the year which marked the admis- 
sion of Michigan to the federal Union, Judge 
Douglass took up his residence in Detroit, 
where he was shortly afterward admitted to 
the bar of the new commonwealth. It was not 
only his to attain to distinguished honors in 
his profession, but he also outlived all of his 
early contemporaries of the Detroit bar, of 
which he was the oldest member at the time of 
his death, which occurred in the spring of 
1897, His first year of active professional 
work was passed in Ann Arbor, and he then 
returned to Detroit, where he continued in 
active practice until 1888, when he retired 
from the work of his profession. His practice 
was consecutive during these long intervening 
years, save for the comparatively brief period 
during which he wore the judicial ermine. 
Upon initiating the work of his profession in 
Detroit, Judge Douglass associated himself 
with Asher B. Bates and Henry N. Walker, 
under the firm name of Bates, Walker & 
Douglass, and after the retirement of Mr. 
Bates the firm was Douglass & Walker until 
1845, when Judge Douglass was appointed re- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



365 



porter of the supreme court of the state, of 
which office he continued incumbent until his 
resignation, in 1848. He published the first 
two volumes of the supreme court reports, 
covering the period from 1843 to 1847, inclu- 
sive. From 1848 until 185 1 Judge Douglass 
had as his professional coadjutor the late Judge 
James V. Campbell, who had been a student in 
the office of the firm of Douglass & Walker. 
In 1851 the subject of this memoir was elected 
to the bench of the circuit court of the third 
judicial circuit, this having been the first non- 
partisan judicial election in the Wayne cir- 
cuit, and he was elected by a large majorty 
over the regular Democratic candidate, through 
the support of members of the Republican 
party, though he was himself a pronounced 
Democrat. The judicial office was admirably 
suited to his tastes and abilities and he won a 
high reputation on the bench, but its labors, 
which included service as a member of the su- 
preme tourt, which was then composed of the 
judges of the various judicial circuits, proved 
so onerous as to make serious inroads on his 
health, though he continued in office until 1857, 
when a change in the political affairs of the 
state led to his retirement. In this year the 
definite supreme court was established and he 
was the nominee of his party for membership 
in the same, but met defeat, as expected, from 
the fact that the Democratic party was in hope- 
less minority in Michigan. His successful com- 
petitor was his former partner, Judge Camp- 
bell, who then initiated his long and honorable 
career on the bench. 

In the spring of 1857 Judge Douglass re- 
signed his position as circuit judge and re- 
sumed the active practice of his profession. 
He labored with all of ardor and fidelity in 
his chosen vocation, ever showing a deep ap- 
preciation of its dignity and responsibility, and 
for many years he was concerned in much of 
the important litigation in the state and fed- 
eral courts in Michigan. From a history of 
the Bench and Bar of Michigan, issued prior 
to the death of Judge Douglass, are taken the 
following pertinent statements concerning him : 
"The chief elements of character contributing 
to his success at the bar and upon the bench 



are his sound common sense, his knowledge of 
human nature and clear intuition of the credi- 
bility and force of evidence, his intellectual 
integrity and rectitude, his force of will and 
steady, untiring persistence, and the conscien- 
tious thoroughness of his investigation. He is 
not in the popular sense an orator. He has 
neither the temperament nor the intellectual 
qualities essential to the great advocate ; never- 
theless, his earnestness, candor and sincerity, 
his power of analysis applied to the testimony, 
and his careful preparation, always secured to 
him a good measure of success before a jury. 
The court, however, is his element; his state- 
ment of the facts is condensed and lucid; his 
reasoning upon the questions of law or fact 
is terse, logical and forcible, — expressed in 
language of simplicity, directness and force, 
and entirely free from ambiguity. He has 
never accustomed himself to rely upon a ready 
wit or fluent speech, but makes up for the want 
of these by a deep and thorough investiga- 
tion of the law touching any case and 
the merits of any controversy. He de- 
pends more upon industrious, painstaking 
research and methodical arrangement of 
his facts and testimony than upon mere learn- 
ing or anything akin to inspiration. Outside 
of his profession his reading and studies are 
varied and extensive, but far more in the field 
of science than the realm of general literature. 
He accepts with deep conviction the generali- 
zation of Darwin and other evolutionists, and 
their far reaching consequences, and has paid 
much attention to rational ethics and political 
economy. His religious views appear to lean 
toward scientific agnosticism." Another writer 
has spoken of the subject of this sketch in 
essentially the following words : "In every as- 
sociation Judge Douglass maintains a distinct 
and unmistakable independence of character. 
Most amiable and loyal in all relations, there is 
a piquant dash in his character that makes him 
an especially charming companion. Quite con- 
sistent with entire dignity of thought and 
speech is his ready appreciation of the humor- 
ous. Without any lack of symmetry, he en- 
tirely lacks neutrality. He is not a person of 
conventional views or opinions. Outspoken 



366 



DETEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



and frank to a high degree, holding his right 
to independence of opinion as sacred, he has no 
hesitation in declaring his views whenever they 
are demanded, and they are always so declared 
as not to leave the least chance for misappre- 
hension." Judge Douglass was essentially a 
strong and distinct character, and to those 
whose privilege it was to know him and ap- 
preciate his sturdy integrity, his kindliness and 
sympathy, his tolerance of judgment and his 
inflexible honesty of purpose, there could come 
naught but admiration and respect for the man. 
In politics Judge Douglass always gave his 
allegiance to the Democratic party, of whose 
fundamental principles he was a stalwart advo- 
cate. He was, however, quick to manifest his 
disapproval of party heresies, and it was thus 
that he was outspoken in his protest against 
the free-silver policy advanced by the semi- 
Democratic national convention of 1896. In 
the election of that year, in harmony with his 
views, he gave his support to General John M. 
Palmer, the presidential candidate of the "Na- 
tional Democrats." Judge Douglass had much 
civic pride and was progressive and public- 
spirited in his attitude at all times. He served 
as a member of the Detroit board of education 
in 1843-4 and in 1858-9, and in later years was 
a member of the board of education on Grosse 
He, where he developed about two hundred and 
fifty acres. He purchased this property in 
i860, and there the major portion of his time 
was passed during the long years that inter- 
vened before his death. The homestead is 
known as one of the most beautiful of the 
country seats on this idyllic spot in the Detroit 
river. Judge Douglass did much to further the 
success of the Detroit public library, and his 
interest in the same ever continued to be of the 
most insistent order. He served as city at- 
torney for a few months in 1842, and was a 
member of the old-time political organization, 
the Young Men's Club, of which he was at one 
time president, but he never sought public 
office nor was incumbent of the same save in 
the line of his profession, as a judge of the cir- 
cuit and supreme courts, and as city attorney. 
He was the friend and supporter of every ra- 



tional scheme of improvement in the com- 
munity in which he so long maintained his 
home and in which he was honored as a man 
of large talent and sterling integrity of 
character. 

In 1856 Judge Douglass was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Elizabeth Campbell, sister of his 
law partner. Judge James V. Campbell, and 
they became the parents of three children, — 
Mary C, who is the wife of Dr. Frederick P. 
Anderson, of Grosse He; Benjamin, who is a 
civil engineer by profession; and Elizabeth C, 
who is the wife of Louis P. Hall, of Ann 
Arbor. 



EDWIN DENBY. 

Hon. Edwin Denby, of Detroit, the present 
representative of the first district of Michigan 
in the United States congress, is a lawyer of 
high attainments, a man of progressive ideas 
and mature judgment, and is ably upholding 
the high prestige of the Wolverine common- 
wealth, which has sent many able and distin- 
guished citizens to the national legislature. He 
is a recognized leader in the councils of the 
Republican party in Michigan, and is insistent- 
ly loyal to the state in which he has elected to 
make his home and whose interests he has 
made his own in a significant way: this is 
shown by the high official preferment which 
has been given him through popular franchise. 

Mr. Denby is a native of the state of In- 
diana, having been born in the city of Evans- 
ville, on the 18th of February, 1870, and being 
a son of Charles and Martha (Fitch) Denby, 
the former of whom was bom in Botetourt 
county, Virginia, a scion of fine family in the 
Old Dominion, and the latter of whom was 
bom in the state of Indiana. Hon. Charles 
Denby was reared to maturity in his native 
state, where he was afforded the advantages of 
the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, 
and later he completed a course in Georgetown 
University, District of Columbia. He prepared 
himself most admirably for the legal profes- 
sion, in which he attained to much of success 
and distinction. He took up his residence in 
Indiana in the year 1854, and there for some 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



367 



time was engaged in teaching in the public 
schools, a vocation which he had previously 
followed in the state of Alabama. In 1854 he 
was elected to the lower house of the Indiana 
legislature, and thereafter he studied law and 
was admitted to the bar of the state. It was his 
to render yeoman service as a valiant defender 
of the Union in the Civil war. He enlisted in 
1 86 1 and was made lieutenant-colonel of the 
Forty-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with 
which he served until 1863. In the battle of 
Perryville he was twice wounded and his horse 
was shot from under him. He was assigned to 
detail duty during the major portion of his 
prolonged term of service, which continued 
until the close of the war. He left his original 
regiment to assume the colonelcy of the 
Eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which 
command he continued until victory had 
crowned the' Union arms. Thereafter he was 
engaged in the active practice of his pro- 
fession in Evansville, Indiana, until 1885, 
when he was appointed United States minister 
to China, where he continued incumbent of this 
important ofifice for a period of thirteen years, 
gaining a high reputation for his diplomatic 
ability and able handling of the multifarious 
duties of the office. He died at Jamestown, 
New York, in 1904, while making a trip 
through the east, and his widow continued to 
reside in Evansville, Indiana, until her death, 
which occurred in 1906. They are survived 
by five sons and one daughter. Colonel Denby 
was a stalwart advocate of the principles of the 
Republican party, and to its cause he gave 
most efficient and timely service during the 
long period of his identification with the or- 
ganization. The Denby family is of staunch 
English origin and was founded in America 
in the colonial epoch. One or more of the 
representatives of the family were in active 
service as loyal soldiers in the war of the 
Revolution. 

Edwin Denby, the immediate subject of this 
review, gained his early educational discipline 
in the public schools of his native city, and 
he was fifteen years of age at the time of his 
father's appointment to the post of minister 



to China. In this ancient oriental empire he 
continued his educational work, and finally he 
secured employment in the customs service in 
China under Sir Robert Hart, being thus en- 
gaged for a period of ten years. Upon the 
indomitable courage and unyielding persever- 
the law department of the University of Mich- 
igan, in which he was graduated as a mem- 
ber of the class of 1896, with the degree of 
Bachelor of Laws. He was forthwith ad- 
mitted to the bar of the state, in Detroit, and 
in this city initiated the active practice of the 
profession for which he had thoroughly pre- 
pared himself. He was for a time associated 
with the law firm of Keena & Lightner, later 
was engaged in individual practice, and finally 
became a member of the firm of May, Denby 
& Webster. At the time of the Spanish-Amer- 
ican war, in 1898, Mr. Denby subordinated his 
private and professional interests to the call of 
his country for volunteers, and he served for 
four months as gunner's mate, third class, 
upon the United States steamship "Yosemite." 
He received an honorable discharge on August 
23, 1898, and then resumed the work of his 
profession in Detroit. In 1903 he was elected 
a member of the lower house of the Michigan 
legislature, in which he served one term, mak- 
ing an admirable record and thus placing him- 
self in line for the higher honors which were 
destined to be his. In 1904 he was elected to 
represent the first congressional district of 
Michigan in congress, receiving 28,874 votes 
and leading his Democratic opponent by nearly 
nine thousand votes. His work in congress 
has been of most effective order and he has 
gained the distinct appreciation and approval 
of his constituency and of the people of the 
state in general. In May, 1908, Mr. Denby 
was chosen one of the two American repre- 
sentatives on the commission appointed to effect 
a settlement of questions in regard to prices 
and titles of lands held by private parties in 
the Panama isthmian canal zone, and in the 
discharge of the duties of this office he passed 
a portion of the summer of 1908 on the isth- 
mus. Mr. Denby is a member of the director- 
ate of the National Bank of Commerce, of 



368 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Detroit. He is identified with various profes- 
sional, civic, fraternal and social organizations 
and enjoys distinctive popularity in the city 
which represents his home. He is an aggres- 
sive factor in the work of the Republican 
party and an able and effective exemplar of its 
principles and policies. He was elected as his 
own successor in congress in the election of 
November, 1908. Mr. Denby is a bachelor. 



JAMES A. VAN DYKE. 

Pure, constant and noble was the spiritual 
flame which burned in and illumined the mortal 
tenement of James Adams Van Dyke, who 
became one of the distinguished members of 
the Detroit bar even before the admission of 
Michigan to statehood, who attained to high 
honors as a loyal and public-spirited citizen, 
and whose deep appreciation of his steward- 
ship was on a parity with the distinctive suc- 
cess which it was his to gain. Our later gen- 
eration may well pause to contemplate his ex- 
alted and useful life and pay anew a tribute to 
his memory, for he wrote his name large on 
the earlier history of Detroit. True biography 
has a more noble purpose than mere fulsome 
eulogy. The historic spirit, faithful to the 
record; the discerning judgment, unmoved by 
prejudice and uncolored by enthusiasm, are as 
essential in giving the life of the individual 
person as in writing the history of a people. 
The world to-day is what the leading men of 
the last generation have made it. From the 
past has come the legacy of the present. Art, 
science, statesmanship and government are ac- 
cumulations. They constitute an inheritance 
upon which the present generation have en- 
tered, and the advantages secured from so 
vast a bequeathment depend entirely upon the 
fidelity with which is conducted the study of the 
lives of those who have transmitted the legacy. 
To such a careful study are the life, character 
and services of James A. Van Dyke eminently 
entitled, and in a publication such as the one 
at hand it is gratifying to be able to present 
even a memoir of the abridged type which the 
province of the work necessarily prescribes. 

James Adams Van Dyke was bom in Mer- 
cersburg, Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 



December, 1813, and his death occurred at his 
home in Detroit on the 7th of May, 1855. 
He was a son of William and Nancy (Duncan) 
Van Dyke, the former of whom was of Hol- 
land Dutch lineage. His parents continued to 
reside in Pennsylvania until their death, and 
it should be noted that the respective families 
were founded in America in the colonial epoch. 
William Van Dyke was born in the old Key- 
stone state, as was also his wife, and of their 
six children, five sons and one daughter, the 
subject of this memoir was the eldest. 

The education of James A. Van Dyke had 
its inception under the direction of able private 
tutors, and there is ample evidence to show 
that he was specially favored in the surround- 
ings and influences of the parental home, which 
was one of unmistakable culture and refine- 
ment. At the age of fifteen years he was 
matriculated in Madison College, at Union- 
town, Pennsylvania, and from this institution 
he was graduated as a member of the class of 
1832. Within the same year he began the 
study of law, under the preceptorship of 
George Chambers, at Chambersburg, Penn- 
sylvania. There he continued his professional 
reading with marked avidity and earnestness 
for one year, at the expiration of which he re- 
moved to Hagerstown, Maryland, where he 
found an able preceptor in the person of Will- 
iam Price, a prominent member of the bar of 
that commonwealth. Later he pursued his 
technical studies for several months in the 
city of Baltimore, where he also availed him- 
self of the privilege of attending upon the 
courts. 

In the month of December, 1834, Mr. Van 
Dyke left his home, with the purpose of lo- 
cating in the city of Pittsburg, which was 
then a small city and one that did not prove 
attractive to him. Under these conditions he 
determined to come to the west, and he ar- 
rived in Detroit, bearing letters of introduction 
to the Hon. Alexander D. Frazer, then one 
of the representative members of the local bar. 
He entered the ofiice of Mr. Frazer and within 
six months thereafter was admitted to the bar 
of the territory of Michigan. In a memorial 
published at the time of his death appear the 





:'^. 



l^ry/de^ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



369 



following pertinent words: "From the very 
outset of his career Mr. Van Dyke devoted 
himself with the utmost assiduity to his pro- 
fession. It was the calling of his choice, and 
his peculiar and rich gifts rendered him en- 
tirely fit to pursue its higher, more honorable 
and more distinguished walks." 

In 1835 Mr. Van Dyke formed a law part- 
nership with Hon. Charles W. Whipple, and 
this alliance continued until the election of the 
latter to the bench of the supreme court of the 
new state, in 1838. Mr. Van Dyke then asso- 
ciated himself in practice with E. B. Harring- 
ton, who continued as his professional confrere 
until the relationship was severed by the death 
of Mr. Harrington, in 1844. Thereafter Mr. 
Van Dyke was associated in general practice 
with H. H. Emmons until 1852, when both 
virtually retired from the active general prac- 
tice of their profession. In the year men- 
tioned, Mr. Van Dyke became the attorney 
for the Michigan Central Railroad, in which 
connection he rendered effective service, both 
in behalf of the company and the people of the 
state. In 1835, and again in 1839, he was 
appointed city attorney of Detroit, and in 
1840 he was appointed prosecuting attorney 
of Wayne county. Concerning his adminstra- 
tion of this latter office the following contem- 
poraneous estimate was given: "He estab- 
lished a new era in the efficiency, energy and 
success with which he conducted the criminal 
prosecutions, and cleared the city and county 
of numerous and flagrant criminals. During 
the continuance of Mr. Van Dyke in this of- 
fice he kept up the same vigilance and exercised 
the same indefatigable determination in the 
prosecution of crime." In 1843 he was chosen 
to represent the third ward on the board of 
aldermen, and in the following year was 
chosen as his own successor. His effective 
services as chairman of the committee of ways 
and means during this period, when the city's 
finances were in deplorable condition, proved 
specially potent in upholding the financial repu- 
tation of Detroit. In 1847 he was elected 
mayor of the city, and in his careful and con- 
servative administration he was able to carry 
to a logical conclusion the policy which he 



had brought forward in the committee pre- 
viously mentioned. He was not a figurehead 
in the office of mayor, but put forth his best 
efforts and powers in behalf of the city of his 
home and the one in which all of his interests 
centered. In 1853 he was chosen a member 
of the first board of commissioners of the De- 
troit water works, and of this position he con- 
tinued incumbent until his death. From the 
history of Detroit and Michigan published by 
Silas Farmer, of Detroit, in 1889, are secured 
the following extracts touching the peculiarly 
prominent association of Mr. Van Dyke with 
the Detroit fire department : 

"He was best known, however, from his 
connection with the early history of the De- 
troit fire department. His name was enrolled 
on the list of members composing Protection 
Fire Company No. i, the first duly organized 
company in Detroit, and until his death no man 
in the city took a more active interest in build- 
ing up and extending the usefulness of the fire 
department. He served as president of the 
department from 1847 to 1851, and to his 
financial tact, energy and determination, no less 
than to an honest pride in the fire department, 
all citizens are greatly indebted. In 1840 he 
framed and procured the passage of the law 
incorporating the fire department, and it was 
largely his efforts that secured the erection of 
the first firemen's hall. His death, which oc- 
curred May 7, 1855, was an especially severe 
loss to the fire department, the feeling being 
fitttingly expressed in the following resolutions 
adopted by its officers : 

"Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Van 
Dyke the fire department of Detroit has lost 
one of its benefactors; that his name is so 
closely interwoven with its fortune, from its 
origin as a benevolent and chartered organiza- 
tion, through the vicissitudes of its early and 
precarious existence until its successful and 
triumphant development as one of the promi- 
nent institutions of the city, that it may with 
truth be said that its history is almost com- 
prised within the limits of his active participa- 
tion in its affairs. . . 

"Resolved, That as a fireman, beginning 
and serving his full term in one of the com- 
panies of this city, his aim seemed to be rather 



370 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



to discharge well the duties of a private than 
to accept the proffered honors of this company, 
save as trustee in the board. But of those du- 
ties he had a high appreciation, deeming it a 
worthy ambition, as inculcated by him in an 
address to the department, 'to dedicate one's 
self to the work with heart brave and steadfast, 
tenacious of obedience to law and order, with 
an elevated and stern determination to tread 
only the paths of rectitude.' 

"In order to further honor his memory the 
fire department issued a memorial volume, 
containing the proceedings of the department, 
of the Detroit bar and of the common council, 
relative to his death, as well as several tributes 
to his memory from those who knew him 
best." 

In the domain of his chosen profession Mr. 
Van Dyke gained pre-eminence. Profound 
and exact in his erudition, strong in dialectic 
powers, forceful in the clarity and precision of 
his diction, and with a most pleasing personal 
presence, he naturally commanded a place of 
leadership as a trial lawyer, while as a counsel 
he was equally secure and fortified. He ap- 
peared in many important litigations and made 
a reputation that was not hedged in by the 
confines of his home city or state. This ar- 
ticle would stultify its consistency were there 
failure to revert to the masterly argument 
made by Mr. Van Dyke in one of the most 
important cases ever presented in the courts of 
the state of Michigan. He was one of the 
counsel for the people in the great railroad con- 
spiracy case, relative to the Michigan Central 
Railroad, which was tried in the circuit court 
of Wayne count at the May term of the year 
1 85 1. It may be said without fear of legiti- 
mate contradiction that his was the leading 
arguinent advanced in the cause celebre, and 
the record concerning the same has become an 
integral part of the legal history of the state. 
The argument of Mr. Van Dyke occupies one 
hundred and thirty-two closely printed pages, 
and is notable alike for its cogency, its broad- 
ness and fairness and for its beauty of diction 
and absolute eloquence. Of course it is impos- 
sible within the compass of a sketch of this de- 
scription to offer more than the briefest of 
extracts from the article in question, but the 



following excerpts, both eloquent and pro- 
phetic, may well be given place here : 

What has been the history of the road 
(Michigan Central)" while in the hands of the 
state? For years it dragged its slow length 
along, — an encumbrance and a burthen. The 
state needed engines, cars, depots, — every ma- 
terial to prosecute or sustain with energy or 
profit, this important work; but its credit was 
gone and it was immersed in debt. Our popu- 
lation was thinly scattered across the entire 
breadth of the peninsula. Engines dragged 
slowly and heavily through the dense forests. 
Our city numbered but twelve thousand people ; 
our state was destitute of wealth ; our farmers 
destitute of markets; our laborers destitute of 
employment ; and so far as the interests of the 
state and her people were identified with the 
railroad, it presented a joyless present, a dark 
and frowning future. In a fortunate hour the 
state sold the road, and the millions of this 
denounced company were flung broadcast 
through our community ; they took up the old 
track, relaid a better one, extended the road to 
the extreme line of the state, laid down, at 
enormous cost, over four hundred miles of 
fences to guard the property of all, save those 
who wanted a beef market at each crossing; 
multiplied the accommodation seven-fold, 
quadrupled the speed, increased traffic and 
commerce, so that, while in 1845 the state 
passed twenty-six thousand tons over the road, 
in 1850 the company passed one hundred and 
thirty- four thousand tons; created markets for 
our products, snatched the tide of passing emi- 
gration from the hands of a steamboat mo- 
nopoly, hostile to Michigan, and threw it into 
the heart of our state, until now, where 
heaven's light was once shut out by dense 
forests it shines over fertile fields and rich, 
luxuriant harvests, and the rivers of our state, 
which once ran with wasteful speed to the 
bosom of the lakes, turn the machinery which 
renders our rich products available. With 
them, capital made its home among us; our 
credit was restored; hope and energy sprang 
from their lethargic sleep; labor clapped her 
glad hands and shouted for joy; and Michigan, 
bent for the moment, like a sapling by the 
fierceness of a passing tempest, relieved from 
the debts and burthens, rose erect and in her 
youthful strength stood proudly up among her 
sister states. 

Who shall stop this inglorious work which 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



371 



is spreading blessings and prosperity around 
us? Who shall dare to say, "Thus far shalt thou 
go and no farther?" Who shall dictate to it 
after doing so much? Must it now pause and 
rest in inglorious ease ? No, gentlemen, it shall 
not be stayed; it shall speed onward in tri- 
umph; it shall add link after link to the great 
chain that binds mankind together; it shall 
speed onward, still onward, through the gorges 
of the mountains, over the depths of the val- 
ley, till the iron horse, whose bowels are fire, 
"out of whose nostrils goeth forth smoke," 
and "whose breath kindleth coals," shall be 
heard thundering through the echoing soli- 
tudes of the Rocky mountains, startling the 
luiie Indian from his wild retreat, and ere long 
reaching the golden shores of the far off Pa- 
cific, there to be welcomed by the glad shouts 
of American freemen at the glorious event 
which has conquered time and distance and 
bound the freemen themselves by nearer cords 
to older homes and sister states. 

A detestable monopoly! These railroads, 
built by united energies and capital, are the 
great instruments in the hand of God to hasten 
onward the glorious mission of religion and 
civilization. Already is our Central Road 
stretching forth its hands and giving assurance 
that soon shall its iron track reach across the 
neighboring provinces from Detroit to Niagara, 
and that ere long the scream of the locomotive 
shall be heard over the sound of the cataract, 
which shall thunder forth in deafening peals 
that glorious event. Our brethren on the 
shores of the Atlantic, with whom we are 
bound by every interest, association and affec- 
tion, will hail the shortened tie with ardent 
welcome. 

Passing on with his argument, Mr. Van 
Dyke spoke as follows concerning law and its 
powers and applications : 

Gentlemen, all you possess on earth is the 
reward of labor protected by law. It is law 
alone which keeps all things in order, guards 
the sleep of infancy, the energy of manhood, 
and the weakness of age. It hovers over us 
by day; it keeps watch and ward over the 
slumbers of the night ; it goes with us over the 
land, and guides and guards us through the 
trackless paths of the mighty waters. The 
high and the low, each is within its view and 
beneath its ample folds. It protects beauty and 
virtue, punishes crime and wickedness, and 
vindicates right. Honor and life, and liberty 



and property, the wide world over, are its high 
objects. Stern, yet kind; pure, yet pitying; 
steadfast, immutable and just, — it is the at- 
tribute of God on earth. It proceeds from 
his bosom and encircles the world with its 
care and power and blessings. All honor and 
praise to those who administer it in purity and 
who reverence its high behests. 

The foregoing quotations are made simply to 
show the impassioned eloquence of the speaker 
and his love for the cause of right and justice. 
No idea is conveyed as to the profundity of the 
argument he advanced on the occasion, but in 
even these few words the man, the orator, the 
patriot, seems to stand before us in his virile 
strength. 

The generous and noble qualities of Mr. 
Van Dyke's mind and heart glorified a singu- 
larly winning personality, and he won and re- 
tained friends in all classes. He touched and 
appreciated the depths of human thought and 
motive and his charity to his fellow men was 
spread on that liberal plane which shows forth 
the grace of toleration and true human sym- 
pathy. He had fine perceptions of principle, 
and if one of his nobler characteristics stood 
out in distinct prominence above all others it 
was his loyalty to principle. It would be diffi- 
cult to say anything better than that of any 
man. He was one of the kindest and most pol- 
ished and courteous of gentlemen, and the 
story of his life bears both lesson and incentive. 
He was prominent in the political affairs of 
the new state, and was a conservative Whig in 
his attitude. His religious faith was that of 
the Catholic church, of which he was a devout 
communicant, and it may well be said that his 
was the faith that makes faithful in all things. 
He was generous in his aiding of religious, 
charitable and benevolent objects, and his home 
life was one whose ideality renders it impos- 
sible for the veil to be lifted to public inspec- 
tion, even in a cursory way and long after he 
has passed to his reward. Of him it has well 
been said : "He left a name dear to his friends 
and a rich inheritance to his children, conse- 
crated by the remembrance of the genial quali- 
ties and virtues with which he was so richly 
endowed." Further, it can not prove other 
than consistent to incorporate in this brief 



372 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



sketch a reproduction of the resolutions 
adopted by the members of the Detroit bar at 
the time of his death, — a bar whicli bore at the 
time names which remain those of greatest 
distinction in the history of Michigan : 

Resolved, That we, who have been wit- 
nesses and sharers of his professional labors, 
can best give full testimony to the genius, skill, 
learning and industry which he brought to that 
profession, to which he devoted alike the 
chivalrous fire of his youth and the riper pow- 
ers of his manhood, in which he cherished a 
manly pride, and whose best honors and suc- 
cess he so rapidly and so honorably achieved. 

Resolved, That while we bear this just 
tribute to the fine intellect of our deceased 
brother, we turn with greater pleasure to those 
generous qualities of his heart, which en- 
deared him to us all as a companion and friend ; 
which have left tender memorials with so many 
of his younger brothers, of grateful sympathy 
and assistance rendered when most needed; 
and which made his life a bright example of 
just and honorable conduct in all its relations. 

Resolved, That though devoted to the pro- 
fession of his choice, yet he was never in- 
different to the wider duties which were de- 
volved upon him by society at large, and he 
filled the many public stations to which he was 
called by the confidence and esteem of his fel- 
low citizens, with an earnestness, purity and 
ability alike honorable to himself and service- 
able to the public. 

In the year 1835 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Van Dyke to Miss Elizabeth Des- 
noyers, daughter of Hon. Peter J. Desnoyers, 
another of the honored pioneers of the state 
of Michigan. Of this union were born eleven 
children, of whom seven attained to maturity. 
Philip J. D. Van Dyke, the third son, died in 
1883, having become a successful lawyer and 
having served two terms as prosecuting attor- 
ney of Wayne county ; Rev. Henry Van Dyke is 
pastor of St. Mary's church. Bad Axe, Michi- 
gan ; William Van Dyke is a prominent lawyer 
of Detroit, associated with E. Y. Swift, Esq. ; 
George W. Van Dyke is now deceased ; Marie 
is the widow of William Casgrain, of Chicago ; 
Rev. Ernest Van Dyke has been for forty 
years a priest of the Catholic church and for 
thirty-five years has been pastor of the parish 
of St. Aloysius, one of the most important in 



Detroit; Josephine is the wife of Mr. Henry ! 
F. Brownson, of Detroit; and Madame Van 1 
Dyke, the youngest of the daughters now liv- ' 
ing, is superior of the Sacred Heart convent, 
Chicago. I 

The portrait of Mr. Van Dyke adorns the 
walls of the court room of the presiding judge, I 
in the Wayne county building, and another is 
in the office of the mayor of Detroit with the 
collection of Detroit's mayors. 



D. BETHUNE DUFPIELD. 

A valiant, noble soul was that which had in- 
dwelling in the mortal tenement of the honored 
subject of this memoir, than whom none has 
ever held a more secure and inviolable place in 
the esteem of. the people of the city of Detroit, 
where he so long lived and labored and where 
he attained to eminence as one of the distin- 
guished members of the bar of the Wolverine 
state. "His life was gentle," and also was it 
faithful under all the changes and chances of 
this mortal existence, — faithful to itself and to 
all the objective duties and responsibilities 
which canopy every human being, no matter 
what his status. "Self-reverence, self-knowl- 
edge, self-control, — these three lead on to sov- 
ereign power," and all these were distinguish- 
ing attributes in the character of D. Bethune 
Duffield. He knew mankind, including him- 
self, and there can be no impropriety in util- 
izing in connection with him the term self- 
reverence, for this meant in his case but the 
bringing out of the best that was in him, and 
his life was guided and governed by a con- 
science of peculiar sensitiveness, — a conscience 
that dominated his every thought and action. 
Those to whom was given the privilege of his 
acquaintanceship bear appreciative and rever- 
ent testimony to the truth of this statement. 
Then, as a man, as a citizen and as a leader in 
his profession, does he merit a tribute in every 
publication which touches the life histories of 
those who have honored and been honored by 
the city of Detroit. His ancestral history is 
outlined in an article concerning the Duffield 
family, on other pages of this work, and the 
subject-matter need not be here repeated. In- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



373 



cidentally, however, it may be said that he 
was a representative of one of the pioneer 
famihes of Michigan, with whose annals the 
name has been identified since the territorial 
epoch. 

Divie Bethune Duffield was born at Carlisle, 
Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, on the 29th 
of August, 1821, being a son of Rev. George 
Duffield, D. D., and Isabella Graham (Be- 
thune) Duffield, concerning whom individual 
mention is made in the family sketch heretofore 
referred to. That the subject of this sketch had 
a natural predilection for study is evident when 
we revert to the fact that when but twelve 
years of age, after a course in the preparatory 
department of Dickinson College, in his native 
town, he was eligible for admission to the col- 
legiate department, save for the fact that the 
rules of the institution prescribed that a person 
must be fourteen years old before taking up 
the college work. It was undoubtedly fortu- 
nate that the boy was thus compelled to curb 
in a measure his mental precocity, which might 
have overtaxed his physical strength. In 1835 
his parents removed to Philadelphia, where he 
continued his studies in Livingston College, 
in which he was graduated, and he was then 
matriculated in Yale College, as a member of 
the class of 1840. Unforeseen exigencies com- 
pelled him to leave this historic institution be- 
fore completing his course, but from Yale he 
eventually received the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts, — a recognition to which he was consid- 
ered eminently entitled. From the first Mr. 
Duffield manifested a most appreciative taste 
for and facility in the study of both the classi- 
cal and modern languages and the reading of 
the best literature, and this taste, developed and 
fortified, continued to be his throughout life, 
so that he found unceasing solace and gratifi- 
cation through its indulgence. He was able 
to read the literature of foreign countries in 
their vernacular and delved deeply into the best 
of such production. He also became somewhat 
prolific as a writer of verse and prose, and all 
of the productions emanating from his pen bore 
the mark of recondite knowledge, deep thought, 
abiding sympathy and insistent optimism, 
while his diction always showed the clarity and 



precision which denote familiarity with the 
classics. He was familiar with Greek and 
Latin and also the Hebrew language, as well as 
French and German, and was, on the whole, a 
man of most scholarly attainments. In 1837, 
the year which marked the admission of Michi- 
gan to the Union, Mr. Duffield's parents came 
to Detroit, where his father became pastor of 
the First Presbyterian church. Here he joined 
them in 1839 and soon afterward he began 
reading law under the preceptorship of the 
firm of Bates & Talbot, whose members were 
among the leaders of the bar of Wayne county 
at that time. In 1841 he entered the law de- 
partment of Yale College and also prosecuted 
the studies of the academic department, being 
graduated in both courses as a member of 
the respective classes and duly received the 
degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bach- 
elor of Laws, before he had attained to his 
legal majority. He passed the major portion 
of the year following his graduation as a stu- 
dent in the Union Theological Seminary, New 
York city, withdrawing on account of impaired 
health, resultant upon over-application to study. 
He then returned to Detroit, where, in the 
autumn of 1843, ^''^ was admitted to the bar. 

In the spring of 1844 Mr. Duffield entered 
into a professional partnership with the late 
Hon. George V. N. Lothrop, who was later 
United States minister to Russia, and the firm 
gained precedence as one of the foremost in 
the state, the alliance continuing until 1856, 
when a dissolution took place. Mr. Duffield 
thereafter continued his practice in an individ- 
ual way until after the close of the civil war, 
when his youngest brother, Henry M., became 
his professional confrere, this association con- 
tinuing about a decade. In 1885 Mr. Duffield 
admitted to partnership in his large and impor- 
tant legal business his younger son, Bethune, 
of whom individual mention is made in this 
volume, and they continued to be thus asso- 
ciated, under the title of Duffield & Duffield, 
until the relations were severed by the death 
of him whose name initiates this memoir. That 
Mr. Duffield attained eminence in his profes- 
sion was due not less to his thorough knowl- 
edge of the law and his forceful presentation of 



374 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



causes, with great dialectic strength, than to 
the time and labor he expended in the prepara- 
tion of his cases. He discussed legal questions 
with marked clearness of illustration and full- 
ness and variety of learning, while he ever 
commanded the respectful hearing of court or 
jury and the admiration of his professional 
associates. 

At no time in his career did Mr. Duffield 
show aught of inclination for public office, and 
he remained signally free from affliction in this 
line, though in 1847 he was elected city attor- 
ney and for many years was a commissioner of 
the United States court. These were the only 
official positions of which he was ever in- 
cumbent in a purely public sense, and both were 
practically allied to his regular professional 
work. As a citizen his zeal and public spirit 
found no prescribed bounds, his loyalty being 
of the most unequivocal type. In 1847 he was 
elected a member of the board of education, 
and in this capacity none has ever rendered 
more effective and timely service, his in- 
cumbency of the office being almost contin- 
uous until i860, while he was president of the 
board for several years. Through his efforts 
the entire work of the public schools was thor- 
oughly systematized and he was specially zeal- 
ous in establishing the high school, of which 
he has been often designated the father. He 
di'su did much to promote the interests of the 
city public library, then as now under control 
of the school authorities. A most consistent 
recognition of his labors in behalf of education 
in Detroit was that shown in namiiig the school 
on Clinton street in his honor, this tribute 
having been paid in 1855. 

In his daily hfe Mr. Duffield ever exempli- 
fied the abiding and deep Christian faith which 
was his, and he was particularly active in the 
various departments of church work and in be- 
half of the cause of temperance, having been 
the first president of the Detroit Red Ribbon 
Society, organized at the time of one of the 
most memorable temperance crusades in the 
history of the nation. For many years prior 
to his death he had been an officer in the First 
Presbyterian church, of which his revered 
father was pastor for so many years, and he 



was, indeed, one of the pillars in this church, 
faithful and zealous. He was one of the 
founders of Harper Hospital and was for sev- 
eral years secretary of its board of trustees. 
In the earlier years the Young Men's Society 
of Detroit was a prominent social and literary 
organization, and he was active in its affairs, 
having been its president in 1850. 

In politics Mr. Duffield was originally ar- 
rayed as a supporter of the principles of the 
Whig party, but upon the organization of the 
Republican party he allied himself therewith 
and ever afterward continued an effective ad- 
vocate of its cause, which he furthered through 
effective work as a public speaker in various 
state and national campaigns, though he in- 
variably refused to permit the consideration of 
his name in connection with political office. 
In the climateric period leading up to the civil 
war he was an avowed and uncompromising 
abolitionist, and while the war was in progress 
he did all in his power, as a writer and public 
speaker, to uphold the hands of the govern- 
ment and to encourage enlistments, as well as 
to provide for the soldiers and their families. 
From his youth Mr. Duffield contributed with 
somewhat of liberality to the press, both news- 
papers and periodicals, and he gained a definite 
and admirable reputation in literary circles. 
Much of his work has been lost to sight, as he 
was averse to the publication of literary pro- 
ductions, both prose and verse, save as they 
might contribute to the advancement of some 
worthy contemporaneous cause or defeat some 
ignoble proposition. 

In conclusion of this sketch of an honored 
citizen, it is but congruous that there be per- 
petuated a few lines from an appreciative esti- 
mate of the man which appeared in a history 
of the bench and bar of the state issued by the 
Century Publishing and Engraving Company: 
"D. Bethune Duffield was a lawyer whose con- 
science never juggled with the right for the 
sake of the retainer, and was a man whose 
heart was always young. He excelled in his 
profession, though he never sank the man in 
the attorney. He had mastered the wisdom of 
the schools, and also knew men. His success 
at the bar was immediate and pronounced, and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



375 



a long and useful life overflowed with gener- 
ous and humane deeds. And now that he has 
emigrated to a better land his name is a sweet 
memory in many hearts." Mr. Duffield was 
summoned to the life eternal on the 12th of 
March, 1891, and the city of Detroit mourned 
its dead. 

On the 2Sth of June, 1854, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Duffield to Miss Mary 
Strong Buell, who was born in Rochester, New 
York, a daughter of Eben N. Buell, who was 
until his death a prominent and influential 
business man of the city of Rochester. Mrs. 
Duffield survived her husband until February 
27, 1898, when she too passed away, secure in 
the love of all those who had come within the 
sphere of her gentle and gracious influence. 
They are survived by two sons, — George, who 
is one of the representative physicians and sur- 
geons of Detroit, and Bethune, who is indi- 
vidually mentioned in this publication. 



ELISHA H. FLINN. 

Elisha Herbert Flinn was born in Riga, 
Monroe county, New York, on the i6th of 
December, 1843. His early childhood days 
were passed on his father's farm at that place. 
In 1854 the family removed to LeRoy, Gen- 
esee county, in the same state, where he at- 
tended school and where he was graduated in 
the local academy or high school. Deciding to 
enter the legal profession, he studied law in 
the office of Judge Bangs, a prominent attor- 
ney in western New York. Here he remained 
until 1865, when he concluded he would come 
to the west. Having a friend and former class- 
mate in Detroit, he settled in this city, where 
he took a position in the law office of Robin- 
son & Brooks. He continued the study of law 
and was admitted to the bar in 1866. He 
soon built up a practice and later, in 1876, he 
formed a partnership with Charles C. Hickey, 
under the firm name of Hickey & Flinn. The 
firm was very successful, but within two years 
the partnership association was severed by the 
death of Mr. Hickey. Mr. Flinn continued in 
individual practice thereafter for a few years, 
but, having become interested in timber land, 



he gradually withdrew from the active work 
of his profession. 

In the meantime, in 1871, Mr. Flinn had 
formed a partnership with his former employer, 
George O. Robinson, for the buying and sell- 
ing of pine timber land, both on commission 
and independently as a firm. The business 
prospered and the firm continues in existence 
to the present day. Messrs. Robinson and 
Flinn have traded in pine lands in Michigan, 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alabama, Mississippi, 
and Louisiana. Their joint holdings have now 
dwindled to practically nothing, although the 
individual members of the firm continue to be 
interested in redwood lumbering operations in 
California. The firm held large tracts of pine 
on the Mesaba range in Minnesota, jointly with 
Simon J. Murphy, and on these lands were 
discovered the Adams, Fayal, Genoa, Spruce, 
Cloquet, LaBelle, Hobart, and other and 
smaller iron mines, so that Mr. Flinn's principal 
interests gradually changed from timber to 
iron, in which latter line they remain rep- 
resented to the present time. He is also in- 
terested in the Lake Superior Iron & Chemical 
Company, of which he is president. He is also 
president of the Farrand Company, is vice-pres- 
ident of the Old Detroit National Bank, and 
a director of each the Wayne County Savings 
Bank, the Detroit Trust Company, the Pacific 
Lumber Company, and the F. A. Thompson 
Company, of Detroit. He is president of the 
board of trustees of Grace hospital, and is also 
a trustee of the First Presbyterian church. In 
politics he is a Republican, but he has never 
taken any active part in political work. 

On the 20th of September, 1871, Mr. Flinn 
married Miss Samantha Whitwood, daughter 
of Deodatus C. Whitwood, vice-president of 
the Wayne County Savings Bank. The maiden 
name of Mrs. Flinn's mother was Caroline 
Farrand. This union, marked by mutual de- 
votion, was ended by the death of Mrs. Flinn, 
on the 1 2th of February, 1906. Two children 
are living: James Harmon Flinn, and Mary 
Whitwood Flinn. The former married Miss 
Ethel Garretson, of New York city, and they 
reside in Detroit. 

Elisha H. Flinn, the immediate subject of 



376 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



this sketch, is a son of Captain James Rich- 
ardson Flinn and Mary (Harmon) Fhnn, 
whose marriage was solemnized on the 15th 
of April, 1838. Captain Flinn was the grand- 
son of John Flinn, who came from Dublin, 
County Mayo, Ireland, and took up his resi- 
dence in the state of New York, in 1750 
There the latter married into the Vrooman 
family, who were New Amsterdam Dutch. 
Peter Flinn, a son of this marriage, was the 
owner of a large tract of land in western New 
York, and the old homestead is still in the 
possession of the family. Peter Flinn mar- 
ried Castilla Richardson, and their son, James 
R., was the father of him whose name initiates 
this article. 

On the maternal side, Mr. Flinn is descended 
from the Harmon family of English origin. 
The founder was John Harmon, who was born 
in England, in 161 7. His grandson, Nathaniel 
Harmon, born in 1686, came to America and 
settled in Connecticut, whence the family later 
removed to Massachusetts. Representatives 
afterward settled in Bennington, Vermont, and 
from there descendants moved to Monroe 
county, New York. Rawson Harmon, the 
maternal grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch, was a large landholder in western New 
York, and was a man of prominence and in- 
fluence in that section during the first half of 
the last century. 



THEODORE H. EATON. 

In even a cursory review of the careers of 
the honored pioneer business men of the city of 
Detroit, there is eminent consistency and, in 
fact, imperative demand that recognition be 
had of Mr. Eaton, who wrote his name large 
and nobly upon the annals of his time. He was 
a dominating figure in local business life and 
through his well directed energies accumulated 
a modest fortune. Progressive in both private 
and public affairs, he proved a most valuable 
citizen, and he so ordered his course as to re- 
tain at all times the inviolable confidence and 
esteem of his fellow men. 

Theodore H. Eaton was born in the historic 
old town of New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 
October, 181 5, and was a son of Horatio 



Woodruff Eaton and Maria S. (Montgomery) 
Eaton. He was a scion in the fourth genera- 
tion in direct descent from Thomas Eatton, of 
Eatonton, New Jersey, which place was named 
in his honor and of which he was virtually the 
founder. Thomas Eatton immigrated from 
England to America about 1660, or perhaps 
earlier, and for a brief interval he resided in 
Rhode Island, whence he later removed to New 
Jersey, where he established his permanent 
home and where he became a citizen of promi- 
nence and influence. When the subject of this 
memoir was a child his parents removed from 
New Jersey to Lowville, New York, and there 
he was reared to maturity, receiving a good 
academic education. As a youth he was ap- 
prenticed to learn the drug business, in the es- 
tablishment of John and William Williams, of 
Utica, New York, and upon the completion of 
the Erie canal this firm established a western 
branch in Buffalo, to which city young Eaton 
was transferred after the great fire which vis- 
ited that place in the early '30s. In 1834 he 
was admitted, to a partnership in the firm, upon 
the retirement from the same of Robert Hol- 
lister. The panic of 1837 seriously crippled 
many western merchants, and through an inci- 
he was able eventually to acquire the estab- 
dental financial embarrassment of this nature 
lished drug business of Riley & Ackerly, of De- 
troit, in 1838. He remained a partner with the 
Williams Brothers in Buffalo, however, until 
1842, when he retired from the firm, and in 
May of that year he took up his residence in 
Detroit, having been married to Miss Anne 
Gibbs, of Skaneateles, New York, in 1839. 

Mr. Eaton had thoroughly familiarized him- 
self with the "frontier" country, of which 
Michigan was then considered a part, as he had 
made several v/inter tours on horseback 
through the west, making collections for the 
Buffalo house in which he was an interested 
principal. Under his able direction the modest 
business established by the firm of Riley & 
Ackerly was rapidly developed into an enter- 
prise of no inconsiderable scope and impor- 
tance. After his purchase of the business and 
prior to his removal to Detroit it had been 
under the effective super\'ision of David A. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



377 



McNair, his agent, who Hkewise had done ex- 
cellent work in expanding the business. For a 
brief interval subsequently to 1842 Mr. McNair 
was a partner in the business, but in 1843 he 
retired from the firm and removed to Kala- 
mazoo, where he became prominent as a 
merchant. 

Mr. Eaton was a man of fine intellectual 
powers and great pragmatic ability, and defi- 
nite success early crowned his efforts in De- 
troit. He was one of the largest losers in the 
great fire which swept away much of the busi- 
ness section of Detroit in 1848, his establish- 
ment, at the corner of Jefferson avenue and 
Randolph street, having been destroyed. In 
1849 he removed into his new brick store, at 
the corner of Woodward avenue and Atwater 
street, where he continued in business until his 
death, which occurred in 1888. For the major 
portion of the long intervening period the en- 
terprise was conducted under the firm name of 
Theodore H. Eaton & Son, which still obtains, 
the concern now occupying the original quar- 
ters and also with warehouse and railway sid- 
ing in Franklin street. This may well be 
pointed out to-day as one of the pioneer busi- 
ness places of Detroit. 

Mr. Eaton was the chief promoter, if not, 
indeed, the virtual founder of that noble insti- 
tution, St. Luke's hospital, and he maintained 
a deep and abiding interest in the same until 
he was summoned from the field of life's en- 
deavors. He was a devout communicant of the 
Protestant Episcopal church and did much to 
further its progress in Michigan, having been 
influential in diocesan as well as local affairs 
in his church. For many years prior to his 
death he held the office of senior warden of old 
St. Paul's parish. He made many and liberal 
benefactions to the church, though always in a 
most unostentatious way. He was a Whig and 
later a Democrat in his political allegiance, and 
was essentially public-spirited, giving his sup- 
port to all enterprises projected for the general 
welfare of his home city and its people. He 
was one of the pioneers in building up Detroit, 
and many of the better class of buildings still 
standing were erected by him. In 1852 he 
completed the erection of his residence, on Jef- 



ferson avenue, the same having been one of 
the most modern in Detroit and still being con- 
sidered one of the fine old homesteads. It is 
now occupied by his son and is one of the oldest 
houses in Detroit. It is worthy of note that at 
the time of building his mansion Mr. Eaton 
brought from New York city John Riley, a 
skilled mechanic, who installed the plumbing 
and also piped the house for gas, though it was 
three years later ere a gas plant was installed 
in the city. He was one of the organizers of 
the first gas company, in 1852, known as the 
Detroit Gas Light Company, and was one of 
the large stockholders of the local gas com- 
pany up to the time when its plant and business 
were sold to the present owners. He never 
accepted any office in the company, however. 
He held a large block of the stock of the De- 
troit Locomotive Works and the Peninsular 
Iron Works. 

Mrs. Eaton preceded her husband to the life 
eternal, her death having occurred in 1879. 
They became the parents of two children, — 
Theodore H., Jr., who succeeded to his 
father's various business interests; and Mary 
M., who became the wife of Lieutenant 
Thomas W. Lord, of the United States army, 
and who died in Texas. The son is recognized 
as one of the representative business men of 
Detroit and is ably upholding the prestige of 
the honored name which he bears. He still 
continues in the business established by his 
father so many years ago and also has other 
and important capitalistic interests in Detroit. 
The maternal grandmother of the subject of 
this memoir was Mrs. Mary Montgomery, who 
was a daughter of Judge John Berrien, lineal 
ancestor of Colonel Berrien, of Detroit, civil 
engineer of the Michigan Central Railroad, 
and the man in whose honor Berrien county 
was named. It is said that General Washing- 
ton wrote his farewell address to the army 
while a guest in the home of the widow of 
Judge Berrien, at Rocky Hill, near Princeton, 
New Jersey, December i, 1783. 

As a citizen and business man the name of 
Theodore I'. Eaton merits a place of distinc- 
tion on the roll of the honored pioneers of 
Detroit. 



378 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



FREDERICK STEARNS. 

Among those who have stood as distin- 
guished types of the world's workers was the 
late Frederick Stearns, who indehbly im- 
pressed his influence upon the civic and indus- 
trial life of Detroit, who was deeply appreci- 
ative of all that represents the higher values 
of human existence, who proved a force in the 
commercial world, who realized the responsi- 
bilities which success imposes, and who ordered 
his course upon the highest plane of honor and 
integrity. This gentle, noble, exalted char- 
acter was revered and loved by the people of 
Detroit, and while a sketch of this nature can 
but touch lightly upon the more salient points 
in his life history, it is imperative that in a pub- 
lication of such province as the one at hand a 
tribute of respect and honor be paid to one who 
thus made the most and best of his life. 

Frederick Steams came of staunch Puritan 
stock, being a direct . descendant of Isaac 
Stearns, who was one of the coreligionists and 
colonists with Governor Winthrop and Sir 
Richard Saltenstall, who arrived at Plymouth 
in 1630 and who founded Watertown, Mas- 
sachusetts. In the maternal line he traced his 
genealogy to Samuel Chapin (1642), who was 
one of the early settlers of Springfield, Mas- 
sachusetts. 

Mr. Stearns was born in Lockport, New 
York, on the 8th of April, 1831, and was a son 
of Samuel and Philena (Chapin) Stearns. 
Such were the exigencies of time and place 
that Frederick Stearns had but limited educa- 
tional advantages in his boyhood days. His 
parents were in very modest financial circum- 
stances and he early assumed the active re- 
sponsibilities of life. In 1846, when but four- 
teen years of age, he was apprenticed in the 
drug store of Ballard & Green, in the city of 
Buffalo, New York, where he remained about 
a year. He there found himself taking the 
first steps toward the fulfillment of his cher- 
ished ambition to become a pharmacist. While 
working assiduously and faithfully, for a mini- 
mum wage, he managed to improve his spare 
time by taking a course of lectures in phar- 
macy and chemistry in the University of Buf- 
falo. In 1848 he became associated with A. I. 



Matthews, then one of the leading druggists 
of Buffalo, with whom he remained about six 
years, within which he was admitted to part- 
cause he hoped that it might be of some pleas- 
nership in the business. It was here that he 
became familiar with the details and manage- 
ment of a well ordered pharmacy, and he con- 
tinued to be identified with the business until 
the close of the year 1854, at which time he 
sold his interest in the enterprise and came to 
Detroit, arriving here on January i, 1855. He 
had previously visited Detroit and had decided 
that there was a favorable opening here for a 
new drug store. Mr. Steams later summed 
up conditions at that time in six words, — 
"little money, fair credit, high hope." His re- 
tail business was conducted with a fair degree 
of success and soon he began to carry out his 
idea of manufacturing for the trade. His first 
laboratory was a back room twelve feet square 
and equipped with a cook-stove. He made up 
samples of a few pharmaceuticals of merit, and 
from time to time he made trips through the 
state, where he found a ready market among 
the druggists, who were not only in need of 
goods but also glad to aid the struggling young 
manufacturer. On his return from such trips 
he made up the required goods and shipped 
them to his customers. 

Concerning his labors and advancement the 
following statements have been written: 
"Some idea of his activity at this time may be 
gathered from the facts that while carrying on 
his retail business and endeavoring to develop 
its manufacturing side he was also editing and 
publishing the Peninsular and Independent, a 
monthly medical journal of sixty-four pages, 
having associated with him several of the prin- 
cipal medical professors of the University oi 
Michigan ; he was contributing scientific papers 
to drag and medical joumals, and was already 
prominent in the affairs of the American Phar- 
maceutical Association, of which he later 
became president. 

"Then came the civil war, and Mr. Stearns, 
as purveyor of medical supplies for the state of 
Michigan, handled large quantities of drags 
He also carried on quite an extensive whole- 
sale business, and his store was known all over 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



379 



the middle west, at least, as probably the most 
completely stocked institution of its kind in the 
country. Old residents of Detroit yet speak 
with pride of the Stearns drug store, which 
was in those days regarded as a model, and it 
was generally known that if anything in the 
medical line was to be had at all it was to be 
found there. At the close of the war Mr. 
Stearns equipped his laboratory with steam, 
milling and extraction apparatus, thus enabling 
him to handle a much larger volume of busi- 
ness than previously. 

"Twice in 1871 his store was destroyed by 
fire, entailing a loss of over eighty thousand 
dollars, but, undismayed, he at once began 
preparations for manufacturing on a still 
larger scale, and established a laboratory en- 
tirely separate from his store. This stood on 
Woodbridge street, near Sixth, and although 
it would appear very diminutive in comparison 
with the present establishment, or even with 
some single departments, it was considered 
quite a credit to the city then." 

Mr. Stearns' retail drug establishment con- 
tinued as the largest and most successful in the 
state and he conducted the same until 1881, 
when he sold the business, in order to devote 
his entire time to his manufacturing enter- 
prise, which was constantly expanding in scope 
and importance and which was destined to be- 
come, as it is to-day, one of the greatest of the 
sort in the world. In 1882 he incorporated the 
business under the name of Frederick Stearns 
& Company, with a capital of two hundred 
thousand dollars. At the annual meeting of 
the company in February, 1887, Mr. Steams 
announced to the directors his intention of re- 
tiring from business and devoting the remain- 
der of his life to travel and study. Interesting 
data are these, gained from an appreciative 
tribute published in The New Idea of Feb- 
ruary, 1907, regarding him, whose death oc- 
curred in the preceding month : "As he occa- 
sionally expressed it in later years, he began 
to educate himself then as he never had the 
time to do when he was young. With Mr. 
Stearns, however, travel was never undertaken 
merely as a recreation, but as another form of 
study, and few men have traveled so exten- 



sively and to such purpose as he had during 
the past twenty years. He visited at one time 
or another every part of the civilized world, 
and brought back with him thousands of ob- 
jects of educational or artistic value. One of 
his earliest collections comprised about sixteen 
thousand Japanese and Korean curios and 
other objects of oriental art, such as pottery, 
lacquers, swords, Japanese, Korean and Chinese 
costumes, enamels, bamboo work, embroideries, 
etc. This collection, which could not have 
been duplicated for less than forty or fifty 
thousand dollars, was presented by Mr. Stearns 
to the Detroit Museum of Art. 

"Mr. Stearns then took up conchology and 
devoted several years of time and considerable 
money to it, not as a dilettante but from a 
strictly scientific standpoint. Over ten thou- 
sand different specimens of shells, classified and 
arranged in systematic order, go to make up 
this collection in the Detroit Museum, and his 
book, entitled 'Marine Mollusks of Japan,' in 
which Professor Pilsbury, of Philadelphia, was 
his collaborator, is one of the standard refer- 
ence books of the science to-day. 

"What he regarded as his crowning work, 
however, was his collection of musical instru- 
ments which he presented to the University of 
Michigan in 1899. This collection comprises 
some two thousand different kinds of instru- 
ments and represents the evolution of stringed, 
wind and percussion instruments from their 
most promitive forms to the complex and artis- 
tic productions of the present day. It is con- 
sidered the most complete collection of the kind 
in America and one of the most interesting in 
the world. 

"It is evident from all this that Mr. Steams 
found the most absorbing interest in pursuits 
that many men would have considered dry and 
unprofitable. He always disclaimed any phil- 
anthropic motives in the work, however, mod- 
estly saying that he did it because it gave him 
pleasure, and he gave away the results of it be- 
ure to others. The honors that came to him 
were always unsought, and it is safe to say 
that probably no private citizen in Detroit was 
held in higher esteem by men prominent in tlie 
business and social life of the city, particularly 



380 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



among the older men, who had seen his splen- 
did progress and known of his many contribu- 
tions toward both the educational and artistic 
welfare of Detroit and Michigan." 

In recognition of his munificent gift of ori- 
ental curios to the Detroit Museum of Art a 
body of Detroit citizens presented him with a 
handsome bronze medal, with appropriate in- 
scription. In 1901 the University of Michigan 
conferred upon Mr. Stearns, with all of con- 
sistency, the honorary degree of Master of 
Arts, in recognition of his valued contributions 
to science and the fine arts. 

The end of this gentle and noble life came as 
a shock to those who knew and appreciated the 
man and his accomplishment. He had intended 
to pass the winter in Egypt, as had been his 
custom for several years, and he had left De- 
troit for a few months of preliminary sojourn 
in the south. He died at his hotel in the city 
of Savannah, Georgia, January 13, 1907, after 
an illness of only a few hours. The remains 
were brought to Detroit and were interred in 
Elmwood cemetery. The high regard in which 
he was held in his home city was attested not 
only through private sources, among all classes 
and conditions, but also by resolutions by the 
board of directors of the great manufacturing 
house of which he was the founder, by the 
board of trustees of the Detroit Museum of 
Art and by other bodies with which he was 
identified. The city press spoke with words of 
the whole city may be said to have felt a sense 
deep appreciation in the editorial columns, and 
of personal bereavement. From the Detroit 
News is taken the following extract : "Fred- 
erick Stearns, one of the important figures in 
Detroit's commercial life during the past quar- 
ter century, has finished his career and rests 
from his labors. Mr. Stearns was a man of 
energy. He built up a great business from small 
beginnings and established a system that prom- 
ises perpetuity for the institution that is asso- 
ciated with his name. He was wiser than most 
men of his generation, because he did not per- 
mit himself to be completely absorbed in the 
building up of his fortune. Hf held higher 
aims than that of mere money-grubbing and 
found his chief interest in travel and study. 



Few men have had so large a view of the world 
as Mr. Stearns. Few were as well informed as 
to human affairs and the various highways by 
which the races have come up to their present 
status. Mr. Stearns was a highly cultured man, 
a man of many charities and appreciative of 
his obligations to his fellows. He did much for 
the city in which he built up his fortunte. City 
and state institutions have been enriched by the 
spoils of his travels and his quests after the 
things which distinguish other races from 
Americans. He had ceased to be a Detroiter 
and had become a cosmopolite but his attach- 
ment for the home city was one of his marked 
characteristics." 

What more beautiful than these, his own 
words, uttered in his reply to the speech made 
by the late General Russell A. Alger in pre- 
senting to him the bronze medal to which ref- 
erence has been made, apropos of his gift to 
the Detroit Art Museum, and what sentiments 
can better indicate the man and the ideals 
which he held? "For I hold that man, if im- 
mortal, owes it first to himself to mold his ac- 
tions in this world so that his experience may 
be richer, his knowledge fuller, his charity 
broader, and his reverence for God as seen in 
nature quickened, all of which would seemingly 
fit him for that final change we call death." 

Owing to his many years of travel Mr. 
Stearns had almost ceased to be a Detroiter and 
had become a cosmopolite, but still holding a 
strong attachment for his home city. He was 
a member of but few clubs or societies, pre- 
ferring the privacy of the home life when in 
Detroit. 

He was married at Mendon, New York, 
August 15, 1853, to Eliza H. Kimball, of Sar- 
dinia, New York. There were four children, — 
Frederick Kimball, Norman, Henry, and Will- 
iam Isaac Lincoln. 



RUFUS W. GILLETT. 

It was within the province of the late Rufus 
Woodward Gillett to have wielded a large and 
beneficent influence in the industrial, commer- 
cial and civic affairs of the city of Detroit, 
and he was exponent of that high type of 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



381 



manhood which ever stands indicatory of use- 
fulness and subjective honor. He impressed 
his strong individuahty deeply upon the his- 
tory of the city and state in which he so long 
maintained his home, and in a publication of 
the functions assigned to the one at hand, it 
is eminently consonant that a tribute be paid 
to his memory as one of the representative cit- 
izens and business men of the Michigan 
metropolis. 

Mr. Gillett was born at Torringford, Litch- 
field county, Connecticut, on the 22d of April, 
1825, and his death occurred at his home in the 
city of Detroit, on the 3d of December, 1906. 
He was a son of John and Mary (Woodward) 
Gillett, both of whom were likewise natives 
of Connecticut. The lineage of the Gillett fam- 
ily is traced to English origin, and the maternal 
ancestors of the subject of this memoir were 
numbered among the Puritans who were among 
the first to establish homes in New England. 
Jonathan Gillett, the founder of the family in 
America, came from England, and settled in 
Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630, and in 
the various generations of his descendants have 
been found men prominent in business and 
civic life, in the learned professions and in 
public affairs. Representatives of the family 
are now found in many sections of our national 
domain. The grandfather of him whose name 
initiates this sketch likewise bore the name of 
John Gillett, and he was a minute man at the 
battle of Bennington, after which he served 
as lieutenant of a company in the Continental 
line until the close of the war of the Revolution. 

John Gillett, the father of Rufus W., was 
born in Torringford, Connecticut, in 1776, and 
there he passed his entire life. He was a suc- 
cessful farmer, and also identified himself with 
various other lines of enterprise, besides being 
a potent factor in the political and general 
public affairs of his native county. He held 
various offices of public trust and so ordered 
his life as to command the unqualified con- 
fidence and esteem of all who knew him. He 
served in important town offices, and for twenty 
years was a representative of his county in 
the state legislature. For many years, also, he 
was home agent for a land company in Ohio. 



His death occurred in 1857. Mary (Wood- 
ward) Gillett, mother of the subject of this 
review, was a daughter of Dr. Samuel Wood- 
ward, who was for many years a leading phy- 
sician of Torringford, and whose ancestors 
settled in Massachusetts in 1630. Four of his 
sons likewise became physicians of distinctive 
repute in New England. Of a collateral branch 
of the same family was Judge A. B. Wood- 
ward, at one time chief justice of the territory 
of Michigan. 

The boyhood days of Rufus W. Gillett were 
passed upon the home farm, where he imbibed 
deep draughts from the gracious chalice which 
nature ever holds forth to those who live in 
close touch with "her visible forms." He was 
educated in the common school and public 
academy of his native town, and at the age of 
seventeen years he secured a position as clerk 
in a general store at Litchfield, Connecticut, 
where he remained engaged for two years. 
During the ensuing five years he was engaged 
in an independent mercantile business in has 
native town, where he was also identified with 
agricultural pursuits. During the next three 
years he did effective service as agent for New 
York and Connecticut manufacturers of cut- 
lery. In 1856 Mr. Gillett became secretary and 
treasurer of the Wolcottville (Connecticut) 
Brass Company, and he retained this dual 
office until January, 1862, when he came to 
Michigan and took up his residence in De- 
troit, with whose business life he was destined 
to be thereafter most prominently identified. 
Soon after his arrival he became associated 
with A. E. Bissell, in the grain commission 
business, under the firm name of Bissell & 
Gillett. This alliance continued for a period 
of six years, and Mr. Gillett then became asso- 
ciated with the late Theodore P. Hall in estab- 
lishing the firm of Gillett & Hall, which en- 
gaged in the same line of enterprise. The 
business of this firm increased in volume from 
year to year until its operations in the handling 
of grain exceeded those of any other con- 
cern engaged in the same line of enterprise in 
the state. Besides their regular commission 
business the firm also bought large quantities 
of corn and oats in Missouri, Kansas, and other 



382 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



\ 



western states, and this was sent to the eastern 
and export markets. 

Of this firm Mr. Gillett continued to be a 
member until about ten j-ears before his death, 
and in his entire business career no shadow 
ever darked his fair name as a man of impreg- 
nable integrity and honor. He became promi- 
nent in the management of the Detroit Cham- 
ber of Commerce, of which he served as 
president for several successive years, and 
for a number of years he was president of 
the old Preston National Bank, having assumed 
this office at the time of the organization of 
the institution. He was vice-president of the 
State Savings Bank, president of the Detroit 
Copper & Brass Rolling Mills, vice-president 
of the American Harrow Company, and was 
a director of the Standard Insurance Company, 
besides being connected with several other 
prominent and successful industrial enterprises 
in Detroit. He was a man of great capacity 
for affairs, and his influence was specially po- 
tent in furthering the success of the various 
undertakings to which he gave his support and 
co-operation. As a citizen he was essentially 
loyal and public spirited, and in private life he 
was urbane, genial and courteous, being instant 
in the manifestation of kindliness and winning 
and retaining inviolable friendships on all sides. 

Mr. Gillett gave his allegiance to the Demo- 
cratic party and took an active interest in the 
promotion of its cause and in the furtherance of 
good government. Though frequently impor- 
tuned to accept nomination for municipal of- 
fices he invariably refused such overtures, 
though he gave most effective service as a 
member of the city board of estimates and as 
a member of the board of fire commissioners, 
to which last he was appointed in 1880. Dur- 
ing his entire residence in Detroit he attended 
the Fort Street Presbyterian Church. 

On the 26th of May, 1847, Mr. Gillett was 
united in marriage to Miss Charlotte M. Smith, 
who survives him and still maintains her home 
in Detroit. She is a daughter of Nathaniel 
Smith, who was a prominent merchant of Tor- 
ringford, Connecticut, where he also served as 
postmaster for a period of more than forty 
years, having been one of the well known and 



influential citizens of that section of the state. 
Mr. and Mrs. Gillett became the parents of | 
three children. The eldest, Mary Woodward, 
is the wife of Henry K. Lathrop, Jr., of De- : 
troit; Charles Smith Gillett died in Detroit, \ 
October 18, 1876, at the age of twenty-six 
years ; and Harriet Winchell Gillett is the wife 
of William R. Ellis, of New York. 



PRESTON BRADY. 

The honored subject of this sketch, one of 1 
the representative business men of his native 
city of Detroit, is a member of a family whose 
name has been prominently identified with the .'1 
history of this city and state from the territorial g 
epoch in the annals of Michigan. He is a •. 
grandson of Major General Hugh Brady, of * 
the United States Army, who was born at 1 
Standingstone, Huntingdon county, Pennsyl- ' 
vania, July 29, 1768. General Brady was the : 
fifth son of Captain John and Mary Brady, the l 
father having been a captain in the Twelfth j 
Pennsylvania Regiment in the war of the Rev- 
olution and having, with two of his sons, 
been finally killed by the Indians. 

As he grew to manhood General Hugh 
Brady frequently joined small parties who re- 
taliated on the Indians for their misdeeds, and 
he thus gained a clear insight into their man- 
ners and their habits of warfare. In 1792 he 
received from General Washington a com- 
mission as ensign in General Wayne's army, 
was made a heutenant in 1794, and took part 
in the historic western campaigns of that year. 
In 1799 he received from President Adams 
an appointment as captain, and subsequently 
he essayed the improvement of a tract of 
land about fifty miles from Pittsburg, on a 
branch of the Mahoning river. He re- 
mained there until 1807, when he removed 
to Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, 
where he maintained his home until 1812, when 
he received a commission from President Jef- 
ferson and again joined the army, being soon 
promoted to the command of the Twenty-sec- 
ond Regiment of infantry, and he took part 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



383 



in the battle of Lundy's Lane, where he re- 
ceived a wound which disabled him for further 
active service m the war of 1812. He was 
in several other battles of this war. 

In 1 8 19, General Brady was transferred to 
the Second Infantry, then stationed at Sack- 
ett's Harbor, New York, and in 1822 he was 
promoted brigadier general, for ten years' 
faithful service. In 1828 he was in com- 
mand at Detroit, and in 1837 he was placed 
in command of Military Department No. 7, 
with headquarters in this city. He retained 
this command seven years, within which pe- 
riod he superintended the removal of several 
Indian tribes to the country west of the Mis- 
sissippi river and did much to allay the trouble- 
some border difficulties known as the "patriot 
war." At the breaking out of the Mexican 
war, though past the age for active field serv- 
ice, he took a prominent part in the raising 
and equipping of troops and shipping supplies 
to the seat of war. He was made a major 
general in 1848. Of him it has been written: 
"As a soldier he was eminent for his bravery 
and faithfulness, and as a citizen he was free 
from reproach and won the esteem of those 
with whom he was associated." 

In October, 1805, General Brady married 
Sarah Wallis, and they became the parents of 
six children, of whom the second was Samuel 
Preston Brady, father of him whose name ini- 
tiates this article. General Brady died in De- 
troit, April 15, 1 85 1, his death being the re- 
sult of an accident, — the running away of his 
horses. It is gratifying to here enter, in an 
incidental way, brief tribute to the memory 
of this gallant soldier and sterling pioneer of 
Detroit. 

Preston Brady, the immediate subject of this 
review, was born in Detroit, November 8, 1844, 
and is a son of Samuel P. and Elizabeth Mary 
(Nixson) Brady, the former of whom was born 
in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, and the lat- 
ter in the city of New York. The Brady fam- 
ily is of Scotch-Irish extraction and was 
founded in America about 1736, the first set- 
tlement being made in New Jersey, whence 



removal was made to Pennsylvania, where rep- 
resentatives of the name became prominent in 
colonial affairs. Two sons of Captain John 
Brady became famous as Indian fighters, and 
one of these, Captain Samuel Brady, was the 
one who made the daring and historic "Brady's 
Leap" in Ohio, after having been captured by 
the Indians. 

Samuel Preston Brady was born in the year 
1809, and was reared and educated in the east, 
having been a youth of about nineteen years 
at the time of his father's taking up his resi- 
dence in Detroit. He early began to accompany 
his father on his campaigns, and developed 
self-reliance, valor and military skill. In 1832 
he was made post sutler at old Fort Dearborn, 
Chicago, but he soon returned to Detroit. In 
1849 he was one of the argonauts to California, 
where he remained for a time. Upon his re- 
turn to Detroit he engaged in the general mer- 
chandise business, in which he continued for a 
number of years, after which he was in the 
wholesale grocery trade. He died at Cologne, 
Germany, in 1868, while traveling for the ben- 
efit of his health and his wife survived him 
by thirty years, her death occurring in Detroit, 
in 1889. They became the parents of seven 
sons and six daughters, of whom seven at- 
tained to years of maturity, and of whom only 
three are now living, — George A. and Pres- 
ton, of Detroit, and Samuel, who is now en- 
gaged in mining operations in the Lake Supe- 
rior district. Samuel P. Brady was one of 
Detroit's honored citizens and successful busi- 
ness men, and he well upheld the prestige of 
the family name. 

Preston Brady, the immediate subject of this 
sketch, was reared to maturity in Detroit, of 
the advantages of whose public schools he duly 
availed himself. At the age of nineteen years 
he became identified with his father's business 
operations, and he has since continued almost 
without interruption a member of the business 
community of his native city, which has ever 
represented his home. At the present time he 
is engaged in the roofing business, being one 
of the leading contractors in this line in the 



384 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



city and controlling a large and important 
enterprise. 

Mr. Brady is aligned as a stalwart supporter 
of the cause of the Democracy, though he has 
never had aught of desire to enter the political 
arena or to present himself as a candidate 
for public office. He is identified with the 
Detroit Club and other social and fraternal 
organizations, and he and his wife are com- 
municants of the Protestant Episcopal church. 

In 1868 Mr. Brady was united in marriage 
to Miss Emily Medberry, who was born in 
Michigan, and who died in 1884, leaving no 
children. In 1889 Mr. Brady wedded Miss 
Margaret Radcliff, born in the state of New 
York, and they have one son, George Preston 
Brady, who is now attending school at St. 
Catherine's, Ontario. 



CHARLES DU CHARME. 

By very name itself Detroit pays a tribute of 
honor to its early French settlers, and of the 
old-time lines there yet remain many worthy 
representatives, while there must ever be held 
as due a debt of gratitude to those who have 
wrought nobly in the past and have left a 
heritage of worthy lives and worthy deeds, 
their names being part and parcel of the fair 
"City of the Straits." Here are found at the 
present time, representative of the best citizen- 
ship and of definite power in the industrial and 
commercial world, those who trace their gene- 
alogy through long lines of French ancestry, 
and among these in the generation preceding 
was the late Charles Du Charme, who left a 
distinctive and permanent impress upon civic 
and industrial history of Detroit, — his efforts 
and labors have cumulative value in the city of 
to-day, the "Greater Detroit." He was of 
Canadian birth but was of the same fine French 
stock which has been so long and prominently 
identified with the annals of the Michigan me- 
tropolis. His career was the positive expres- 
sion of a strong nature, and in both its sub- 
jective and objective phases constitutes a heri- 
tage and credit to the city with whose upbuild- 
ing he was so closely concerned. 



Few, if any, of his contemporaries in De- 
troit occupied a more commanding position or 
were more actively interested in those enter- 
prises which made possible the early develop- 
ment of the city along commercial lines, than 
Charles Du Charme. French-Canadian, he was 
born at Berthier-en-Haut, near the city of 
Montreal, Quebec, on the 15th of May, 1818. 
His father was a farmer by vocation and his 
ancestors for several generations had been al- 
lied with agricultural pursuits in that section 
of the Dominion of Canada, whither the origi- 
nal American representatives of the name im- 
migrated from France about 1665, and thus 
through heredity and personal training there 
was little to incite in the subject of this me- 
moir a predilection or taste for commercial life. 
He was afforded the somewhat meager advan- 
tages of the local schools and continued to as- 
sist in the work of the home farm until he had 
attained to the age of fifteen years, when he 
began the battle of life on his own responsi- 
bility, going to the city of Montreal, where he 
secured a clerkship in a hardware store. He 
remained thus engaged for a period of four 
years, during which he gained a thorough 
knowledge of the details of the business and 
gave distinctive evidence of the fact that his 
individuality was such as to override the in- 
fluences of earlier training, as he showed from 
the start an acute practical ability. 

In 1837, the year which marked the admis- 
sion of Michigan to the Union, he came to this 
state and located at Jonesville, which was then 
a town of no little relative commercial impor- 
tance. There he secured a clerical position in a 
mercantile establishment, but he suffered so 
severely from the prevailing "fever and ague," 
a malady picturesquely in evidence in the lo- 
cality and period, that he soon decided to leave 
the section which had caused him so much 
physical agitation, and within the same year 
he came to Detroit, where he passed the residue 
of his long and signally useful life. Here he 
entered the employ of A. H. Newbould, a lead- 
ing hardware merchant, with whom he con- 
tinued to be associated in a clerical capacity 
until 1849, when he formed a partnership al- 
liance with A. M. Bartholomew and engaged 




(^^c^^ 'Z^^, 



;iy>V-^^' 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



385 



in the same line of enterprise, under the firm 
title of Du Charme & Bartholomew. This as- 
sociation continued until 1855, when the late 
Christian H. Buhl purchased the interest of 
Mr. Bartholomew, whereupon the name of the 
firm was changed to Buhl & Du Charme. The 
new firm also purchased the business of Mr. 
Newbould, and the establishment of the con- 
cern was located on Woodward avenue, near 
Atwater street, until 1872, when the business 
was removed to more commodious quarters, on 
Woodbridge street west. There the firm con- 
tinued in business until the death of Mr. Du 
Charme, January 9, 1873. He had in the 
meanwhile gained prestige as one of the most 
alert and progressive business men in Detroit 
and his firm controlled a large and representa- 
tive wholesale trade. 

In the fall of 1871 Mr. Du Charme asscn 
ciated himself with Jeremiah Dwyer, Merrill 
I. Mills and Richard R. Long, and organized 
and incorporated The Michigan Stove Com- 
pany, on December 19th of that year, of which 
Mr. Du Charme became president, retaining 
this office until his death, which occurred on 
the 9th of January, 1873. Mr. George H. 
Barbour associated himself with the company 
June 29, 1872. Mr. Du Charme was thus one 
of the founders and the original executive head 
of a concern which has grown to be the great- 
est of the sort in the world, and his wise ad- 
ministrative policy had great influence in the 
formative period of this magnificent industry 
and in the upbuilding of the same even after 
he had passed from the scene of life's endeav- 
ors. For thirty-six years he was a potential 
and active factor in the commercial life of De- 
troit, where his interests were wide and varied, 
his business enterprises being among the largest 
and most successful in the city, and the large 
fortune which he amassed constituted a fitting 
return for his untiring energy, as well as a 
tribute to his business acumen and his abiding 
faith in his home city. Remarkable executive 
ability, capacity for organization, accurate m- 
tuitive judgment of the capacity and adapta- 
tion of men for places,— these were the quali- 
ties of his many-sided and symmetrical char- 
acter. He had high civic ideals and did all in 



his power to enhance the material and moral 
welfare of his home city and to promote good 
government in all its branches. 

Mr. Du Charme was a man of engaging per- 
sonality, leal and loyal in his friendships, which 
were many and representative. He was gener- 
ous to a fault but still was practical and dis- 
criminating in his rendering of assistance. He 
was a firm believer in pushing young men to 
the front and helped many such to start in busi- 
ness for themselves, — an attitude too seldom 
maintained by men of affairs at the present 
day. His charities and benevolences were 
numerous but unpublished to the world, being 
known chiefly to the recipients. 

Aside from his connection with the enter- 
prises of which mention has already been 
made, Mr. Du Charme was a director of the 
First' National Bank, the People's Savings 
Bank and the Detroit Fire & Marine Insur- 
ance Company ; was also a member of the K. C. 
Barker & Company, tobacco manufacturers, 
and had capitalistic interest in various other 
concerns of somewhat less importance. In his 
political adherency he was a Republican. 

On the loth of August, 1853, was solemn- 
ized the marriage of Charles Du Charme to 
Miss Elsie Elizabeth Bartholomew, daughter 
of Albert M. Bartholomew, his former business 
associate. She was bom in Montgomery, New 
York, May i, 1830, and survived her honored 
husband by many years. She died in Detroit, 
January 14, 1892, and the memory of her gra- 
cious and gentle personality remains as a bene- 
diction to all who came within the sphere of 
her influence. Mrs. Du Charme was a direct 
descendant from William Bartholomew, who 
was bom in Burford, England, in 1602 or 
1603; and who arrived in Boston, Massachu- 
setts,' September 18, 1634, in the ship "Grif- 
fin" ; he was made a freeman at Boston withm 
the year of his arrival in America and died at 
Charlestown, Massachusetts, January 18, 1680. 
Lieutenant William Bartholomew, a son of this 
worthy ancestor, served in King Phillip's war, 
having been made ensign at New Roxbury, 
now Woodstock, Connecticut, in 1689, and 
having been made lieutenant in 1691. Lieuten- 
ant Bartholomew was bora at Ipswich, Massa- 



386 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



chusetts, in 1640, and died in 1697. On the 
17th of December, 1663, he was united in mar- 
riage to Mary Johnson, daughter of Captain 
Isaac and EHzabeth (Porter) Johnson, the 
former of whom was killed in the Narragan- 
sett Fort fight, December 19, 1675. Martin 
Bartholomew, Mrs. Du Charme's grandfather, 
married, on November i, 1804, Sarah Noble, 
daughter of Rev. Seth Noble, who was a loyal 
soldier in the Continental line in the war of the 
Revolution. Albert Martin Bartholomew, 
father of Mrs. Du Charme, was born in Mont- 
gomery, Massachusetts, February 6, 1805, and 
his death occurred in Detroit, Michigan, March 
II, 1884. 

Mr. and Mrs. Du Charme are survived by 
four sons, — Charles A., George A., Frederick 
T. and William H. 



THOMAS LINN. 

The reminiscences of the pioneer are ever 
instructive and diverting, for the past bears its 
lesson and incentive, whether considered in the 
remote cycles of time or from the standpoint 
of those of the present day but venerable in 
years. In a relative way Detroit is an old city^ 
and few in the east excell it in historic interest 
and picturesque charm of annals. In view 
of its present status does it seem possible that 
within its environs there yet live those who well 
recall the primitive period when Grand Circus 
park was surrounded by a board fence, when 
cows, pigs and Canadian ponies ran at liberty 
about the streets, when pavements were prac- 
tically unknown, and when sidewalks were 
such as to scarce deserve the name? To the 
little city of not more than seven thousand pop- 
ulation the venerable and honored pioneer 
whose name initiates this sketch can revert 
from personal memory and association, and 
during all the long intervening years he has 
maintained his home in Detroit, to whose mate- 
rial and social development he has contributed 
his full quota. The reminiscences of such men 
merit an enduring place in the history of the 
city and the state. 

Thomas Linn, one of the pioneer merchants 
of Detroit, where he is now living retired, after 



years of earnest and fruitful endeavor, is a I 
true Scotsman in the generous attributes of ) 
character which have ever denoted the man. { 
He was born near the city of Glasgow, Scot- 
land, May 24, 1826, and is a son of William 
and Jean (Ralston) Linn, both of whom were ' 
born and reared in the venerable city of Glas- : 
gow. In his native land the father followed ' 
the trade of weaver until 1842, when he came 
to the United States, in company with his wife ] 
and their three sons and two daughters. Of 
the children those living at the present time are 
the subject of this sketch and Janette, now Mrs. 
Charles A. Lorman, of Detroit. Concerning 
the arrival of the family in Detroit no better 
description can be given, perhaps, than that de- 
rived from a personal interview with Mr. Linn, 
published in a comparatively recent issue of 
the Detroit News : 

"It was three o'clock in the morning of a 
beautiful July Sunday that a packet, the 'Ben 
Franklin,' touched at the foot of Brush street 
with a company of Scotch people aboard. Those 
who met that packet were men whose names 
were to become identified with the making 
of Detroit, — the Linns, Colin Campbell, An- 
drew Wilkie, John Moore, and the Barclays. 
But they did not intend to stay in Detroit at 
all. The company was bound for Chicago 
(Illinois they called all the western part then), 
and expected to go there on the 'Ben Frank- 
lin.' But the master of the packet was un- 
able to get enough passengers to make the 
trip profitable. All this, however, was not 
known to young Thomas Linn and Colin 
Campbell as they started out at three o'clock 
in the morning to survey the town of De- 
troit. They walked about a little in the dawn 
and then returned to find the master of the 
packet saying he would not go farther, and 
to find the Scotch company determined on sail- 
ing to Illinois. But the news spread through 
Detroit— think of that— that a number of 
Scotch people were on the wharf at the foot 
of Brush street, and all the Scotch residents 
of the town, and they were not a few, gathered 
around the company and entreated them to 
stay. By nine o'clock that Sunday morning 
houses had been found by the Scotch resi- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



387 



dents for the newcomers, and the Linns were 
settled in a hired house in Catherine street, 
then far away in the outskirts of Detroit. One 
of the traits of the Scotsman, and one not in 
the least offensive, is clannishness, and when 
each of these Scotch families found another 
from the same place in Scotland, Detroit took 
on a homelike aspect to them." 

The father of the subject of this sketch en- 
gaged in the work of his trade, which he found 
a source of modest income, and he also de- 
veloped a considerable business in the way of 
gardening. Both he and his devoted wife con- 
tinued to reside in Detroit until they were 
called to that "undiscovered country from 
whose bourne no traveler returns." They were 
folk of sterling worth and their names merit 
a place of honor on the roll of Detroit pioneers 
of the early '40s. Thomas Linn had received 
good educational advantages in his native land 
and was seventeen years of age at the time 
of the family immigration to America. His 
first employment in Detroit was in the old-time 
brewery of Richard Hawley, on Bates street. 
In May, 1843, Colin Campbell previously men- 
tioned, entered into partnership with a High- 
lander named James Jack, and founded what 
was known as the Scotch Store, on Jefferson 
avenue. This was one of the old landmarks of 
the city, and the establishment was the first 
here to utilize the system of charging one price 
for the same article, no matter who was the 
purchaser, showing the intrinsic honesty and 
"squareness" of the true Scotch type. The 
firm handled general merchandise and also lum- 
ber and shingles, and much of their business 
was done by exchange for produce. Mr. Linn 
entered the employ of this firm as a clerk, hav- 
ing previously had some little experience as 
clerk in a grocery store in Scotland. At the 
expiration of four years the firm of Camp- 
bell & Jack was dissolved, and in the mean- 
while a branch had been established at Ann 
Arbor, Mr. Campbell assuming personal charge 
of the same and Mr. Linn going with him. 
When the partnership was dissolved Mr. Camp- 
bell came to Detroit, to which he shipped his 
Ann Arbor stock, changing his headquarters 
to a building at the corner of Woodard ave- 



nue and Congress street, but soon returning 
to Jefferson avenue, which was then the retail 
center. The enterprise was continued at the 
corner of Jefferson and Woodward avenues 
for nearly twenty years, and the house be- 
came one of the most prominent mercantile 
concerns of its day. 

In 1853 Mr. Linn was admitted to partner- 
ship, and the firm of Campbell & Linn held 
the highest reputation for fair and honorable 
dealing and for enterprising methods, build- 
ing up a large and representative trade and 
finally removing to the present site of the 
Richmond & Backus establishment, at the cor- 
ner of Woodward avenue and Congress street, 
where operations were continued for many 
years. After retiring from this business Mr. 
Linn entered the employ of Newcomb & Endi- 
cott, with which extensive and representative 
concern he remained until 1902, when he re- 
tired from all active business associations, after 
nearly sixty years of consecutive and intimate 
connection with the mercantile life of Detroit. 
At the time of his thus severing his long asso- 
ciation with Newcomb, Endicott & Company, 
the firm presented him with a fine gold watch 
and fob, and the employes of the concern were 
the donors of a generous leather easy chair 
and a gold-headed cane. For forty years he 
occupied the house at 38 Adams avenue west, 
one of the few old landmarks of that beautiful 
section of the city. This property, facing Grand 
Circus park, he sold in May, 1907, hallowed 
though it was by the gracious memories and 
associations of the past, to give way to com- 
mercial progress. A modern business build- 
ing is to be erected on the site. 

Reverting to the interview from which ex- 
tract has already been made, the following in- 
teresting reminiscences are drawn : 

"Yes, the park across the street (Grand 
Circus) was fenced in those days," said Mr. 
Linn. "You see, the pigs and cows strolled 
down the street and there were droves of 
French ponies that used to come down from 
the farms at Grosse Pointe and they overran 
everything. In the spring the mud was pretty 
deep, and many an ox team was moored in 
for hours. I remember the old Pontiac road, 



388 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



and how they used to pull the cars into the 
depot with horses. There was a little grocery 
where the store of Wright, Kay & Company 
now is. General John R. Williams had two 
streets named after him, — one was the present 
John R. and the other was Williams street, 
now Witherell. Speaking about taverns, the 
Cottage tavern used to be a long, low little 
place — you could touch the ceilings with your 
hands — on Woodward avenue between Larned 
street and Jefferson avenue, and there most of 
the leading men of the town had their gather- 
ings. On the west side of Washington avenue 
from Grand River avenue to this place there 
were no houses ; that place used to be a chicken 
farm that supplied the Cottage tavern with 
fowl. 

"And the walks in those days, why, young 
man, ye wudna know them now. In some 
places on Woodward avenue there were two 
planks laid lengthwise, and in most places only 
one plank, and when you stepped on one end 
of them you didn't know whether you were 
going to trip a body at the other end or not. 
* * * Why, in those days it required only 
two men to run the gas company. They had a 
place smaller than a dye-shop for their busi- 
ness, and Mr. Hanford and Peter Demill ran 
the whole outfit. Of course, this is all changed 
now. I have kept pace with Detroit until a 
year ago, when my heart troubled me a little, 
and I had to give up going to church, too, 
but I am coming around again and I expect to 
get out to church soon." 

Mr. Linn joined the Disciples of Christ in 
1843, long before a church building was in 
prospect. The few Disciples met in Thomas 
Hawley's house, and afterward they worshiped 
in the old church, now Henkel's livery stable, 
on Jefferson avenue, soon to be occupied by the 
temple of the Knights of Columbus. 

Naturally, Mr. Linn was loth to leave his 
home — very loth. Forty years in the same 
rooms attaches one to them. Their associa- 
tions are precious. The house that once had 
a park of trees in front of it and wooded 
fields behind it, the cool air of the river bath- 
ing it every evening and the dawn of the morn- 
ing unobscured by high buildings, now sits like 



a pigmy among architectural giants, but it | 
was still home to the grey-haired patriarch who 
is spending his declining years with his wife, 
his son, his books and his memories. 

On the 22d of July, 1868, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Linn to Miss Annie Stan- 
bery, who was born in the city of New York. 
Mr. and Mrs Linn have one son. Dr. Robert 
S. Linn, who is one of the representative phy- 
sicians and surgeons of Detroit, where his life 
thus far has been passed. 



HENRY M. CAMPBELL. 

This representative member of the Detroit bar 
has been distinctively successful in the exacting 
profession which his distinguished father, the 
late Judge James V. Campbell so signally dig- 
nified and honored, both as a legist and jurist, 
having been one of the first judges of the 
supreme court of the state after its reorganiza- 
tion in 1857, and having served on the bench 
of this highest tribunal of the commonwealth 
for many years, besides holding precedence in 
other lines germane to his profession. A trib- 
ute to the memory of Judge Campbell appears 
on other pages of this Work, and to the same 
reference may be made for data concerning the 
family history as well. 

Henry Munroe Campbell was born in the 
city of Detroit, on the i8th of April, 1854, 
and after duly availing himself of the advan- 
tages of the public schools he was matriculated, 
in 1872, in the literary department of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, in which he was grad- 
uated as a member of the Centennial class, — 
that of 1876, — receiving the degree of a Bach- 
elor of Philosophy. The opening of the fol- 
lowing collegiate year witnessed his enroll- 
ment as a student in the law department of 
the same institution, and he completed the 
prescribed course with honors, being graduated 
in 1878 and receiving from his alma mater the 
further degree of Bachelor of Laws. Prior 
to his graduation he had passed the requisite 
examination and had gained admission to the 
bar of the state, — in 1878. 

Soon after leaving the university Mr. Camp- 
bell initiated the active practice of his pro- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



389 



fession in Detroit, where he formed a partner- 
ship with Henry Russel, under the firm title 
of Russel & Campbell, and this association 
has since been maintained. In 1882 Charles 
H. Campbell, who is a younger brother of the 
subject of this sketch, likewise became a mem- 
ber of the firm, with which he is still allied; 
of him individual mention is made in this work. 
Henry M. Campbell is a lawyer of broad and 
comprehensive knowledge of the science of 
jurisprudence and is strong in the presentation 
of causes before court or jury, but he has 
given his attention more specifically to corpora- 
tion law, in which branch of his profession he 
is a recognized authority and in which his serv- 
ices have been retained by many of the most 
important corporations in Detroit, as well as by 
others not of local order. In politics he is 
arrayed as a staunch advocate of the principles 
of the Republican party, but he has never en- 
tered the arena of practical politics, nor has 
he sought or desired public office, realizing 
that the law is a jealous mistress and demands 
of her votaries an unqualified allegiance and 
devotion. He is identified with various pro- 
fessional, fraternal and social organizations and 
is a devout communicant of the Protestant 
Episcopal church, being a member of the vestry 
of the parish of Christ church. 

On the 22d of November, 1881, Mr. Camp- 
bell was united in marriage to Miss Caroline 
Burtenshaw, daughter of the late James Burt- 
enshaw, of Detroit, and they have two children, 

Henry M., Jr., who was bom in 1885, and 

Douglas, who was born in 1888. 

EDWARD H. BUTLER. 

As president of the Detroit Fire & Marine 
Insurance Company, one of the oldest and 
most solid institutions of the order in the 
state, Mr. Butler is to be classed among the 
representative business men of his native city, 
but farther than this his claims to distinction 
are fortified by wide capitalistic interests aside 
from his connection with the company men- 
tioned. He is the eldest of three sons of that 
honored pioneer and prominent banker, the 
late William A. Butler, a tribute to whose 



memory appears within the pages of this 
publication. 

Edward H. Butler was born in Detroit, on 
the 4th of August, 1 84 1, and here he has 
passed his entire life. After duly availing 
himself of the advantages of the city schools 
he was matriculated in the University of Mich- 
igan, in 1857, there continuing his studies 
for some time but not to the point of grad- 
uation. In i860 he entered his father's bank in 
the capacity of messenger boy and he rose 
through each succeeding grade of promotion 
until he became president of the institution, 
then known as the Mechanics' Bank, upon the 
death of his father. His total term of asso- 
ciation with the bank covered the long period 
of forty-two years, and for the last decade 
he served as president, retaining this office 
until the business of the institution was closed 
out. His standing in local financial circles is 
attested by the fact that for ten years he 
served as chairman of the Detroit Clearing 
House Association, and that for fifteen years 
he was a member of the clearing-house com- 
mittee. He is now vice-president of the De- 
troit Trust Company, one of the splendid finan- 
cial institutions of the city, and he is a large 
owner of local realty, besides having other 
capitalistic investments of important nature. 
Since 1891 he has served as a trustee and the 
treasurer of the Elmwood Cemetery Vssocia- 
tion, of which his father was long the president. 
Mr. Butler is an ardent advocate of the 
principles and policies of the Republican party 
and has done effective work in forwarding 
the party cause in his native state. In 1880 
he was a presidential elector and from 1883 
to 1886 he was incumbent of the office of 
state treasurer, giving a most able and popular 
administration of the fiscal affairs of the com- 
monwealth. He holds membership in the De- 
troit Club, the Country Club, and other social 
or fraternal organizations, and enjoys distinc- 
tive popularity in both business and social 
circles. He is the fourth to be called to the 
presidency of the Detroit Fire & Marine In- 
surance Company, having been eltcted to this 
office in October, 1906. 



390 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



PRANK G. RYAN. 

As showing the power of concentrating dis- 
tinctive technical and business energies and 
through this medium gaining concrete results 
of worth and magnitude, the career of Frank 
G. Ryan is specially worthy of study and 
consideration. A merited recognition of his 
splendid executive and scientific ability came 
in his election to the office of president of 
the corporation of Parke, Davis & Company, 
of Detroit, in April, 1907. He thus stands 
as the administrative head of the greatest con- 
cern of its kind in the world, and his firm 
grasp at the helm demonstrates the wisdom 
of having chosen him to the responsible and 
exacting office of which he is incumbent. It 
may be stated, incidentally, that in another 
department of this publication is given a brief 
review of the history of the company of 
which he is president. 

Mr. Ryan is a native of the old Empire 
state of the Union, having been born at Marcel- 
lus Falls, Onondaga county. New York, on 
the 26th of December, 1861, and being a son 
of Francis A. and Sarah Amanda Ryan, 
both natives of the United States His 
father was a paper manufacturer by vocation 
and was a man of sterling integrity and no 
inconsiderable business ability. When Frank 
G. Ryan was a child his parents removed to 
Elmira, New York, to whose public schools 
he is indebted for his earlier educational dis- 
cipline. After leaving school he was employed 
for three years in the well equipped pharmacy 
of Brown & Dawson, of Syracuse, New York, 
and in 1882 he was matriculated in the Phila- 
delphia College of Pharmacy, in which he com- 
pleted the prescribed course. He was grad- 
uated as a member of the class of 1884, 
when twenty-three years of age, and received 
his degree of Graduate in Pharmacy. For a 
period of about three years after his gradua- 
tion Mr. Ryan was connected with various drug 
establishments in Philadelphia, and he then be*^ 
came assistant professor of pharmacy in his 
alma mater, the Philadelphia College of Phar- 



macy. In 1898 this institution gave him charge 
of the newly established department of com- 
mercial training, and in the meanwhile he had 
received further recognition, in his appoint- 
ment as lecturer on pharmacy in the Woman's 
Medical College of Philadelphia. In June, 
1900, he resigned all his connections in Phil- 
adelphia and came to Detroit, for the purpose 
of identifying himself with the great phar- 
maceutical manufacturing house of Parke, 
Davis & Company. In the spring of the year 
mentioned he became chief pharmacist for 
Parke, Davis & Company, and it will be recog- 
nized that in itself this position was one of 
great importance, both technically and in a 
business way. His equipment was more than 
adequate, however, for all the duties devolving 
upon him, and that he was not denied recog- 
nition needs no farther voucher than that of- 
fered in the fact that within the brief interval 
of about seven years he was advanced to the 
presidency of the concern. At the expiration 
of the first three years of his connection with 
Parke, Davis & Company, Mr. Ryan was 
elected a member of its board of directors, and 
eighteen months later he was made secretary 
of the company. Six months elapsed, and he 
was then called to the vice-presidency of the 
company, and it was but one year later that 
he was elected to succeed the late and honored 
Theodore D. Buhl as president of the corpora- 
tion, to the furtherance of whose interests he 
had previously given his best thought and 
energies, as has he since continued to do. The 
position of which he is in tenure has consis- 
tently been designated as "the greatest and 
most responsible position yet created in the 
drug trade of the country." Mr. Ryan is 
known as a man of distinctive initiative and 
of progressive ideas, and his possession of 
these qualities has brought to him the high 
prestige he enjoys as one of the representative 
business men, not only of Detroit, but of the 
nation. He is liberal and public-spirited, tol- 
erant and kindly in his judgment, and wins 
and retains strong friendships, bespeaking the 
subjective loyalty which is his. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



391 



From the Bulletin of Pharmacy of May, 
1907, are taken the following pertinent and 
timely extracts : "The secret of a man's suc- 
cess is never easily analyzed, but it may be 
said of Frank G. Ryan that he represents that 
rare, that ideal combination of technical 
knowledge and experience on the one hand, 
and business grasp and executive ability on the 
other. These qualities are all but incompatible, 
and he who unites them successfully has dis- 
covered a philosopher's stone. As president 
of Parke, Davis & Company Mr. Ryan will 
be capable of understanding thoroughly every 
scientific detail of the vast business now con- 
fided to his care, and he will also exhibit that 
larger vision and that greater capacity for ad- 
ministration which shall carry the house for- 
ward to conquests even more brilliant than those 
which have been registered in the past. Mr. 
Ryan, accompanied by his daughter Helen, 
had returned from a seven months' trip around 
the world only a week or two before his elec- 
tion to the presidency. His main object was 
to further the interests of his house in Japan, 
China, and India, but he also visited Manila, 
Ceylon, Egypt, Paris and London. In Manila 
an agency was established, which adds another 
to the considerable list of foreign branches 
now conducted by the house." 

On December 26th, 1888, Mr. Ryan was 
married to Minnie Louise Conway, of Phila- 
delphia, Mrs. Ryan dying in Detroit, June 
25th, 1906. 

Mr. Ryan is a member of the Detroit Club, 
of which he was elected president in January, 
1908, of the Country Club, the Detroit Boat 
Club, the Witenagemote, and the New York 
Drug and Chemical Club. 



HENRY RUSSEL. 

Henry Russel was born in Detroit, May 16, 
1852. He is a son of the late Dr. George B. 
Russel, one of the most distinguished physi- 
cians and well known and enterprising citizens 
of his time. His early education was in the 
public schools, and after fitting for college in 



Philo M. Patterson's classical and mathemati- 
cal school, he entered the University of Mich- 
igan, graduating in 1873, with the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts, and from the law depart- 
ment of the same imiversity in 1875, with the 
degree of Bachelor of Laws. The degree of 
Master of Arts was subsequently conferred 
upon him. His college career, foreshadowing 
his later success in life, was brilliant and won 
honorable recognition from the faculty and his 
fellow students. 

Upon leaving college, he studied law in the 
office of Alfred Russell, then a leading prac- 
titioner at the bar, and in 1875 was admitted 
to practice. In 1877 he was appointed assistant 
attorney of the Michigan Central Railroad 
Company, under the late George V. N. Loth- 
rop, who was then its general counsel, and 
James F. Joy, the former president, and began 
his long association with Henry B. Ledyard, 
for many years president of that company. Mr. 
Russel's connection with the company has con- 
tinued ever since, and he is now the general 
counsel. He has become widely known in rail- 
road and professional circles, and is considered 
an authority and a wise and able legal adviser. 
In 1878 the firm of Russel & Campbell was 
organized, then consisting of Henry Russel 
and Henry M. Campbell, and both have con- 
tinued with this firm to the present day, the 
name now being Russel, Campbell, Bulkley 
& Ledyard. 

June 3, 1880, he was married to Miss Helen 
H. Muir, daughter of William K. Muir. They 
have had five children : Christine M., now 
Mrs. Allen F. Edwards ; Anne Davenport, now 
Mrs. James Thayer McMillan; Helen; John 
Farrand; and William Muir, — all of whom, 
except John, are now living. 

Mrs. Russel died on the 23d of November, 
1908. She was born in Detroit, June 29, 
1858. She was always active in church and 
charitable work, was a member of the Jeffer- 
son Avenue Presbyterian church and for many 
years served as president of the Pastor's Aid 
society of the church. She was a member of 
the executive board of the Thompson Home 



392 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



for old ladies, of the Woman's Exchange, and 
was connected with other charitable work. 

In addition to his legal attainments, Mr. 
Russel is possessed of great business ability, 
and, in consequence, has large interests. Out- 
side of his professional practice he is director 
of many banking, railroad, manufacturing and 
land companies, and is president of several of 
them. 

He has projected and effected the construc- 
tion of a number of important railroads and 
manufacturing institutions, and, foreseeing the 
growth and prospects of his native city, has 
also become largely interested in suburban real 
estate; he has done much for the development 
of the city and of the territory immediately 
surrounding it. He was the pioneer in the 
reclamation and improvement of the outlying 
marsh lands in the important River Rouge 
district. 

Mr. Russel is a forceful man of wide culture 
and fine literary taste, and, notwithstanding 
his busy life, has found time to cultivate and 
maintain an intimate acquaintance with the 
best of classical and current literature. He is 
a Democrat, and a member and liberal sup- 
porter of the Presbyterian church. 

His public spirit, genial disposition and rare 
humor have attracted to him many friends, and 
he is greatly in demand as an after-dinner 
speaker and orator upon social and public oc- 
casions. He is interested in outdoor sports, 
particularly golf and fishing, and is a member 
of the Detroit Club, Country Club, Detroit 
Golf Club, University Club and Fontinalis 
Club; also of the American, Michigan and 
Detroit Bar Associations. 



ALEXANDER McPHERSON. 

A member of one of the honored pioneer 
families of Michigan, Alexander McPherson 
has well maintained the prestige of the name 
through his leal and loyal services as a citizen 
and a man of large business affairs. He is one 
of the representative factors in the financial 
circles of Detroit, as is evident from the fact 
that he is at the present time president of the 



" Old Detroit National Bank, one of the most 
solid and popular of the great financial institu- 
tions of a city and state noted for conservative 
banking. He has held the presidency of the 
bank from the time of its receiving charter 
under the present title, in November, 1902, and 
prior to this had served from 1891 as president 
of its immediate predecessor, the Detroit Na- 
tional Bank. He has other large capitalistic in- 
terests in the city and state and is a man whose 
integrity and resourcefulness have been potent 
in the progress of the commonwealth of Michi- 
gan. 

Mr. McPherson is a native of the stanch 
old land of hills and heather, having been born 
in the village of Aberchirder, county of Banff, 
Scotland, on the 7th of June, 1836, and having 
been third in order of birth of the eight chil- 
dren of William and EHzabeth (Riddle) Mc- 
Pherson. Of William McPherson it has been 
written that he "is remembered and described 
in the pioneer annals of Michigan as a striking, 
rugged and thoroughly manly figure who came 
in the early days and gave the best part of his 
life to the upbuilding, advancement and better- 
ment of the community in which he long held 
a commanding place." William McPherson 
was born at Davoit, Scotland, on the i6th of 
January, 1804, and died at Howell, Livingston 
county, Michigan, March 16, 189 1. He was 
reared and educated in his native land, where 
he remained until 1836, when he emigrated to 
America, with his family. On September 17th 
of the year mentioned he arrived at what was 
then known as Livingston Center, Michigan, a 
little forest hamlet at that time the principal 
settlement in Livingston county. Here he built 
for himself a log house, second dwelling to be 
erected on the site of the present attractive lit- 
tle city of Howell, where he maintained his 
home during the remainder of his long and 
signally useful life. He thus became a resident 
of Michigan in the year preceding its admission 
to statehood, and at Livingston Center he en- 
gaged in work at the blacksmith trade, which 
he had learned in Scotland. In 1841 he took a 
half interest in a small general store, and later 
was for many years engaged in the mercantile 
business in an individual way. He was the 





t/A^l^O^ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



393 



founder of the large general store which has 
been conducted under the family name for 
more than half a century. His intelligence, in- 
tegrity and capacity for work brought success 
to his own business and made his services and 
influence desirable in matters concerning the 
general welfare of the community. Upon the 
organization of the Detroit & Howell Railroad 
Company, in 1864, he was elected member of 
its board of directors and also its treasurer. It 
was primarily due to his unremitting and well 
directed efforts that the funds were raised to 
complete the railroad between Howell and De- 
troit, — a consummation that proved of incal- 
culable benefit to all sections contiguous to the 
road. The line is now an integral part of the 
Pere Marquette system. William McPherson 
was essentially public-spirited but was never 
active in the arena of practical politics though 
he gave his allegiance to the Republican party 
from the time of its organization until his 
death. His marriage to Elizabeth Riddle, a na- 
tive of Scotland, was solemnized in his native 
land April 17th, 1831, and she accompanied 
him on his emigration to the wilds of pioneer 
Michigan, where her devotion and gentle wo- 
manliness continued to fill a large part of her 
husband's life during the long intervening 
years. Mrs. McPherson was summoned to the 
life eternal September 7th, 1874. This worthy 
pioneer couple became the parents of four sons 
and four daughters, concerning whom the fol- 
lowing brief data are consistently entered in 
this sketch : William, Jr., is engaged in banking 
at Howell, Michigan, and was formerly state 
railroad commissioner of Michigan during Gen. 
R. A. Alger's term of governorship; Alexan- 
der is the immediate subject of this review; 
Martin J. and Edward G. are engaged in the 
mercantile business in Howell, continuing the 
enterprise founded by their honored father in 
the year 1843; Isabella became the wife of 
Henry H. Mills, of Kalamazoo County, Michi- 
gan ; Elizabeth became the wife of Edward 
P. Gregory, of Howell, Michigan; Mary L. 
became the wife of Henry T. Browning, of 
Howell, Michigan; and Ella became the 
wife of Frederick A. Smith, of Howell, 
Michigan. The parents were devout 



members of the Presbyterian church and 
were active in its work. They participated in 
the organization of this church when it was 
founded, June 16, 1838, becoming two of its 
charter members. Alexander McPherson was 
but 2^ months old at the time when his par- 
ents severed the ties which bound them to 
their native land and set forth to establish a 
new home in Michigan. He was thus reared 
under conditions and environments which 
marked the pioneer epoch in this state, and his 
early educational advantages were those af- 
forded in the common school of the little vil- 
lage of Livingston Center, as Howell was then 
known. As a boy he began to assist in the 
work of his father's store, and he early mani- 
fested that prescience and business acumen that 
have so greatly conserved his success as a man 
of affairs. Of him it has well been said that 
"he has proven to be a worthy representative 
of Scotch manliness and has exhibited the sal- 
ient traits and tendencies of the virile race 
through which his ancestry is traced." He con- 
tinued to be identified with various business in- 
terests in Howell until 1865, when he further 
expanded his local influence and connections by 
becoming the executive head of the private 
banking firm of Alexander McPherson & Com- 
pany. This well known Howell institution has 
held a commanding position in its financial 
field during the long intervening years and he 
is still at its head. It is now conducted under 
the title of Alexander McPherson & Company, 
with which it began. That Mr. McPherson 
gained more than loal recognition as a finan- 
cier was shown in the year 1891, when he was 
called from his old home in Howell to assume 
the presidency of the Detroit National Bank, — 
a preferment which came to him as the result 
of the appreciation of his ability as an execu- 
tie and as a man of sound and reliable business 
principals. In the presidency of the Detroit 
Bank he succeeded the late Christian H. Buhl, 
as is indicated in a review of the history of 
the banl<, under the title of the Old Detroit 
National Bank, on other pages of this volume. 
When the charter of the Detroit National Bank 
expired and a reorganization took place under 
the present charter, Mr. McPherson was con- 



394 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



tinued as the president of the Old Detroit 
National Bank, so that his term of service as 
president has been consecutive for the past 
seventeen years. His wise administrative 
policy has greatly enhanced the prestige and 
success of the great institution of which he is 
the head, and in local banking circles his judg- 
ment is recognized as that of an able and sa- 
gacious financier. Mr. McPherson is the 
owner of large tracts of pine land in the upper 
peninsula of Michigan, as well as in Mis- 
sissippi and Louisiana. He has a fine stock 
farm in Livingston county, near his old home, 
and finds much pleasure in maintaining the 
place as a model in its line. The farm is 
equipped with substantial brick buildings and 
is under a high state of cultivation. On this 
fine farm have been bred many high class 
thoroughbred draft and driving horses. 

In politics Mr. McPherson is a loyal ad- 
herent of the Republican party, but public office 
has never had aught of allurement to him and 
he has invariably refused to permit the consid- 
eration of his name in connection with candi- 
dacy for preferment of this order. He and his 
wife are earnest members of the First Presby- 
terian church of Detroit, and he has served as 
one of its trustees since 1894. He is a mem- 
ber of the Detroit Club, the Country Club, the 
Michigan Club, and the St. Clair Shooting & 
Fishing Club. Through these social organiza- 
tions he finds relaxation from the cares of 
business, as does he also in travel and in the 
gracious associations and environments of his 
beautiful home. With a high sense of his per- 
sonal stewardship, he places a true valuation 
upon his fellow men, is tolerant and kindly in 
his judgment and holds the confidence and 
esteem of all who have come within the sphere 
of his influence. The courtesy and benignancy 
of the "old school" are intrinsically his, and 
amid the cares and perplexities of wide and 
important business interests he finds time to ap- 
preciate the higher ideals of life and to be 
humanity's friend in the broad generic sense. 

In September, i860, was solemnized the 
marriage of Mr. McPherson and Miss Julia 
C. Ellsworth, of Greenville, Michigan. She 
was born at Salina, Wisconsin, 1840, and is a 



daughter of Dr. William H. Ellsworth, who 
was one of the honored pioneers of Greenville, 
Montcalm county, Michigan. 



EDWARD W. JENKS, M. D., LL. D, 

One of the most distinguished physicians and 
surgeons who have lent dignity and honor to 
the medical profession in the state of Mich- 
igan, and one whose reputation far transcended 
local limitations, was the late Dr. Edward W. 
Jenks, of Detroit, where he maintained his 
home for many years, and where his name will 
be held in lasting honor. In the general work 
of his profession he attained much of success 
and distinction, as did he also in its educa- 
tional and, more specifically, scientific depart- 
ments, and he brought to his noble calling 
the strength and devotion of a great soul and 
a great mind. The records of such representa- 
tives of the world's workers and benefactors 
should assuredly not be allowed to perish, and 
a publication of this order exercises its supreme 
function when it takes recognition of their 
lives and services. 

The lineage of the Jenks family is traced 
to English origin and staunch Quaker stock. 
A distinguished representative in the direct 
line was one of the early colonial governors 
of Rhode Island, and in the various genera- 
tions have been found men of prominence in 
professional, business and public service. Ed- 
ward W. Jenks was bom at Victor, Ontario 
county, New York, March 31, 1833, and his 
death occurred March 19, 1903, while he was 
en route home from a trip to Mexico, on a 
train of the Wabash Railroad. The Doctor 
was a son of Nathan and Jane (Bushnell) 
Jenks, and the former was a son of Obediah 
and Clarinda (Watrous) Jenks. Nathan 
Jenks was a leading merchant of Victor, New 
York, for many years, and was a man of fine 
intellectuality and sterling character. He be- 
laud in northern Indiana and did much to 
further the development of that section. He 
secured especially large holdings in La Grange 
county, where he founded the village of On- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



395 



tario, and in 1843 ^^ removed with his fam- 
j ily to La Grange, where he passed the residue 
of his long and useful life. He founded and 
I partially endowed the La Grange Collegiate 
'. Institute, which, for many years, was one of 
the leading educational institutions of its class, 
having a high reputation throughout Indiana 
and adjoining states. It was in this well 
■ ordered school that the subject of this memoir 
received his earlier educational discipline, as 
he was about ten years of age at the time of 
the family removal to Indiana. He continued 
his studies under the direction of private tu- 
tors, and finally entered the medical depart- 
ment of New York University, where he 
remained until impaired health compelled his 
relinquishment of his studies. He continued his 
medical studies in Castleton Medical College, 
at Castleton, Vermont, graduating in 1855. 
He returned to his home in La Grange county, 
Indiana, where he entered upon the strenuous 
career of a country doctor. The discipline 
proved most beneficial, however, as he soon 
regained his physical strength. He there con- 
tinued his professional work with much suc- 
cess, and his services were in demand also 
in adjoining counties in Indiana and Michigan. 
After the establishment of Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College, in New York city, he took a 
post-graduate course in that institution, in 
which his former preceptor, the distinguished 
Dr. James R. Wood, was a member of the 
faculty. . From this college he received the 
ad eundem degree in 1864, and in the spring 
of the same year he took up his residence in De- 
troit, Michigan, where he entered into service 
as a contract surgeon for the United . States 
Army, and where he soon built up a large and 
thoroughly representative private practice, — 
the diametrical result of his ability and his en- 
gaging personality. For four years Dr. Jenks 
was one of the most valued editors of the De- 
troit Review of Medicine, of which he was 
one of the founders, and in 1868 he was elected 
to the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women 
of Detroit Medical College, of which he was 
one of the projectors and founders and of 



whose first faculty he was president. He was 
also called to serve in the chair of surgical dis- 
eases of women in the medical department of 
Bowdoin College, Maine, where he lectured in 
the spring months of each year, after the 
close of the season's work in the Detroit col- 
lege just mentioned. He resigned the position 
at Bowdoin College in 1875, owing to other 
exigent demands placed upon his time and 
attention. His life was one of consecutive en- 
deavor and he was always a hard worker, 
through his generous endowment of energy 
into many fields, but, like others, he was com- 
pelled to admit that the wings of even Jove's 
bird sometimes grew weary. Dr. Jenks was 
for many years surgeon in the department de- 
voted to the diseases of women and children 
in both St. Luke's and St. Mary's hospitals 
and was consulting surgeon of the Woman's 
hospital of Detroit. His labors extended even 
farther in this line of professional service, for 
he was one of the attending physicians of 
Harper hospital from the time of its organ- 
ization until his resignation, in 1872. For a 
number of years he was chief surgeon of the 
Michigan Central Railroad, and his profes- 
sional alliances were many and distinguished. 
He was president of the Michigan State Med- 
ical Society in 1873, ^"d was later elected 
an honorary member of the same, after his 
removal to Chicago. He also served as presi- 
dent of the Detroit Academy of Medicine, and 
was an honorary member of the Maine Med- 
ical Association, the Ohio State Medical So- 
ciety, the Toledo Medical Association, the Cin- 
cinnati Obstetrical Society, the Northwestern 
Medical Society of Ohio, besides other sim- 
ilar organizations of minor order. He was a 
corresponding member of the Gynecological 
Society of Boston, a fellow of the Obstetrical 
Society of London, England, and was one 
of the founders and active members of each 
the American Gynecologir al Society and the 
Detroit Medical and Library Association. He 
was a valued adherent of the American Mcfl- 
ical Association, of whose obstetrical section 
he was chairman in 1878. 



396 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



The year 1879 marked the conferring upon 
Dr. Jenks of the honorary degree of Doctor 
of Laws, by Albion College, at Albion, Mich- 
igan, and also the issui./g to him of a call to 
fill the chair of medical and surgical diseases 
of women and clinical gynecology in the Chi- 
cago Medical College, where he succeeded the 
distinguished Dr. W. H. Byford, now de- 
ceased. The removal of Dr. Jenks to Chi- 
cago, in October, 1879, was viewed with 
distinctive regret by his confreres and the 
general public in Detroit, but he felt that he 
was entering upon a wider field of labor, and 
his ambition was ever an inspiration of action. 
He filled most admirably his collegiate chair 
in Chicago, where he also built up a large 
private practice. Failing health caused him 
to resign his position in the college in 1882, 
and in that year he established a private hos- 
pital for the treatment of the diseases of 
women, at Geneva, Illinois, the while continu- 
ing his residence and practice ir Chicago. 
Notwithstanding his great success ae found 
that the tension of his work in Chicago and 
the efifects of its climate were making serious 
inroads on his health, and in 1884 he returned 
to Detroit, where he thereafter continued to 
reside until he was called from the scene of 
earthly endeavors, in the fulness of years and 
well earned honors. 

Dr. Jenks early came to a realization of thf 
value of concentration in his professional work 
and recognized fully that specializing was 
destined to become a most important phase 
of the same. He, therefore, devoted him- 
self with all of fervor and zeal to the specialty 
in which he attained to so great distinction 
and on which his high professional reputation 
largely rests now that he has passed away. 
His special or specific labors, as suggested by 
foregoing statements, were in the field of 
gynecology and obstetrics, and in these lines 
he was a recognized authority, even as his 
numerous articles and publications in this de- 
partment remain to-day distinctly authorita- 
tive. Within the compass of this article it is 
impossible to enter into full detail regarding 
his contributions to medical literature, but 



among the more important of such offerings 
may be noted the following: "The Use 
of Viburnum Prunifolium in Diseases of 
Women;" "The Cause of Sudden Death in 
Puerperal Women;" "Perineorrhaphy, with 
Special Reference to its Benefits in Slight 
Laceration, and a Description of a New Modt 
of Operating;" "On the Postural Treatment of ' 
Tympanites Intestinalis Following Ovar- ' 
iotomy;" "The Relation of Goitre to the Gen- I 
erative Organs of Women;" "The Treatment 
of Puerperal Septicemia by Intra Uterine 
Injections;" "The Practice of Gynecology in 
Ancient Times," translated and published in 
the Deutsche Archiv fiir Geschichte der Med- 
icin und Med. Geographic, by Dr. Klein- 
wachter, to which is given an extended intro- 
duction, with strong commendation of the re- 
search and careful investigation made by Dr. 
Jenks ; "Contribution to Surgical Gynecology," 
read before the Illinois State Medical So- 
ciety ; and many other articles of great scientific 
and professional value. Of the estimate 
placed upon Dr. Jenks by his profession it 
is possible to give example from distinguished 
sources, and in point of this is entered the 
following appreciation from Dr. Thaddeus A. 
Reamy, of Cincinnati : "His reputation as a 
writer is so thoroughly international that we 
need not speak of it, for I could add nothing 
to it. His articles show great research, es- 
pecially in classic history along the line of 
obstetrics and gynecological art and literature. 
He has long since proved himself an able 
teacher. He is a skillful operator in gyneco- 
logical and obstetrical surgery." In 1887 Dr. 
Jenks established a private hospital for the 
treatment of the diseases of women, at 626 
Fort streeet west, and this he designated as 
"Willow Lawn." He made the home or hos- 
pital a distinctive power for good in the com- 
munity. 

Dr. Jenks' devotion to his profession was 
one to which all else was subordinated, and 
he found his greatest pleasure in his study and 
in the active work of the vocation in which 
he achieved so much of success and distinction. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



397 



He was a man of scholarly attainments, of 
positive character and of deep human sym- 
pathy. He made much of his life and its 
angle of influence widened graciously to com- 
pass and aid his fellow men. His ministrations 
to those in distress were ever kind and solici- 
tous, and from the deep sources of his essenti- 
ally strong and noble nature came refreshing 
draughts for those who came within the sphere 
of his influence. As a citizen he was loyal 
and public-spirited, though he had neither time 
nor inclination to enter into active associa- 
tion with political affairs, and his home life 
was one ideal in every respect. 

Dr. Jenks was twice married. In 1857 he 
wedded Miss Julia Darling, a daughter of J. H. 
Darling, of Warsaw, New York, and she 
died soon after their removal to Detroit, leav- 
ing no children. On the 8th of November, 
1867, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. 
Jenks to Miss Sarah R. Joy, eldest daughter 
of Detroit's distinguished citizen, the late 
James F. Joy, to whom a memorial tribute is 
dedicated on other pages of this work. He is 
survived by two children, — Martha J., who 
is now the wife of Lieutenant-Colonel H. O. 
Peley, of the medical department of the 
United States army; and Nathan, who is a 
representative physician and surgeon of De- 
troit, where he is well upholding the prestige 
of the name which he bears. 

Dr. Nathan Jenks, only son of the subject 
of this memoir, was born in Detroit, on the 
3d of June, 1872, and after completing the 
curriculum of the public schools of his native 
city he entered Dartmouth College, in which 
he was graduated as a member of the class of 
1896, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. 
He next entered Bellevue Hospital Medical 
College, from which he went to the medical 
department of Cornell University, New York 
city, in which he was graduated in 1899, with 
the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After his 
graduation he became a member of the house 
staff of Bellevue hospital, in New York, where 
he remained until June, 1900, when he returned 
to Detroit, where he has since been estab- 



lished in the practice of his profession. He is 
a member of the Michigan State Medical 
Society, the American Medical Association, the 
Wayne County Medical Society, and the De- 
troit Academy of Medicine, lecturer on obstet- 
rics and clinical midwifery in the Detroit Col- 
lege of Medicine, and is visiting obstetrician 
to the Woman's Hospital and Infants' Home. 
In a social way he is identified with the Detroit 
Club, the University Club, the Detroit Boat 
Club, and the Society of Colonial Wars. 

On the 8th of October, 1902, Dr. Nathan 
Jenks was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth 
Cady, daughter of D. D. Cady, a member of 
the well known wholesale grocery concern of 
Lee, Cady & Company, of Detroit. 



SILAS B. COLEMAN. 

Among the strong and honored figures in 
the financial and business circles of Detroit and 
the state of Michigan was Silas B. Coleman, 
whose capitalistic interests were varied and 
important, and who stood as a type of the 
steadfast, honorable and upright business man 
and loyal and public-spirited citizen. It was 
his to render valiant service to the nation in the 
civil war, and his life throughout was domi- 
nated by the same high sense of duty which 
prompted him as a youth to go forth in de- 
fense of the integrity of his native land. He 
died at his home, 182 McDougall avenue, De- 
troit, on the loth of January, 1908, as the re- 
sult of an attack of pneumonia, his illness hav- 
ing been of but one week's duration. He had 
been a resident of Detroit for nearly forty 
years and within this time had gained and 
maintained a positive and secure place in the 
respect and esteem of the community. At the 
time of his death he was president of the Na- 
tional Loan & Investment Company, and vice- 
president of the Detroit United Bank, two of 
the representative financial institutions of the 
state. 

Mr. Coleman was born in New York city, 
on the 29th of July, 1843, ^"^ was a scion 
of families founded in America in the colonial 
era of our national history. He was afforded 



398 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



good educational advantages in his youth and 
when but nineteen years of age he enlisted 
in the United States navy, in 1862. He was 
assigned to duty in the quartermaster's de- 
partment, and served with distinction, on the 
gunboats "Tyler" and "Mound City," in all 
the engagements on the Mississippi river from 
Fort Donelson to Vicksburg and Grand Gulf, 
under Admirals Porter and Davis. He con- 
tinued in the navy until the close of the great 
struggle between the north and south and then 
received his honorable discharge. 

After the close of the war Mr. Coleman re- 
turned to the state of New York, where he 
remained until 1870, when he took up his resi- 
dence in Detroit, with whose business and 
civic life he was thereafter continuously identi- 
fied until his death. Soon after locating in 
Detroit Mr. Coleman, whose previous experi- 
ence had well qualified him for the office, was 
made cashier of the People's Savings Bank, 
and he continued incumbent of this position 
until 1890. It was largely due to his discrimi- 
nating policy, wise counsel and marked admin- 
istrative ability that this institution attained to 
so great prestige and success, placing it among 
the leading banks of the city. Mr. Coleman 
resigned the position of cashier of the Peo- 
ple's Savings Bank to accept that of treasurer 
of the National Loan & Investment Company, 
which had been organized in the preceding 
year, and he continued incumbent of this office 
until he was elevated to that of president of 
the corporation, as the successor of Francis 
F. Palms. He continued as chief executive of- 
ficer of the institution until his death and was 
also a vice-president of the Detroit United 
Bank. Description of the National Loan & 
Investment Company is given on other pages 
of this volume, and reference should be made 
to the article as supplementary to this brief 
review of the life of Mr. Coleman. 

In politics Mr. Coleman gave his allegiance 
to the Republican party, though he never 
sought or desired the honors of public office. 
He was affiliated with the Military Order of 
the Loyal Legion and with Detroit Post, Grand 



Army of the Republic, besides holding mem- 
bership in the Yondotega Club and other so- 
cial organizations. He was a man of broad 
intellectual grasp, of sterling integrity and of 
distinctive business ability, so that he was well 
qualified for leadership and for the handling 
of affairs of wide scope and importance, while 
to him was ever accorded the unequivocal con- 
fidence and esteem of those with whom he came 
in contact in the various walks of life. 

Mr. Coleman was twice married, — first, to 
Miss Rebecca Backus, who is survived by two 
sons and one daughter: Archibald, who is a 
representative business man of Minneapolis, 
Minnesota ; Emily M., who is the wife of Will- 
iam Crabtree, of Sanford, North Carolina; 
and Frederick W. B., who is engaged in busi- 
ness in London, England. In 1870 Mr. Cole- 
man was united in marriage to Mrs. Flora B. 
(Standart) Van Husan, who survives him. 
No children were born of the second mar- 
riage. 



CHARLES H. CAMPBELL. 

The history of jurisprudence and the legal 
profession in Michigan must ever pay a tribute 
of highest honor to the late Judge James V. 
Campbell, who was a member of the supreme 
court of the state, serving for many years on 
the bench, and of this distinguished jurist the 
subject of this sketch is the third son. A 
memoir to his father appears in this work, as 
well as a sketch of the life of his brother, Henry 
M. Campbell, with whom he is associated in 
the well known firm of Russel, Campbell, Bulk- 
ley & Ledyard. 

Charles Hotchkiss Campbell was bom in 
Detroit, the date of his nativity having been 
July 18, 1858. He completed the curriculum 
of the excellent public schools of the city, be- 
ing graduated in the high school in 1876. He 
then entered the literary or academic depart- 
ment of the University of Michigan, in which 
he completed the Latin and scientific course 
and was graduated as a member of the class 
of 1880. He received from this noble institu- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



399 



tion of the state his well earned degree of 
Bachelor of Philosophy, and soon afterward 
began reading law in the office of Alfred Rus- 
sell, a representative member of the Detroit 
bar. He made rapid progress in his absorption 
and assimilation of legal lore and was well 
fortified for the active work of his profession 
at the time when he applied for and gained 
admission to the bar of his native city and 
state, in 1882. He forthwith became a mem- 
ber of the firm of which his brother was at the 
time junior member, and this alliance has since 
continued, with uniform harmony and success. 
The subject of this review has amply shown 
his mettle in many sharp legal contests and 
stands high in the esteem and confidence of 
his professional confreres as well as the general 
public of the city which has ever been his home. 
He is a Republican in politics and is a promi- 
nent member of Christ church, Protestant 
Episcopal, being also a member of the board of 
trustees of the diocese of Michigan. 



WILLIAM C. SPRAGUE. 

As a representative member of the bar of 
Michigan and as founder of the Sprague Cor- 
respondence School of Law, which exercises 
most beneficient functions in its prescribed 
province, Mr. Sprague merits distinctive recog- 
nition in this publication. He is especially 
fortified in his wide and comprehensive knowl- 
edge of the science of jurisprudence and as a 
publisher of legal periodicals and technical 
works he has attained to a noteworthy reputa- 
tion in professional circles. His correspond- 
ence school is established upon the basis of ab- 
solute legitimacy and is one of the worthy and 
valued educational institutions of Detroit. 

Mr. Sprague finds a mede of just satisfac- 
tion in claiming the old Buckeye state as the 
place of his nativity. He was born at Malta, 
Morgan county, Ohio, on the 25th of Febru- 
ary, i860, and is a son of Hon. William P. and 
Martha Ann Sprague. The father was one of 
the prominent and influential citizens of Ohio 
and represented his district in congress from 
1871 to 1875. He was for many years one of 



the leading business men of Connellsville, Ohio, 
where he was a manufacturer of agricultural 
implements and also president of the First 
National Bank. 

The early educational discipline of the sub- 
ject of this sketch was secured in the public 
schools of Connellsville and after completing 
the curriculum of the same he was matriculated 
in Dennison University, at Granville, Ohio, 
in which he was graduated as a member of the 
class of 1881, receiving the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts: In preparing himself for his chosen 
profession Mr. Sprague availed himself of the 
advantages of that excellent institution, the 
Cincinnati Law School, in which he was gradu- 
ated in 1883 and from which he secured his 
degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted 
to the bar of his native state on his graduation 
and in 1883 he took up his residence in the 
city of St. Paul, Minnesota, where he engaged 
in the practice of his profession, in partner- 
ship association with William Foulke, under 
the firm name of Foulke & Sprague. He re- 
mained in Minnesota's capital city until 1885 
and there his professional novitiate was marked 
by distinctive success. In the year last men- 
tioned he came to Detroit, where he continued 
the practice of his profession in an individual 
way. In 1887 he formed a partnership with 
Charles H. Carey, under the firm name of 
Sprague & Carey, and this alliance obtained 
until the fall of 1888, when Mr. Carey removed 
to Portland, Oregon. In his law practice there- 
after Mr. Sprague was alone, and he gained 
much prestige and success, having a represen- 
tative clientage and appearing in connection 
with important litigations in both the state and 
federal courts. Owing to the exactions of 
other interests he has given but little attention 
to active practice since 1902. 

In 1889 Mr. Sprague organized the Col- 
lector Publishing Company (afterwards the 
Sprague Publishing Company), which was 
incorporated under the laws of the state, with 
officers as here noted: William C. Sprague, 
president ; Griffith O. Ellis, vice-president ; and 
Jacob Cotner, Jr., secretary and treasurer. Ow- 



400 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ing to impaired health Mr. Sprague retired 
from the presidency of the company in the 
autumn of 1908, and was succeeded by Griffith 
O. ElHs. He retains, however, the office of 
chairman of the directorate. The company 
now affords employment to fifty persons, in the 
handling of its editorial and business affairs. 
The publications of the company are princi- 
pally those pertinent to the legal profession, 
one of the periodicals being "The American 
Legal News," which is issued monthly. This 
was founded in 1889 and has a circulation in 
practically all English-speaking countries. In 
1893 Mr. Sprague also established the "Law 
Students' Helper," which is published each 
month and which likewise has a wide circula- 
tion. Both of these journals are under the 
direct supervision of Mr. Sprague and are 
maintained at a high standard, both technical 
and literary. In 1900 Mr. Sprague founded 
the "American Boy," and this popular monthly 
also is published by the Sprague Publishing 
Company, having attained in seven years one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand subscribers. 
Mr. Sprague is a trustee of Kalamazoo College 
and also of the Michigan Military Academy. 

Mr. Sprague is a writer of much versatility 
and has done much in a literary way, aside 
from his work along professional and educa- 
tional lines. He is the author of an abridge- 
ment of Blackstone's Commentaries, and the 
work has met with a most favorable reception, 
not only on the part of law students but also 
upon that of leading practitioners. Among 
others of his published books may be noted 
the following: "Eloquence and Repartee in 
the American Congress," "Flashes of Wit 
from the Bench and Bar," and "After Dinner 
Speeches." He was the founder of the "Na- 
tional Bankruptcy News and Reporter," which 
he disposed of in 1897. In 1895 he published 
a valuable work, entitled "How to Write," a 
guide for literary workers. He has also writ- 
ten a number of novels and books for boys, 
having ever taken a deep interest in the youth 
of the country and having himself the spirit 
of perennial boyhood, which the cares and ex- 



actions of a singularly active business and pro- 
fessional life have proved impotent to elimi- 
nate. Mr. Sprague was one of the prime fac-; 
tors in effecting the organization of the Com-, 
mercial Law League of America, of which he 
was the first president, and he also served 
six years as chairman of its executive com- ; 
mittee. He was the first president of the Ohio 
Society of Detroit and takes a lively interest 
in its affairs. In politics Mr. Sprague gives 
a stanch allegiance to the Republican party ■ 
and he is admirably fortified in knowledge of 
the questions and issues of the hour and in that 
of basic political and civic economics. He is a ! 
member of the Woodward Avenue Baptist 
church, and has been active and zealous in the 
various departments of the church work. He 
is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, being 
identified with both the York and Scottish 
Rite bodies. He is a member of the Detroit 
Board of Commerce and chairman of its enter- 
tainment committee, and is also a member of 
the Detroit Club. 

On the 24th of June, 1885, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Sprague to Miss Caroline 
Ellis, daughter of Griffith Ellis, a prominent 
citizen of Urbana, Ohio, and the children of 
the union are William Griffith and Marian 
Silvey Sprague. Mr. Sprague has a beauti- 
ful summer home, "Twynwood," at Grosse 
He. His city residence is the Woodward 
Apartments, Detroit. 



TRAUGOTT SCHMIDT, 

The great empire of Germany has contrib- 
uted a most valuable element to the cosmopoli- 
tan social fabric of our American republic, 
which has had much to gain and nothing to lose 
from this source. Among those of German birth 
and ancestry who have attained to success and 
precedence in connection with business affairs 
in Detroit was the late Traugott Schmidt, who 
was a citizen of sterling character, honored by 
all who knew him and influential in both civic 
and commercial life. 

Mr. Schmidt was born in the province of 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



401 



Reuss, Germany, in the year 1830, and was a 
son of Carl C. and Susanna (Plarre) Schmidt, 
who hkewise were natives of the same prov- 
ince, where they passed their entire Hves. 
There the Schmidt family had been engaged in 
the tanning business for more than twelve gen- 
erations, and the family was founded in the 
province of Reuss in the fourteenth century 
of the Christian era, the original orthography 
of the name having been Czemicz. 

The subject of this memoir was afforded the 
advantages of the excellent schools of his native 
land but early began to acquire experience in 
connection with the practical duties of life. 
As a boy and youth he learned the tanner's 
trade in his father's establishment, where he 
remained until he had attained to the age of 
nineteen years, when, in 1849, ^^ ^^^n^ ^° 
America, as he had become convinced that here 
were offered superior opportunities for the 
achieving of success through personal effort 
along normal lines of enterprise. After pass- 
ing one year in the city of Baltimore, Mary- 
land, Mr. Schmidt came to Michigan and took 
up his residence in Flint, where he started a 
small tannery. Six months later, however, he 
came to Detroit, to accept a position in the 
employ of Gottlieb Beck, who was then one of 
the most influential German citizens of the 
Michigan metropolis. 

In 1853 Mr. Schmidt engaged in business 
for himself, and thereafter his career was one 
of consecutive advancement, while he so 
ordered his course as to retain at each stage of 
progress the unqualified confidence and esteem 
of his fellow men. In short, an honorable, 
straightforward, energetic and successful busi- 
ness career is what stands to the lasting credit 
of this well known citizen, who passed from 
the scene of life's mortal endeavors in the full- 
ness of years and well earned honors. In the 
years last mentioned Mr. Schmidt established 
I himself in a modest business, locating on Mon- 
roe avenue, between Beaubien and Antoine 
streets, and from this small concern he built 
up one of the most extensive business enter- 
prises of the sort in the middle west. In the 
early days his operations were largely con- 



fined to dealing in deer skins, and in time he 
secured agents throughout the northwest and 
bought upon an extensive scale, shipping his 
products principally to Germany. For a num- 
ber of years he was also a heavy buyer and 
shipper of wool, as well as holding distinctive 
prestige as a fur merchant. As his business 
increased in scope he made good use of his op- 
portunities and showed his determinate busi- 
ness acumen by establishing a branch house 
in Gera, Germany. For many years he visited 
his native land annually, and he maintained 
personal supervision of his branch house in 
Gera. 

Mr. Schmidt's early experiences as a buyer 
of hides and furs were of a sort that gave him 
a full appreciation of the life of the pioneer. 
During his earlier business career in Detroit 
he traveled along the entire lake shore from 
this city to Saginaw bay, and even made his 
way across Lake Michigan into Wisconsin, 
traveling when possible with a horse and 
wagon and buying from the various Indian 
tribes. He gained the good will of the red 
men and their confidence in him was an element 
of no slight importance in furthering his suc- 
cess in the earlier stages of his independent 
business operations. Mr. Schmidt was among 
the first to come to an appreciation of what 
Detroit's future might be, and he showed the 
courage of his convictions by making judicious 
investments in city realty. He erected the Val- 
pey block, on Woodward avenue, and the 
Schmidt block, on Monroe avenue. The latter 
was finally destroyed by fire, but he erected 
other business buildings and also numerous 
dwelling houses in the city. From the gradual 
appreciation in the value of Detroit real estate 
he reaped large financial returns. 

Mr. Schmidt was one of the organizers and 
incorporators of the Wayne County Savings 
Bank, of which he was a trustee for a number 
of years, but he finally disposed of his stock 
in this institution. In politics he was a stalwart 
in the camp of the Republican party, and he 
was a zealous supporter of the cause of the 
Union during the civil war. As a citizen he 
was loyal and public-spirited, and he was well 



402 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



known and distinctively popular in the city in 
which he so long maintained his home. He 
died on the 17th of May, 1897, on the steamer 
"Trave," while en route home from Germany. 
He was identified with the Germania Bowling 
Club and the Harmonic Society. 

In 1856 Mr. Schmidt was united in marriage 
to Miss Wilhelmina Beck, daughter of Gottlieb 
Beck, of Detroit, and she passed away in 
1863. She is survived by two children, — 
Carl E., and Miss Ida W., who still reside in 
Detroit. For his second wife Mr. Schmidt 
married Miss Mary R. Beck, a sister of his 
first wife, and she survives him, as do also 
their four children, — Edward J., of Detroit; 
Clara, the wife of Hugo Scherer; Alma L., the 
wife of William Hoffman, of Leipzig, Ger- 
many; and Albert H., of this city. 

The business so long ago established by the 
honored subject of this memoir is still con- 
tinued. In 1889 the business was incorporated, 
with a capital stock of two hundred thousand 
dollars, and Traugott Schmidt remained presi- 
dent of the company until his death. 



PRANK T. LODGE. 

Recognized as one of the representative 
members of the bar of the state of Michigan 
and controlling a large and important prac- 
tice, Mr. Lodge has been successfully engaged 
in the practice of his profession in Detroit 
for nearly a quarter of a century. He was 
born in Madison, Indiana, and is a son of John 
J. Lodge, who was for many years a success- 
ful merchant and influential citizen of that 
place and who passed the closing years of 
his life in Detroit, where he lived virtually 
retired from all business pursuits. 

Mr. Lodge was afforded the advantages of 
the public schools of Indianapolis, Indiana, 
where he was graduated in the High School 
as a member of the class of 1876. Shortly 
after leaving school, Mr. Lodge began the 
reading of law in the office and under the pre- 
ceptorship of the firm of Porter, Harrison & 
Fishback, of Indianapolis, and in 1878, when 
Mr. Porter, of this firm, was appointed First 



Comptroller of the United States Treasury, 
the subject of this review became his confiden- 
tial clerk. He retained this incumbency until 
the following year, when he was given official 
preferment as a Treasury Expert Accountant 
in Cincinnati. Of this position he continued in 
tenure until 1880, when his former preceptor, 
Hon. Albert G. Porter, was elected Governor 
of Indiana, and he was tendered the position 
of private secretary to the chief executive. He 
declined this appointment, however, and short- 
ly afterward became confidential law clerk of 
Judge William Lawrence, who succeeded Mr. 
Porter as First Comptroller of the United 
States Treasury. From that time forward un- 
til 1 88 1 Mr. Lodge represented the First 
Comptroller's office before the different com- 
mittees of congress and the various executive 
offices. In the year last mentioned he was sent 
to Kansas as the representative of Judge Law- 
rence and Jeremiah S. Black to effect an ad- 
justment of the troubles with the railroad com- 
panies in connection with the Osage Indian 
ceded land case, and he handled this important 
matter with marked discrimination and abil- 
ity. In the autumn of the same year he was 
matriculated in Indiana Asbury University, 
now known as De Pauw University, in which 
he was graduated as a member of the class of 
1884, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts 
and gaining first honors in modem languages. 
In his senior year, owing to the absence of the 
regular incumbent of the office, he was called 
to the chair of modern languages in his alma 
mater, and in 1887 this institution conferred 
upon him the degree of Master of Arts. 

In 1885 Mr. Lodge was admitted to the 
bar of the state of Michigan, and in the fol- 
lowing year he established himself in the prac- 
tice of his profession in Detroit, where his suc- 
cess has been cumulative from the start, — rep- 
resenting, as it does, his devotion to and ap- 
preciation of the dignity of his profession, and 
his thorough knowledge of the science of juris- 
prudence. He has demonstrated his powers 
as a strong and versatile trial lawyer, having 
been concerned with much important litigation 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



403 



in state and federal courts, and is and has been 
the representative of many large corporations, 
incidental to which he has been identified with 
the promotion and executive affairs of various 
railroad and street-railway enterprises and in- 
dustrial corporations. From 1893 to 1895, as 
attorney for the receiver, he had control of the 
operation of the Owosso & Corunna street rail- 
way, and he effected a reorganization of the 
company and the re-equipment of the road, 
whose interests he ably represented in various 
litigations. In 1894 Mr. Lodge was appointed 
to the professorship of Medical Jurisprudence 
in the Michigan College of Medicine & Sur- 
gery, and he retained this chair until 1906. 
when exactions of his private practice required 
his resignation. He has made a specialty of 
medico-legal, corporation and insurance law, 
and in these fields of professional work he is a 
recognized authority and has been eminently 
successful. He is now Medico-Legal Expert 
for the city of Detroit, his duty being to handle 
the medical evidence in the numerous personal 
injury suits against the city. 

In politics Mr. Lodge is aligned as a stal- 
wart advocate of the principles and policies for 
which the Republican party stands sponsor, and 
for many years past his services have been in 
demand as a campaign speaker, — a province 
in which he has done most effective work. He 
is prominently identified with the Masonic fra- 
ternity and in 1899 served as Grand Master of 
the Grand Lodge of Michigan. From 1903 to 
1907 he served as Grand Lecturer of the Grand 
Lodge, his field being the entire state of Michi- 
gan. He is also a thirty-third degree Mason 
and Commander-in-Chief of Michigan Sover- 
eign Consistory, thirty-second degree. He holds 
membership in various professional organiza- 
tions, and is identified with the Wayne Club, 
the Fellowcraft Club and the Detroit Boat 
Club. 

WILLIAM POST HOLLIDAY. 

Success in any line of occupation, in any 
avenue of business, is not a matter of spon- 
taneity, but represents the result of the appli- 



cation of definite subjective forces and the con- 
trolling of objective agencies in such a way 
as to achieve desired ends. Mr. Holliday has 
realized a large and substantial success in the 
business world and his career has well ex- 
emplified the truth of the foregoing statements. 
He occupies to-day a prominent place in the 
financial circles of the city of Detroit and is 
the controlling force in one of its important 
industrial enterprises. He has large capitalistic 
interests, distributed among various commer- 
cial, financial and industrial enterprises, and is 
one of the distinctively representative manu- 
facturers of the city. Progressive and ener- 
getic in the management of these varied af- 
fairs, loyal and public-spirited as a citizen, he 
holds a secure position in the confidence and 
esteem of the community and has contributed 
in large measure to the material advancement 
of the city in whose still greater commercial 
and civic prestige he is a firm believer. He is 
president of the Holliday Box Company, of 
which he was the founder, and of the Central 
Savings Bank of Detroit, both of which are 
mentioned on other pages of this volume. He 
is also president of the United States Board 
& Paper Company, of Carthage, Indiana, one 
of the most important concerns in its line of 
manufacture in the Union. 

William Post Holliday was born in Spring- 
field, Erie county, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of 
January, 1852, and is the son of William and 
Fannie Eunice (Post) Holliday. His an- 
cestors, both on the paternal and maternal side, 
settled in America during the early colonial 
period, and numbered among them were men 
who achieved distinction in the French and 
Indian wars, the war of Independence and in 
the commercial, civil and social life which fol- 
lowed. James Holliday, the first of the family 
to reach the New World, was a native of An- 
nandale, in the valley of the Annan river, Scot- 
land, who removed to northern Ireland, and 
from there emigrated, in 1730, to America, 
where he became one of the first white men to 
settle in what is now Franklin county, Penn- 
sylvania, where he experienced the vicissitudes 



404 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



and endured the labors incident to the time. 
He took part in the warfare which was con- 
stantly being waged with the Indians, was com- 
missioned a lieutenant in March, 1756, and in 
the fall of the same year, while on an expe- 
dition against the savages, met his death at 
their hands. He married Elizabeth McDowell, 
a native of Ireland. John Holliday, a son of 
James and Elizabeth (McDowell) Holliday, 
was commissioned lieutenant June 25, 1775, 
and on the commencement of the war of In- 
dependence joined the Continental army, in 
which he was commissioned captain, Septem- 
ber 25, 1776. He later became a member of a 
volunteer corps, and while in service on Long 
Island was made prisoner. Adam and William 
Holliday, brothers of James Holliday, were 
the founders of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. 
Adam was one of the most active patriots of 
his section, while William was a soldier in the 
Continental line in the war of Independence 
and was commissioned lieutenant. Samuel 
Holliday, grandfather of our immediate sub- 
ject and son of Captain John Holliday, was 
bom in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, on the 
26th of November, 1755. On the 23d of 
March, 1797, he married Jeannette Campbell. 
Taking his bride, he began his honeymoon 
in making the extremely hard and trying jour- 
ney through the almost impassable forests to 
Lake Erie. He arrived in what is now Erie 
county, Pennsylvania, on the 21st of April, 
and purchased a tract of land seven hundred 
acres in extent, located in what is now the 
township of Springfield. He was the fifth 
white man to settle in this county and was 
known as the most capable Indian fighter of 
his time and section, his trusty McCreary rifle 
being his constant companion. He died on the 
loth of November, 1841, an honored and in- 
fluential citizen of his county. 

William Holliday, the father of our subject, 
was born in Springfield, Erie county, Pennsyl- 
vania, on the 7th of November, 1808. His 
entire life was spent in the management of 
farming and timber lands. He was a man of 
lofty integrity, strong intellectual powers and 



was an influential and highly respected citizen. 
His death occurred on the 25th of April, 1877, 
at the age of sixty-nine. On the 17th of De- 
cember, 1840, he married Fannie Eunice Post, 
daughter of Joseph Post, Jr., of Granby, Con- 
necticut. Mrs. Holliday was a lineal de- 
scendant of Stephen Post, a native of England, 
who emigrated to America in 1634, settling 
in Massachusetts colony, and afterward remov- 
ing to Connecticut, of which colony he was one 
of the original patentees, and his name appears 
in the charter granted by Charles II. A por- 
tion of the city of Hartford occupies the land 
originally granted to him. He became one of 
the important personages in the colony, was 
appointed to confer with Uncas, chief sachem 
of the Mohegan tribe of Indians, regarding 
boundry disputes, and was made a beneficiary 
in the will of the noted chieftain to the extent 
of a considerable tract of land. His son, 
Thomas, married Rebecca Bruen, daughter of 
the Hon. Obadiah Bruen, one of the founders 
of Plymouth colony, appointed commissioner 
in 1642, and a man of great influence in the 
colony. Joseph, the son of Thomas and Re- 
becca (Bruen) Post, was a soldier in the Conti- 
nental line in the war of Independence, enlist- 
ing at Waterbury, Connecticut, July 7, 1778. 
He married his first cousin, Mary Post, the 
daughter of Lieutenant Abraham Post. Joseph 
Post, son of Joseph and Mary Post, was also a 
soldier in the war of Independence, serving 
throughout the struggle. He married, on the 
2 1 St of March, 1765, Mary Denison, of Con- 
necticut. Their son, Joseph, Jr., was bom 
May 7, 1772. He married Clarissa F. Wilcox, 
of Granby, Connecticut. They were the par- 
ents of four children, of whom Fannie Eunice 
(Mrs. William Holliday) was the youngest. 

Four children were born of the union of 
William Holliday and Fannie Eunice Post. 
Their names in order of birth, with brief inci- 
dental record, are as follows: Samuel V., who 
served with distinction in the civil war, en- 
tered the Union army and was made paymaster 
with the rank of major ; he was afterward pro- 
moted brevet lieutenant-colonel, and served 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



405 



until 1865, when he received his honorable dis- 
charge. He was appointed Commissioner of 
Customs of the United States by President 
Harrison in 1889. Eliza Jane is the widow of 
the Hon. David M. Richardson, who was a 
prominent manufacturer of Detroit. James 
Campbell Holliday is a resident of Springfield, 
Pennsylvania, and William Post Holliday is 
the subject of this review. 

William Post Holliday received his early 
education in the public schools of his native 
place and later continued his studies in the 
Springfield Academy. His collegiate prepara- 
tory course was taken in Ann Arbor, Michi- 
gan, and in 1868 he entered Cornell University, 
at Ithaca, New York, which institution was 
opened that year, so that his is the distinction 
of having been a member of the first class to 
be matriculated in the university. He entered 
the literary department, in which he completed 
an elective course in 187 1. In October, 1872, 
Mr. Holliday took up his residence in Detroit, 
where he entered the employ of the late David 
M. Richardson, one of the leading manufac- 
turers of matches in the Union. He was em- 
ployed in the various departments of the fac- 
tory, gaining intimate knowledge of all details 
and process of manufacture and in 1875 was 
made superintendent of the plant, a position 
which he creditably filled until 1878. In the 
year last mentioned he instituted his first in- 
dependent business venture, by engaging in the 
manufacture of paper boxes, and from the 
modest enterprise thus established has been de- 
veloped the extensive and important business 
of the Holliday Box Company, of which he is 
president and in which he has been the con- 
trolling force since its start. Of his efforts in 
this connection more detailed information is 
given in an article descriptive of the company, 
and to the same the reader may consistently 
refer for supplemental information. In 1904 
Mr. Holliday was elected president of the Cen- 
tral Savings Bank, and this chief executive of- 
fice he has since retained, being known as a 
discriminating financier and having assisted in 
bringing the administrative policy of his bank 



up to the point of highest efficiency. He is 
also a member of the directorate of the Amer- 
ican Exchange National Bank and of which 
institution he has been for many years an in- 
fluential stockholder. He is also an interested 
principal in a number of other enterprises 
which have been of value in the commercial 
advancement of the city. 

Aggressive and broad-minded, Mr. Holliday 
has wielded a specially potent influence in in- 
dustrial and financial affairs during the past 
fifteen years, and the city has few who are 
more appreciative of its attractions and ad- 
vantages and whose faith in its future develop- 
ment is of more insistent and loyal type. In 
the organization of the Detroit Board of Com- 
merce he was one of the most active promoters. 
He was elected its first treasurer, and since 
completing his term of office has continued an 
ardent and tireless worker in the organization. 
He is a member of the National Association 
and the Western Association of Paper Box 
Manufacturers and has served as president of 
each of these organizations. His political af- 
filiations are given to the Republican party. 
Political office has never appealed to him, 
though he never neglects in the least his civic 
duties and obligations and has taken an influ- 
ential part in the councils of his party. He is 
an enthusiastic lover of aquatic sports and the 
waters of the river and lakes afford him his 
chief means of recreation. He is a member of 
the Detroit Motor Boat Club and his motor 
boat, the "Nagana," is one of the best exam- 
ples of this class of marine architecture belong- 
ing to the large fleet of this popular organiza- 
tion. He is also a member of the Lake St. 
Clair Fishing & Shooting Club, the Detroit 
Athletic Club, the Bankers' Club of Detroit, 
the Detroit Club, Sons of the American Revo- 
lution and Society of Colonial Wars. 

On the loth of June, 1880, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Holliday to Miss Marion 
Barker Ramsey, daughter of the late John 
Ramsey, who was a resident of Elizabeth, New 
Jersey and who was engaged in the wholesale 
dry-goods business in New York city for many 



406 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



years. Mr. and Mrs. Holliday have one daugh- 
ter, i\Iabel, who was graduated from the De- 
troit Home & Day School in 1902, finishing at 
Mrs. Hazen's school, at Pelham Manor, New 
York, in the class of 1903. Mrs. Holliday is a 
woman of broad education and refinement. 
The family have long been prominent in the 
best social life of the city and the attractive 
home, on Davenport street, is known for its 
gracious hospitality. 



HOMER WARREN. 

Realty is the basis of all security, and the 
basis of security in real-estate transactions is 
found in the probity, knowledge and liberality 
of those by whom they are conducted. Hold- 
ing, by reason of prudence, integrity and sig- 
nal ability, as well as through the wide scope 
and importance of operations, a position of 
much prominence among the real-estate deal- 
ers of Detroit, Mr. Warren, as senior member 
of the firm of Homer Warren & Company, has 
been enabled to exert an emphatic and note- 
worthy influence in connection with the up- 
building of the greater Detroit, where his firm's 
operations have been widely diversified and 
wholly beneficent in the promotion of the ma- 
terial and civic advancement of the Michigan 
metropolis. He came to Detroit as a young 
man and has here achieved marked success 
and prestige, not only as a progressive busi- 
ness man but in connection with public serv- 
ice, since he is the present incumbent of the 
office of postmaster of the city. It may con- 
sistently be said that he has won success be- 
cause he deserved it. At all times he has or- 
dered his course along the lines of strictest 
integrity and honor, and to this fact is due 
the inviolable confidence and esteem in which 
he is held by Detroit's representative capitalists 
and business men as well as by the general 
public. Incidentally it should also be stated 
that he has played an important part in the 
social and musical affairs of Detroit for many 
years past. 

Mr. Warren was bom at Shelby, Oceana 
county, Michigan, on the ist of December, 



1855, and is a son of Rev. Square E. and Ellen 
(Davis) Warren, both of whom were born in 
Macomb county, Michigan. Rev. Square E. 
Warren was one of the prominent and honored t 
members of the clergy of the Methodist church 
in Michigan, where he labored long and zeal- 
ously in his noble vocation and where he held 
various pastorates. He passed the closing 
years of his life in Armada, this state, where 
he died in 1900, at the age of seventy-five 
years. He was a son of Rev. Abel Warren, 
who likewise was a clergyman of the Methodist 
church and who was a native of Vermont, the 
family having been early founded in the old 
Green Mountain state, where he was reared and 
educated and whence he came as the original 
representative of the family in Michigan. He 
was one of the pioneers of Macomb county, 
this state, where he secured a tract of wild 
land and instituted the development of a fami, 
also devoting much time to the work of the 
ministry, in which he labored faithfully and 
zealously among the pioneer settlers. The ma- 
ternal grandfather of the present postmaster 
of Detroit likewise was among the ster- 
ling pioneers of Michigan, having been an early 
settler and influential citizen in his com- 
munity. Mrs. Ellen (Davis) Warren was a 
resident of Macomb county at the time of her 
death. From these brief data it will be seen 
that Homer Warren was signally favored both 
in the sterling qualities represented in his 
genealogical line and also in the grateful en- 
vironments of a home of culture and refinement 
during the formative period of his character. 
Homer Warren was afforded the advantages 
of the public schools in the various places in 
which his father held pastorates and he early 
manifested that self-reliance and definite in- 
tegrity of purpose which have so significantly 
dominated his life in all its relations. In 1873, 
at the age of eighteen years, he left the parental 
home, which was then established at South 
Lyon, this state, and came to Detroit, where 
he became a clerk for the firm of J. M. Arnold 
& Company, leading dealers in books, station- 
ery, etc. He remained with this concern until 
1878, when he resigned his position to accept 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



407 



that of deputy collector of customs for the 
port of Detroit, under Digby V. Bell, who 
served long and efficiently as collector. Upon 
the change in the national administration in 
1885 Mr. Warren tendered his resignation to 
Mr. D. J. Campau, who refused to accept it, 
and he continued to fill the position of cashier 
until 1886, when ill health compelled him to re- 
sign. Soon afterward he initiated his associa- 
tion with that line of enterprise in which he 
has attained to so distinctive success. He es- 
tablished himself in the real-estate business, 
beginning operations on a modest scale and 
having desk room in the office of J. W. Beau- 
mont, one of the prominent younger members 
of the Detroit bar at that time. It may be said 
incidentally that he paid seven and one-half 
dollars a month for the office privileges thus 
secured. His first transaction was the sale of 
the property at the southwest corner of Wood- 
ward avenue and Sproat street, — with a front- 
age of fifty-two feet on the avenue and one 
hundred and sixty-seven feet on Sproat street, 
and the buyer of the property was Richard H. 
Fyfe, who then, as now, was one of the rep- 
resentative merchants of the city. His clean 
and correct business methods gained to Mr. 
Warren from the start the support and forti- 
fying commendation of a number of the most 
influential citizens, and his business enterprise 
rapidly expanded in scope. Among his early 
clients were Levi L. Barbour, the late Joseph 
H. Berry, Theodore H. Eaton, Hugo Scherer, 
Colonel Frank J. Hecker, James F. Joy, David 
Whitney, Jr., and many others whose names 
are equally well known in the city and state. 

In 1892, so wide had become the ramifica- 
tions of his real-estate business, that Mr. War- 
ren found it expedient to augment his facilities 
by organizing the firm of Homer Warren & 
Company, in which he secured as associates 
and eiifective coadjutors Cullen Brown and 
Frank C. Andrews. This firm soon gained 
unquestioned priority as an important factor in 
the local real-estate field, and this prestige has 
shown a cumulative tendency during the inter- 
vening years. Their business has been ex- 
tended into all parts of the state and they have 



at times handled large estates outside the lim- 
its of this commonwealth. An insurance de- 
partment was added to the enterprise, and this 
also has been built up to large proportions in 
the business handled, as representative of such 
important companies as the Providence- Wash- 
ington Insurance Company, of Providence, 
Rhode Island; the German Alliance, of New 
York city ; the Springfield Insurance Company, 
of Springfield, Massachusetts; the Phoenix 
Fire Insurance Company, of Hartford, Con- 
necticut; and the Aachen and Munich, of Aix 
la Chapelle, France. 

In Detroit realty the operations of this firm 
have been very large and important, their sales 
of Woodward avenue property alone having 
represented transactions aggregating fully two 
millions of dollars. Among the transfers made 
may be noted that of the site of the Whitney 
building. Woodward avenue and Grand Circus 
park, to David Whitney; that of the Wash- 
ington Arcade, to Colonel F. J. Hecker; the 
Bresler block, to E. L. Ford and B. F. Berry ; 
the Bagley homestead, to the Fowler estate, 
besides many other of equal relative impor- 
tance. Numbered among the best clients of 
the firm have been Albert Stephens, Henry 
Stephens, the late E. M. Fowler, William Liv- 
ingstone and F. E. Driggs. 

In 1894 the insurance department of the 
business was taken into the control of the 
newly organized firm of Warren, Burch & 
Company, though the business has been con- 
secutive in its history, with which the subject 
of this sketch has been identified from the 
start. Charles E. Burch, who became a mem- 
ber of the new firm at its organization, died in 
1896, and his interest was purchased by Cullen 
Brown. The title of the firm was then changed 
to its present designation, Warren, Brown & 
Company. In April, 1907, Charles L. Walker 
was admitted to membership in the original 
real-estate firm of Homer Warren & Company. 
In connection with their general operations in 
the handling of both improved and unimproved 
realty this firm also give special attention to 
rentals and rent-collections. They have under 
their supervision in this line the following 



408 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



named buildings in Detroit: Chamber of 
Commerce, Fine Arts, Gladwin, Cleland, In- 
glis, Bresler, Young Men's Christian Associ- 
ation ( old building), Detroit City Gas Com- 
pany's buildings, the Cynthia, Kimball and 
Crook buildings, and the People's Loan Asso- 
ciation's apartment building. 

In January, 1907, this firm negotiated the 
sale of property at the corner of Woodward 
avenue and High streets — one hundred and 
sixty-five feet on Woodward avenue and three 
hundred on High — for site for Hippodrome 
to be built by Cleveland capital — one of the 
largest transactions of the year. 

Mr. Warren has ever been unwaverinsf in 
his allegiance to the Republican party and he 
has rendered effective service in the promotion 
of its cause, being prominent and influential 
in its local councils and having been more or 
less actively identified with campaign work. 
On the 15th of January, 1906, Mr. Warren re- 
ceived, through President Roosevelt, commis- 
sion as postmaster of Detroit, assuming the 
duties of the office on the ist of the following 
March. He has handled the multifarious de- 
tails of the service with marked discrimination 
and his administration is proving altogether 
satisfactory. 

Mr. Warren is an appreciative member of 
the Masonic fraternity, in which he has ad- 
vanced in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, 
besides being identified with the adjunct body! 
the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of 
the Mystic Shrine. He holds membership in 
the Detroit Club, the Detroit Golf Club, the 
Detroit Automobile Club, and the Young 
Men's Christian Association, besides being an 
active and valued member of the Detroit Board 
of Commerce. Mr. Warren has long been rec- 
ognized as one of the most talented baritones 
of Detroit and has been specially prominent 
in musical circles in the state. His services as 
a vocalist are called into requisition most fre- 
quently and in divers public and social 
connections. 

On the 9th of December, 1878, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Mr. Warren to Miss 



Susie M. Leach, daughter of the late Colonel 
Daniel E. Leach, a distinguished officer in the 
United States Army. Mrs. Warren died No- 
vember 16, 1907, leaving no children. 



GEORGE HENDRIE, 

Coincident with the growth of Detroit in 
population and commercial importance has 
been the development of its street-railway sys- 
tem, and in connection with such development 
no man has been more prominent than George 
Hendrie, who is frequently referred to as the 
"Father of Detroit Street Railways." The 
city owes to his enterprise and progressive 
ideas much of her advancement to her present 
proud position as a great industrial center and 
as one of the most attractive places of residence 
to be found in the United States. His initiative 
power has also led him into other fields of 
enterprise where the public welfare is involved, 
and he has at all times stood as a high type ' 
of loyal and useful citizenship, meriting to the 
full the confidence and good will of the com- 
munity. 

George Hendrie is a native of the fine old 
city of Glasgow, Scotland, where he was born 
on the 9th of February, 1835, being a son of 
John and Elizabeth (Strathearn) Hendrie. 
He was afforded the advantages of the schools 
of his native city, having continued his studies 
in the Glasgow high school until he had at- 
tained to the age of fifteen years, when, in 
1849, he became an employe of the Glasgow 
& Southwestern Railway. Thus it will be seen 
that his earliest business experience was in con- 
nection with transportation, in which line of 
enterprise he was destined to attain so much 
prominence in a land far from that of his 
birth. In 1850 he was in the service of the 
Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway and later he 
held a position with George and James Burns, 
owners of the Glasgow and Liverpool Steam- 
ship Line at that time, as well as the Glasgow 
& Belfast. In 1858, moved by the ambitious 
spirit which has ever characterized him, Mr. 
Hendrie came to America, and took up his 
residence in Hamilton, Canada, where he be- 
came an employe of the cartage firm of Hen- 



I> 



i\ 



i\ 



i\ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



409 



drie & Shedden, of which his brother William 
was senior member. It is interesting to note 
that Mr. Hendrie still retains an interest in 
the cartage business in Canada, as well as in 
the Royal mail service. 

On the I St of April, 1859, Mr. Hendrie lo- 
cated in Detroit, with whose business and civic 
affairs he has since continued to be identified. 
Soon after his arrival he established a cartage 
business in connection with his brother Will- 
iam, under the name of Hendrie & Company, 
and this was the first enterprise of the kind 
in the United States. In this connection he 
secured contracts with the Great Western 
Railway and the Detroit & Milwaukee Rail- 
road, both of which are now part of the Grand 
Trunk system. In 1866, more than forty years 
ago and when street-railway service in Detroit 
was of a primitive sort, he was instrumental 
in securing a seven years' lease of the lines and 
equipment of the Detroit City Railway, whose 
operations at that time were within the con- 
fines here noted : Jefferson avenue, from Third 
street to Elmwood avenue; Gratiot avenue, 
from Woodward avenue to Duquindre street 
railroad crossing; Michigan avenue, from 
Woodward avenue to Woodbridge Grove, now 
Trumbull avenue; and Woodward avenue, 
from Jefferson avenue to Brady street. The 
total mileage of operated lines was about six 
and one-half miles and the small "bob-tailed" 
cars were propelled by horses. Mr. Hendrie 
and his associates at once began improvements. 
In 1876 they purchased the franchise and sys- 
tem, whose operation they long continued, con- 
stantly improving the service, which was ac- 
knowledged to be probably the best in this 
country at that time. In 1890 they purchased 
the property of the Grand River Street Rail- 
way Company, but prior to this, great exten- 
sions had been made in the service, — all under 
the direction of Mr. Hendrie, whose actuating 
motive was to keep in advance of the growth 
of the city. In 1888 he became chief organizer 
and principal owner of the Hamtramck & 
Grosse Pointe Railway Company, which was 
incorporated May 28th of that year. The 
original company conducted operations under 



title of Hamtramck Street Railway Company, 
and Mr. Hendrie served as its president. In 
1892 he promoted in a similar way the Wyan- 
dotte & Detroit River Railway, and in 1895, 
the Detroit & Pontiac Railway. Thus he was 
the one who initiated the development of inter- 
urban electric transportation as touching De- 
troit and Michigan. 

In 1 89 1 the original systems and extensions 
were sold to the Detroit Citizens' Street Rail- 
way Company, as Mr. Hendrie's interests were 
always with horse transportation, and he felt 
that new methods demanded new men. 

In 1878, in company with the late Senator 
James McMillan, Hon. John S. Newberry, 
Francis Palms, William B. Moran, William 
Hendrie and others, he effected the organiza- 
tion and incorporation of the Detroit, Macki- 
nac & Marquette Railway Company, and they 
forthwith began the construction of a line be- 
tween St. Ignace and Marquette, upon the up- 
per peninsular of Michigan, and in this work 
the Hendries were the contractors. Incidentally 
Mr. Hendrie became largely interested in other 
enterprises growing out of the construction of 
this important railway line, and assisted ma- 
terially in the development of the magnificent 
natural resources of the upper peninsula. 

In 1 88 1, in company with the late William 
B. Moran and others, Mr. Hendrie purchased 
a large tract of marsh land lying between the 
Detroit water-works plant and Grosse Pointe. 
They secured from the government a permit to 
dyke and drain the lands and eventually suc- 
ceeded in reclaiming about twenty-five hundred 
acres. Mr. Hendrie has been one of the most 
enthusiastic developers of Belle Isle, which con- 
stitutes a park unique in this or any other 
country. In 1879, in the face of much opposi- 
tion, he, with eight others, was successful in 
securing an appropriation for the purchase of 
the island by the city. It was then a desolate 
forest tangle, but the foresight of Mr. Hendrie 
and his associates has long since been justified, 
and Belle Isle has become a synonym for the 
ideal city park. 

Mr. Hendrie has always been a great lover 
of horses. In his younger days he was an 



410 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



enthusiastic rider and driver, and later he has 
interested himself in the breeding of blooded 
stock from the large draft horse to the fleet- 
footed trotter and thoroughbred. His exten- 
sive breeding farm, at Royal Oak, has afforded 
one of his favorite recreations as has his stable 
of thoroughbreds, which has been quite suc- 
cessful on the turf. Mr. Hendrie is one of the 
few who still remain true to the horse in these 
days of automobiles. 

At the present time Mr. Hendrie is an active 
factor in the financial life of Detroit, with 
large landed interests and in connection with 
the following named institutions : The Union 
Trust Company, the Detroit Savings Bank, the 
Commercial National Bank, and the Wyan- 
dotte Savings Bank. He is a director in the 
Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company and 
president of the Detroit & Buffalo Steamboat 
Company. 

In politics Mr. Hendrie was an admirer of 
President Cleveland and supported his policy, 
but since then he has voted independently. He 
and his wife are communicants of Christ 
church, representing one of the oldest parishes 
of the city, and he is a member of St. Andrew's 
Society, of which he served as local president. 
He is a Knights Templar Mason, being affili- 
ated with Detroit Commandery, No. i, and 
holds membership in the following clubs: De- 
troit, Fellowcraft, Yondotega, Detroit Driving, 
and the Country Club. 

Genial and kindly, and possessing the canny 
traits of his native race, Mr. Hendrie has the 
qualities which beget warm and lasting friend- 
ships, and he is distinctively popular in busi- 
ness and social circles in the city which has so 
long been his home and the center of his in- 
terests. 

On the 31st of October, 1865, Mr. Hendrie 
was married to Miss Sarah Sibley Trowbridge 
daughter of Hon. Charies C. Trowbridge, of 
Detroit. The eight children born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Hendrie are as follows: Stratheam. 
Katharme Sibley, Charies Trowbridge (de- 
ceased), Jessie Stratheam, George Trow- 
bridge, Sarah Whipple, William, and Mar- 
garet. 



FORDYCE H. ROGERS. 

In the city of his birth Colonel Rogers 
stands at the head of one of the magnificent 
manufacturing industries which give Detroit 
so great commercial prestige; he is in all re- 
spects a representative citizen, while it was his 
to render valiant service as a soldier of the 
Union in the civil war. To him is due in fullest 
measure the upbuilding of the Detroit White 
Lead Works, of which concern he is president 
and general manager. 

Colonel Rogers was born in Detroit, Octo- 
ber 12, 1840, and is a son of George Wash- 
ington and Jane Clark (Emmons) Rogers, 
both representative of families established in 
America in the colonial epoch of our national 
history. George Washington Rogers was 
bom in Vermont, December 14, 1799, and was 
a lineal descendant of James Rogers, who im- 
migrated from England and settled in Con- 
necticut in 1635. The family removed to Ver- 
mont and some served in the Revolution from 
there as well as from Connecticut. George W. 
Rogers was reared and educated in his native 
state and previously to coming to the west had 
been engaged in the manufacture of stoves at 
Vergennes, Vermont. In 1840 he came to 
Michigan and after remaining for some time 
in Detroit established his family home at Pon- 
tiac, where he conducted a general-merchan- 
dise business for a number of years and where 
he continued to reside until his death, which 
occurred in i860. Jane C. (Emmons) Rogers 
was a daughter of Adonijah Emmons and a 
sister of Judge H. H. Emmons, who was a 
distinguished member of the Detroit bar and 
who served on the bench of the United States 
circuit court. Representatives of the Emmons 
family likewise were found enrolled as patriot 
soldiers in the war of the Revolution. George 
W. and Jane C. Rogers became the parents of 
seven children, five of whom attained to ma- 
turity and the youngest of whom was the sub- 
ject of this sketch. His mother died soon 
after his birth and the father later married 
Harriet L. Williams, a daughter of Oliver 
Williams, who was a prominent fur trader in 
Detroit prior to the war of 1812. George W. 
Rogers died April 9, i860. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



411 



Fordyce H. Rogers passed his youth in Pon- 
tiac, in whose schools he secured his early edu- 
cational training. In 1856, at the age of six- 
teen years, he returned to Detroit, where he 
was employed for the first year in the whole- 
sale drug house of T. H. & J. A. Hinchman ; 
the following year he was a clerk in a local 
clothing store. His adventurous spirit next 
led him to California, in 1858, his elder 
brother, George E., having preceded him. He 
made the trip by way of the isthmus of 
Panama, and in the Golden state he was vari- 
ously employed, remaining there until the fall 
of 1859, when he returned to Pontiac. There- 
after he was identified with mercantile enter- 
prises in Lapeer and Detroit until the outbreak 
of the civil war, when his intrinsic patriotism 
led him to tender his services in defense of the 
Union. In June, 1861, he was the first man to 
join Colonel Thornton F. Broadhead, and as- 
sisted in raising the First Michigan Cavalry, 
which was mustered into the United States 
service in the following August. Colonel Rog- 
ers, who was at the time still a minor by a 
few months, was commissioned a second lieu- 
tenant, and soon after the regiment arrived in 
the national capital he was appointed first 
lieutenant and battalion adjutant. 

The First Michigan Cavalry was assigned to 
the Army of the Potomac, under General 
Banks, and lay in camp at Frederick, Mary- 
land, during a considerable part of the ensuing 
winter. Its principal operations thereafter 
during the time Colonel Rogers was with the 
command were on the upper Potomac, in the 
Shenandoah valley, and near the eastern slope 
of the Blue Ridge. The regiment saw par- 
ticularly active and hazardous service in the 
summer of 1862, in Beauford's brigade, of 
Pope's army. Lieutenant Rogers, ever ready 
to face any peril and fond of excitement, was 
frequently entrusted with scouting parties, at 
his own request, and was otherwise in special 
service, including patrol duty. On more than 
one occasion he showed an intrepid daring and 
courage that not ofily gained him official ad- 
miration and commendation but that also 
proved of incalculable value to the cause in 



which he was enlisted. He participated with 
his regiment in all its engagements until he 
was mustered out of service at Washington, 
September 11, 1862. Shortly afterward he 
was tendered the rank of major in both a 
Michigan and a New York cavalry regiment, 
but declined the overtures. Colonel Rogers 
has maintained a deep and lively interest in his 
old comrades in arms and signifies the same 
by his membership in the Military Order of 
the Loyal Legion of the United States, in 
which he is a charter member of the Michigan 
commandery, and in the Grand Army of the 
Republic. He has served as commander of 
the Michigan Commandery just mentioned and 
his title of colonel was gained from staff duty 
since the war. 

After receiving his honorable discharge from 
the army Colonel Rogers returned to Califor- 
nia, in fall of 1862, locating in San Francisco, 
where he followed various avocations until 
1865, when he became bookkeeper in the Pa- 
cific BanK of that city, which was the first in- 
corporated bank on the coast, with a capital 
stock of a million dollars. He was soon pro- 
moted paying teller, and from 1867 to 1872 
was cashier of the institution. He then be- 
came interested in mining and stock brokerage, 
and at one period he was incumbent of the 
office of secretary and treasurer of thirty 
different mining companies. In 1879 he came 
again to the east, and for about two years he 
held membership on the American mining 
board of New York city. 

In 1880 Colonel Rogers again took up his 
residence in Detroit, where he secured control 
of the Detroit White Lead Works, of which 
he is now president and general manager and 
of which a specific mention is made elsewhere 
in this volume. To his energy and keen busi- 
ness acumen is due the upbuilding of this great 
enterprise, one of the largest in the world and 
one whose plant is unexcelled. It has been 
consistently said of him that, "He is possessed 
of great executive force, is shrewd and careful 
in his business habits, and the evidence of his 
work is seen in every branch of the business. 



412 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



He is of frank, open, generous, social dispo- 
sition, has a wide circle of friends, and is re- 
spected and esteemed not only for his business 
ability but also for those qualities of mind and 
heart that distinguish a good citizen and a 
helpful, considerate friend. He is progres- 
sive and liberal-minded and a sure supporter of 
every deserving public enterprise." 

Colonel Rogers has ever been aligned as a 
stalwart advocate and supporter of the prin- 
ciples and policies of which the Republican 
party stands exponent and he has been an active 
worker in the cause, though he has never been 
an aspirant for political office. He is identified 
with the Old Club on Lake St. Clair, the North 
Channel Club and other social organizations, 
and has attained to the thirty-second degree in 
Scottish Rite Masonry, being also identified 
with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles 
of the Mystic Shrine. The colonel enjoys un- 
reserved popularity in both business and social 
circles and is numbered among the representa- 
tive manufacturers of Detroit. 

In 1868 was celebrated the marriage of 
Colonel Rogers to Miss Eva C. Adams, a 
daughter of Dr. Samuel Adams, the pioneer 
druggist of San Francisco, and a niece of Rev. 
Nehemiah Adams, who was for nearly half a 
century pastor of the old Essex Street church 
in the city of Boston. Mrs. Rogers was sum- 
moned to the life eternal in 1895, and the 
colonel was united in marriage on May 7, 1895, 
to Miss Grace J. Haynes, who was born in 
Patten, Maine, and was lady principal of Olivet 
College, Michigan. The colonel was elected 
trustee of Olivet College in the summer of 
1907. 



HOYT POST. 

To have been for more than forty years a 
representative member of the bar of the state 
of Michigan and the city of Detroit, in itself 
bears evidence of unmistakable ability and 
power of leadership. This is true of Hoyt 
Post, who has dignified his profession by his 
character and services and who is now one of 
the pioneer members of the bar of the Michi- 



gan metropolis. He has used his intellect to 
the best purpose, has directed his energies along 
legitimate channels, and his career has been 
based upon the assumption that nothing save 
industry, perseverance, sturdy integrity and 
fidelity to duty will lead to success, which is, 
indeed, the "prerr/gative of valiant souls." The 
profession of law offers no opportunities ex- 
cept to such determined spirits. It is an 
arduous, exacting, discouraging vocation to 
one who is unwilling to subordinate other in- 
terests to its demands, but to the true and 
earnest devotee it offers a sphere of action 
whose attractions are unrivaled and whose re- 
wrards are unstinted. The name of Mr. Post 
is familiar in the general practice of his pro- 
fession and especially in the department of cor- 
poration law; he served six years as reporter 
of the supreme court of Michigan in the earlier 
years of his professional endeavor, from 1872 
to 1878; and he has been a valuable contributor 
to the literature of his profession, both stand- 
ard and periodical. He is not alone a man of 
profound erudition in his profession, but he 
has also been for many years prominent in 
business affairs, as a strong factor in industrial 
and public-service corporations. 

Hoyt Post is a scion of the staunchest of 
New England stock and is a native of Tin- 
mouth, Rutland county, Vermont, where he 
was born on the 8th of April, 1837,— a son of 
Edmund R. and Almira M. (Collins) Post. 
The founder of the Post family in America 
was Stephen Post, and from him the line of 
direct descent to the subject of this sketch 
is indicated below by names, with Roman 
numerals to designate the succeeding gen- 
erations. (I) Stephen Post was bom in 
England and came with the Higginson 
fleet to the colony of Massachusetts, in 
1630. He located at Newton (now Cam- 
bridge), that colony, where he was allotted 
twelve acres of land on the south side of the 
river. In 1635 he removed to Hartford, Con- 
necticut, where he remained until 1648, when 
he took up his abode in historic old Saybrook, 
that colony, where he passed the residue of his 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



413 



life : his death occurred on the i6th of August, 
1659. (II) Abraham Post, son of Stephen, 
was born at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1640, 
and was there reared and educated, becoming 
a man of prominence and influence in his sec- 
tion. In 1680 the general court appointed him 
a lieutenant of the Saybrook train band, or 
militia, and in the following year he was 
chosen to confer with Chief Uncas, of the 
Mohegan tribe of Indians, regarding boundary 
disputes. The will of Chief Uncas, chief 
sachem of the Mohegans, executed in 1683 and 
recorded at Norwich, Connecticut, bequeaths 
four thousand acres of land in the present 
counties of New London and Windham, Con- 
necticut, to Abraham Post (written Past in the 
document). This will was drawn by Captain 
Thomas Stanton, a maternal ancestor of Hon. 
Thomas W. Palmer, of Detroit. (Ill) Abra- 
ham Post, son of Abraham, was born in Say- 
brook, Connecticut, June 9, 1669, and his death 
occurred in 1742. He occupied various posi- 
tions of honor and trust in town and church. 
(IV) Abraham Post, son of Abraham (HI), 
was born in Saybrook, in 1689. No definite 
data concerning his career seems available. 
His son Abraham (V) was appointed ensign 
in the Second Company of Colonel Heman 
Swift's battalion, in 1774, and rendered valiant 
service as a soldier of the Continental line dur- 
ing the war of the Revolution. His brother 
Nathan commanded the armed brig "Martial" 
and armed sloop "Revenge" in the same great 
struggle for independence. (VI) Roswell 
Post, son of Abraham (V), served as lieuten- 
ant in the French and Indian war, and he also 
held a similar office in the regiment commanded 
by Colonel James Mead, engaged in guarding 
the frontier of Vermont. He settled in Rut- 
land, Vermont, in 1778, and became influential 
in both civic and church affairs in that section. 
(VII) EHas Post, son of Roswell, and grand- 
father of him whose name initiates this re- 
view, was a member of Captain Allen's com- 
pany, in the regiment commanded by Colonel 
James Mead, in the war of the Revolution. 
He married Martha Porter, daughter of Judge 
Thomas Porter, of Rutland. Elias Post was 



born at Saybrook, Connecticut, January 27, 
1763, and died at Mount Holly, Vermont, Sep- 
tember 4, 185 1. (VIII) Edmund Russell 
Post, son of Elias, and a representative of the 
seventh generation in direct descent from Ste- 
phen Post, the original American progenitor, 
was bom in Tinmouth, Rutland county, Ver- 
mont, February 3, 1808, and his death oc- 
curred in Birmingham, Michigan, on the 5th of 
November, 1891. In June, 1836, he married 
Mrs. Almira M. (Collins) Chaffee, who was 
born at Schaghticoke, New York, on the 22d 
of December, 1805, and who died at Birming- 
ham, Michigan, on the 20th of October, 1896. 
Edmund Russell Post had five children, of 
whom Hoyt was the eldest. Dr. James A. 
Post, of Detroit, secretary of the Association of 
Charities, was second, and there are three 
daughters, Verona L., Julia L., and Xenia, all 
of whom are living at Birmingham. Verona 
was for many years a teacher in the Detroit 
public schools. 

Hoyt Post, to whom this sketch is dedicated, 
was about four years of age at the time of his 
parents' removal from Vermont to the state of 
New York, and in the city of Rochester he 
gained his earliest educational training. In 
1847 the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, 
and afterwards to Dayton, Ohio, and in the fall 
of 1849 came to Michigan and located in De- 
troit, where he continued his studies in the 
public schools. He finally entered an academy 
at Birmingham, this state, where he prepared 
for college. In 1857 he was matriculated in 
the literary department of the University of 
Michigan, in which he was graduated as a 
member of the class of 1861, with the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts. In the autumn of the 
same year he entered the law department of 
the university and was graduated in 1863 with 
the degree of Bachelor of Laws : his disploma 
also entitled him to admission to the bar of 
Michigan. Shortly after his graduation in the 
law school Mr. Post became a clerk in the 
offices of Maynard & Meddaugh, one of the 
leading law firms of Detroit at that time. He 
remained with this firm until 1865, when he 
formed a professional partnership with John 



414 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



H. Redmond, but on January i, 1867, he be- 
came associated in practice with Albert H. 
Wilkinson, under the title of Wilkinson & 
Post. This alliance has virtually continued 
through all the intervening years, though 
others have been members of the firm at inter- 
vals. In 1872 Mr. Post was appointed reporter 
of the decisions of the supreme court of the 
state, and in the following year Mr. Wilkinson 
assumed the office of judge of the probate court 
of Wayne county. In 1875 the official duties 
of Messrs. Wilkinson and Post became such 
that they found it expedient to dissolve their 
partnership for the time being, but in May, 
1877, they again became associated in practice, 
in connection with Mr. Wilkinson's brother, 
Charles M., under the firm name of Wilkinson, 
Post & Wilkinson, which was retained until 
1884, when the original title of Wilkinson & 
Post was resumed. In 1898 James V. Oxtoby 
was admitted to partnership, and since that 
year the present title of Wilkinson, Post & 
Oxtoby has been the designation of this repre- 
sentative law firm of the Michigan metropolis. 
While incumbent of the office of reporter of 
the supreme court (1872-8) Mr. Post arranged 
the compilation of volumes 23 to 36, inclusive, 
of the Michigan supreme court reports, and 
the same bear his name as reporter. He also 
acted as court reporter of the Detroit Free 
Press for several years and was editor of "The 
Lawyer" during his earlier years of practice : 
the latter periodical was published by the well 
known firm of Richmond & Backus, of Detroit. 
Mr. Post has gained distinctive recognition and 
a high reputation by reason of his broad and 
exact knowledge of the science of jurispru- 
dence and his ability in applying this informa- 
tion efifectively both as a trial lawyer and as a 
counselor. His firm has had to do with large 
interests and with important litigations in the 
state and federal courts, and personally he has 
represented his firm largely in the corporation 
branch of its business. He has thus acted for 
a number of years as attorney for the Michi- 
gan Savings Bank, and he was attorney for the 
Detroit & Northwestern Railway Company 
from the time of its incorporation until its 



property was sold to the Detroit United Rail- 
way, in 1902: in the meanwhile he also served 
as treasurer of the company, of whose organi- 
zation he was one of the promoters. 

Mr. Post is president of the Peninsular Elec- 
tric Light Company, of Detroit; and also of 
the East Side Electric Company, of this city; 
the St. Clair Edison Company, of Mount 
Clemens ; and the Crosse Pointe Water Works. 
He is vice-president of the Detroit Steel Coop- 
erage Company and of the Michigan Mutual 
Life Insurance Company, and is a member of 
the directorate of each of the following named 
corporations: The Michigan Savings Bank, 
of Detroit; the Plymouth United Savings 
Bank, of Plymouth, Michigan; the Standard 
Tie Company, the Detroit Graphite Company, 
the Telfer Coffee Company, the Edison Illumi- 
nating Company and the Huetteman & Cramer 
Company, of this city, and the Washtenaw 
Light & Power Company, of Geddes Michigan. 
He is a stockholder in the Brown & Brown Coal 
Company, the United States Heater Company, 
the Detroit Iron & Steel Company, and the 
Detroit Creamery Company, all Detroit cor- 
porations. He is a director of the Michigan 
Mutual Life Insurance Company, of which he 
has also been second vice-president since 1895, 
and is also a director and member of the execu- 
tive committee of the Michigan Fire & Marine 
Insurance Company. He has been attorney for 
the Edison Illuminating Company, of Detroit, 
from the time of its incorporation and is a 
member of its board of directors. He served 
several years as a director of the Edison Light 
Company, of Grand Rapids, and also of the 
Ideal Manufacturing Company, of this city, 
and was president of the Detroit Sulphite Fiber 
Company. His capitalistic investments, as may 
be inferred from the above representations, 
are of large and important order and place 
demands upon a considerable portion of his 
time, but he never wavers in his devotion to 
the profession in which he has attained to so 
much success and prestige. He served several 
terms as president of the Detroit Bar Library 
Association, of which he was one of the most 



DETEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



415 



valued members, and he is also identified with 
the Detroit Bar Association, the Michigan 
State Bar Association and the American Bar 
Association. He was a member of the Michi- 
gan Fish Commission from January i, 1889, 
to January i, 1895. Mr. Post holds member- 
ship in the Board of Commerce, the Old Club, 
the University Club, the Bankers' Club, Alpha 
Delta Phi fraternity, the University of Michi- 
gan Association, the New England Society, 
and the Prismatic, Acanthus and Wayne Clubs, 
and is a member of the Michigan Bankers' As- 
sociation. As an appreciative adherent of the 
Detroit Board of Commerce, he is chairman 
of its committee on laws and ordinances. In 
politics Mr. Post has ever given an unequivocal 
allegiance to the Republican party, and he has 
given of his time and influence in furthering 
its cause. He was a prominent figure in the 
old Michigan Club, which strong Republican 
organization has recently been revived. He 
has a secure place in the esteem of the people 
of Detroit, where he has so long maintained 
his home and where his professional, business 
and social relations have ever been of repre- 
sentative character. 

On the 7th of February, 1867, Mr. Post was 
united in marriage to Miss Helen D. Hudson, 
daughter of George W. Hudson, of Detroit, 
and they have four children, namely : Fanny 
H., who is the wife of John P. Robison, of 
Detroit; Myra M., who is the wife of William 
B. Cady, a successful attorney of this city; 
Helen, who is the wife of Walter D. Steele, of 
Chicago; and Hoyt, Jr., who is a member of 
the class of 1909 in the engineering department 
of the University of Michigan. They have 
lost two children : Sarah M., who was the wife 
of John Collins, and was born January 25, 
1870, and died July 27, 1896; Elon, bom Sep- 
tember 29, 1875, died September 17, 1898. 



HENRY B. LEWIS. 

In the matter of definite accomplishment and 
high personal integrity Detroit has ever rea- 
son to be proud of her native sons who are 
lending their aid and co-operation in forward- 



ing her industrial, commercial and civic ad- 
vancement. As a member of one of the old 
and distinguished families of the Michigan 
metropolis and as one of the representative 
business men of the younger generation in his 
native city, Henry B. Lewis is specially eligible 
for consideration in a publication of the prov- 
ince assigned to the one at hand. He is a son 
of the late and honored Alexander Lewis, to 
whom is dedicated a memorial tribute on other 
pages of this volume, so that further resume 
of the family history is not demanded in the 
present connection. Mr. Lewis is the pro- 
prietor of the structural-iron works which bear 
his name and is known as one of the most 
progressive of the younger manufacturers in 
Detroit. 

Henry Bridge Lewis was born in the fine old 
family homestead on Jefiferson avenue, Detroit, 
on the 1 8th of November, 1865, and is the sec- 
ond son of Alexander and Elizabeth (Inger- 
soll) Lewis. The public schools of Detroit 
afforded him his early educational discipline, 
and at the age of sixteen years he entered Trin- 
ity College School, at Port Hope, Ontario. In 
this institution he continued his studies for a 
period of four years, at the expiration of which 
he was matriculated in Trinity College, in the 
city of Toronto, Canada, where he remained a 
student for three years, pursuing the classical 
course. After leaving college Mr. Lewis re- 
turned to his home, in Detroit, where, in 1885, 
he entered the employ of the wholesale hard- 
ware firm of Ducharme, Fletcher & Company. 
He remained with this concern until 1887, 
when he removed to Seattle, Washington, 
where he engaged in the manufacturing of 
lumber, in which connection he owned and op- 
erated a sash, door and blind factory. He 
built up a large and profitable business and be- 
came one of the well known and popular citi- 
zens of Seattle. In 1893 Mr. Lewis disposed 
of his interests on the Pacific coast and re- 
turned to Detroit, where shortly afterward he 
formed a partnership with James T. White- 
head, under the firm name of Whitehead & 
Lewis, and engaged in the manufacturing of 
structural iron. The enterprise was pushed 



416 



DETKOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



forward with marked vigor and discrimination 
and soon assumed proportions of significant 
order. In 1897 Mr. Lewis purchased the in- 
terest of his associate, Mr. Whitehead, and 
continued the business under the title of the 
Detroit Metal & Heating Works. The busi- 
ness continued to develop under his effective 
direction and it became imperative to secure 
more ample quarters than the original plant, 
which was located at 39-41 East Atwater 
street. Accordingly he removed to the pres- 
ent location, at the foot of Joseph Campau 
avenue, in 1890, and at this time the title of 
the Henry B. Lewis Structural Iron Works 
was adopted. For the accommodation of this 
important industrial enterprise nearly an entire 
city block is utilized, and the plant is thor- 
oughly modern in its equipment and facilities. 
Among the more noteworthy contracts filled by 
the Henry B. Lewis Structural Iron Works are 
the fine aquarium in Belle Isle park, erected 
in 1902; the Morgan & Wright plant, at the 
foot of Bellevue avenue, erected in 1906; and 
the plant of the Pennsylvania Salt Manufac- 
turing Company, at Wyandotte, Michigan. It 
may be said incidentally that the above men- 
tioned plant of Morgan & Wright represented 
m Its erection the largest contract ever taken 
by a local concern engaged in the structural- 
steel business: for steel alone one hundred and 
seven thousand dollars were expended. The 
Lewis structural steel works add materially to 
the mdustrial precedence of the city of Detroit, 
as operations are based on ample capital, cor- 
rect business methods and the best of technical 
and administrative co-operation. Mr. Lewis 
IS an appreciative and valued member of the 
Detroit Board of Commerce, and is identified 
with the Detroit Club, the Detroit Country 
C ub, the Detroit Boat Club, the Raquette 
Club, and the Old Club, at St. Clair Flats. 
Reared m a thoroughly patrician home and 
touchmg the best of social life from his youth 
up, Mr. Lewis shows in his gracious person- 
ality and his unmistakable popularity that he 
IS 'to the manner born." He and his wife are 
prominent in the social affairs of their native 
city and he is well upholding the prestige of 
the honored name which he bears 



On the 24th of May, 1900, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Lewis to Miss Margie E. 
Croul, daughter of Jerome Croul, a prominent 
and influential citizen of Detroit. Mr. and 
Mrs. Lewis have one son, Alexander Jerome, 
who was born on the 25th of May, 1902. 



JEREMIAH DWYER. 

A most conspicuous figure in connection with 
the industrial supremacy justly claimed for the 
city of Detroit is Jeremiah Dwyer, who stands 
foremost among the captains of industry and 
who also has transcended this sphere to execute 
works of notable philanthropy and charity, 
thus showing his high appreciation of his 
stewardship and of the responsibilities which 
success and wealth impose upon one who has 
the broader recognition of the true meaning 
of human existence. It has been well said of 
Mr. Dwyer that he "stands as an individual 
character, with great executive ability, and as 
a true follower of the Golden Rule." 

Mr. Dwyer was born in the city of Brook- 
lyn, New York, on the 22d of August, 1838, 
being the eldest of the three children— two 
sons and one daughter — of Michael and Mary 
(O'Donnell) Dwyer, both of whom were na- 
tives of the south of Ireland. The Dwyer 
family was founded in America in the colonial 
epoch of our national history, and in the vari- 
ous generations the name has stood as an ex- 
ponent of integrity and usefulness. The father 
of Mr. Dwyer was a contractor by vocation 
while in the old Empire state, and both he and 
his wife died in Wayne county, Michigan. 
James Dwyer, the younger of their two sons, 
is now manager of the Peninsular Stove Com- 
pany, of Detroit, and the only daughter, Mary, 
was the wife of Michael Nichols, of Utica, 1 
Michigan, where she and her husband owned 
and conducted a splendid farm. 

In October, 1838, the Dwyer family came to 
Detroit, and soon after their arrival settled on 
a farm about four miles from the city, in the 
township of Springwells. Here the' father 
devoted himself zealously to the reclamation 
and cultivation of his farmstead, continuing 
thus engaged until 1848, when he was thrown 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



417 



from a wagon and almost instantly killed, 
while driving a team of spirited horses. His 
death threw upon his widow and elder son the 
care and support of the family, the subject of 
this review having been then but eleven years 
of age. 

While the farm was successfully conducted, 
the mother recognized that educational ad- 
vantages were essential to the future success 
and happiness of her children, to whom her 
devotion was inviolable, and she accordingly 
disposed of the farm and removed to Detroit, 
where she purchased a home, investing the 
residue of her funds in income property. She 
then gave her attention to directing the course 
of her sons in such a way as to prepare them 
to fill the high positions they now occupy in 
social and business life, while equal care and 
discrimination was bestowed in the training 
of the only daughter. The family income 
being limited, Jeremiah, subject of this review, 
sought to increase it by securing employment 
in the planing mill of Smith & Dwight, with 
whom he remained about one year, in the 
meanwhile having availed himself of the ad- 
vantages of the schools of Detroit and thus 
supplementing his previous discipline in this 
line. After leaving the employ of the firm 
mentioned he became an apprentice at the 
moulding trade, in the hydraulic iron works of 
Kellogg & Van Schoick. He devoted himself 
assiduously to the work in hand and in due 
course of time became thorough master of his 
trade. The first three years of his majority 
were passed in the eastern states, where he 
found employment in various foundries and 
thus even more perfectly fortified himself in 
the technical and practical knowledge of his 
craft. A too close application to work brought 
about an impairment of his health, and, having 
returned to Detroit, he found a change of oc- 
cupation by entering the employ of the Detroit, 
Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railroad Com- 
pany, with which he held a position for one 
year. 

In 1859 Mr. Dwyer accepted the position of 
foreman of the Geary & Russell foundry, in 
Detroit. In 1861, in company with his brother, 
James, and Thomas W. Misner, he organized 



the firm of J. Dwyer & Company. Two years 
later Mr. Misner's interest was purchased by 
William H. Tefft, the firm name remaining the 
same as previously until 1864, when the con- 
cern again rose definitely on the ladder of 
success by its reorganization into a joint stock 
company, which then assumed the title of the 
Detroit Stove Works. The functions of the 
enterprise as originally founded were repre- 
sented in a general stove and foundry business, 
and from his connection with this modest con- 
cern Mr. Dwyer has practically rounded out 
the great industrial enterprise conducted under 
the title of the Detroit Stove Works. The in- 
crease of business under the new title and ad- 
vanced facilities necessitated the building of 
large extensions, in the superintendence of 
which Mr. Dwyer contracted a pulmonary dis- 
ease which forced him to a year's sojourn in 
the south, but before going he sold his interest 
in the Detroit Stove Works to his brother and 
Edwin S. Barbour. 

Returning from his southern trip recuper- 
ated in health, Mr. Dwyer again became active 
in business affairs, and in the autumn of 1871 
he effected the organization and incorporation 
of a new concern, under the title of the Michi- 
gan Stove Company. His associates in the 
incorporation were Messrs. Charles Du- 
Charme, Francis Palms, Richard H. Long, 
Merrill I. Mills, and George H. Barbour, and 
the original executive officers were as follows : 
Charles DuCharme, president; Jeremiah 
Dwyer, vice-president and manager; Merrill I. 
Mills, treasurer; and George H. Barbour, sec- 
retary. At the death of Charles DuCharme, 
in January, 1873, Francis Palms succeeded him 
as president, which office he held continuously 
until the time of his death. The present offi- 
cers of the company are : Jeremiah Dwyer, 
president ; George H. Barbour, first vice-presi- 
dent and general manager; Merrill B. Mills 
(son of Merrill I. Mills), treasurer; Charles 
A. DuCharme (son of Charles DuCharme), 
second vice-president and secretary; Edwin S. 
Barbour, assistant treasurer; Harry B. Gilles- 
pie, corresponding secretary; R. L. Morley, 
western manager, Chicago; and William J. 
Keep, superintendent. It will thus be seen that 



418 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the changes in the personnel of the principal 
stockholders has been very little in the long 
intervening years. Mr. Dvvyer succeeded to 
the presidency upon the death of Francis 
Palms. 

The buildings of the Michigan Stove Com- 
pany cover more than seven hundred and fifty 
thousand square feet of ground, and were built 
with a careful regard to the health, convenience 
and labor-saving facility of the employes, 
whose number is about fifteen hundred. The 
company has branch ofiices in New York city, 
Buffalo, and Chicago, and agencies in London, 
Paris, Berlin, Constantinople, Manila, Philip- 
pine Islands, and Honolulu. On other pages of 
this work is given more detailed record con- 
cerning this splendid industrial concern, in 
whose upbuilding Jeremiah Dwyer may justly 
be said to have been the dominating force and 
power. 

Mr. Dwyer was also one of the founders of 
the People's Savings Bank of Detroit, and is 
a director at the present time, of its successor 
by consolidation,— The Peoples State Bank. 
He is also a member of the directorates of the 
Michigan Copper & Brass Company, and the 
Ideal Manufacturing Company, of Detroit, 
besides being a stockholder in many other im- 
portant industrial concerns. 

The career of Mr. Dwyer is typical of the 
best there is in American life. From farmer 
boy to apprentice in a foundry, thence to the 
travel and experience through which the true 
mechanic strives to perfect himself in his trade, 
and then onward to be recognized as the master 
mind in a business of his own, and organizer 
and director in numerous industrial enterprises, 
to each of which his well grounded technique, 
his creditable reputation and unsullied charac- 
ter have been a veritable tower of strength in 
connection with their eariy development and 
successful management. Search the records of 
American manufacture and it is doubtful if 
there be found a more fitting representative of 
America's captains of industry than Jeremiah 
Dwyer, who carries into business life the de- 
portment and courtesy of the old-school gen- 
tleman, now rapidly fading to naught but a 
memory. He has been one of the worid's noble 



army of workers, and no man has a greater 
appreciation and respect for the dignity of 
honest toil than he. His helpfulness has been 
exerted in a personal way in thousands of in- 
stances, and his employes have profited by his 
wise counsel, his interest and ofttimes material 
assistance. His heart is attuned to generous 
motives and he has made numerous benefac- 
tions, without ostentation and with no thought 
that he was doing more than his duty. As a 
citizen he is liberal, broad-minded and public- 
spirited, keeping in touch with the interests and 
advances of the hour, and making his life count 
for good in all its relations. Much ot mtel- 
lectual force is his, and he has utilized it for 
both the direct and indirect benefit of his fel- 
low men. In politics he is a Democrat, and in 
religion a Catholic. He holds membership in 
the Detroit Club and the Country Club. 

On the 22d of November, 1859, was solem- 
nized the marriage of Mr. Dwyer to Miss Mary 
L. Long, who was born in the state of Michi- 
gan, a daughter of John R. Long, and they 
have had seven sons and one daughter, whose 
names, in order of birth, are as follows : James 
W. Dwyer; John M. Dwyer; Elizabeth B. 
(Dwyer) Smith, of Cleveland, Ohio; William 
A. Dwyer; Francis T. Dwyer; Vincent R. 
Dwyer, deceased ; Emmet Dwyer ; and Gratton 
L. Dwyer. 

GILBERT W. LEE. 

In the realm of retrospection and the per- 
spective of years Detroit stands in a compara- 
tive way as a venerable city, though one that 
"vaunteth not itself" on this score. Those 
who figured as the founders of the city and the 
promoters of its earlier commercial upbuild- 
ing wrought well and left an influence that 
continues to permeate the civic and industrial 
life. Through them the city was firmly estab- 
lished upon a strong and lasting basis and then 
ensued a slow and solid growth along the most 
conservative lines. But there came a time 
when the wellbeing of the city and its people 
demanded more strenuous methods that the 
Michigan metropolis might hold its own as an 
industrial and commercial center. This is an 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



419 



age bristling with activity and productive en- 
terprise, and that Detroit has had so remark- 
able a development within the last two decades 
is due to the timely and efficient labors and in- 
fluence of spirited and progressive men of a 
younger generation. With no lack of appre- 
ciation of efforts of those who preceded them, 
a due mede of recognition must be given to 
those who have been instrumental in the up- 
rearing of the larger and greater Detroit, and 
among this number the subject of this sketch 
occupies no inconspicuous place. Mr. Lee is 
executive head of the corporation of Lee, Cady 
& Smart, conducting one of the leading whole- 
sale-grocery enterprises of the middle west. 
He has shown distinctive initiative power and 
administrative ability, and the tangible evi- 
dences are offered in the status of the splendid 
business of the concern of which he is presi- 
dent, while his energies and support have also 
been enlisted in connection with other impor- 
tant business enterprises which have conserved 
the commercial prestige of Detroit and the state 
of Michigan. 

Mr. Lee is a native son of Michigan and his 
loyalty to the state is of the most appreciative 
and unwavering order. He was born at Ro- 
meo, Macomb county, on the 28th of March, 
1 86 1, and was there reared and educated, being 
graduated in the local high school as a mem- 
ber of the class of 1879. His parents were 
both born in the state of New York. At the 
age of eighteen years Mr. Lee came to Detroit 
and assumed a position as clerk in the estab- 
lishment of George C. Wetherbee & Company, 
wholesale dealers in willow and wooden ware. 
In 1882 he secured an interest in the business, 
and in 1885 he became identified with the 
wholesale grocery concern of which he is now 
president. 

The business controlled by Lee, Cady & 
Smart is one of the fine industrial enterprises 
which lend great precedence to Detroit as a 
commercial and distributing center, and the 
ramifications of its trade are of wide scope and 
importance. The business is incorporated 
under the laws of the state and the personnel 



of its executive corps is as follows : Gilbert 
W. Lee, president; David D. Cady, vice-presi- 
dent; James S. Smart, treasurer; and George 
R. Treble, secretary. In addition to the finely 
equipped Detroit headquarters, at the junction 
of Fort street west and the lines of the Michi- 
gan Central Railroad, the company own and 
operate also under the following titles and in 
the designated locations : Lee & Cady, eastern- 
market branch, Detroit; Smart & Fox Com- 
pany, Saginaw; Bay City Grocer Company, 
Bay City; and Valley City Coffee & Spice 
Mills, Saginaw. 

The business dates its inception from the 
year 1885, when Gilbert W. Lee formed a co- 
partnership with Ward Andrus and purchased 
the wholesale grocery business of D. D. Mal- 
lory & Company. The enterprise was con- 
tinued under the title of the D. D. Mallory 
Company, until 1892, when the concern was 
succeded by that of Lee & Cady, under which 
title operations were continued until March i, 
1907, when a stock company was organized, 
under the present name of Lee, Cady & Smart, 
and the same was incorporated with a capital 
of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
The new corporation succeded to the business 
of Lee & Cady and also that of Phelps, Brace 
& Company, another of the largest wholesale 
grocery houses of Detroit. The new concern 
at the time was still further amplified in its 
functions by the acquirement of the wholesale 
grocery business of the Smart & Fox Com- 
pany, of Saginaw, the Valley City Coffee & 
Spice Mills, of the same city, and the Bay City 
Grocer Company, of Bay City. Under the 
present conditions the corporation has un- 
rivaled facilities for the handling of its exten- 
sive trade throughout all sections of Michigan, 
and its business also extends into adjoining 
states. 

The nucleus of the great business controlled 
by Lee, Cady & Smart was, as already stated, 
that previously conducted by D. D. Mallory & 
Company, which firm was founded many years 
prior to 1885 and which long held prestige as 
one of the foremost commercial concerns of 
the state. The house now gives employment 
to fifty salesmen in covering its trade territory, 



420 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



and in Detroit two establishments are operated, 
as noted in the preceding paragraph. In addi- 
tion to the traveling representatives, employ- 
ment is given to about one hundred and fifty 
persons. When it is recalled that the president 
of the company was but twenty-four years of 
age at the time when he assumed independent 
connection with the business, it will be under- 
stood that he had early developed that self- 
reliance and maturity of judgment which have 
been such dominating factors in his peculiarly 
successful career. Far-sighted and progres- 
sive his policy has been at all times, and he has 
so ordered his course as to retain the unquali- 
fied confidence and esteem of all with whom he 
has come in contact, while his advancement in 
the business world has been consecutive and 
methodical, representing the normal and legiti- 
mate application of his fine energies. 

In 1898 Mr. Lee founded the Peninsular 
Sugar Refining Company, manufacturers of 
beet sugar, with factory located at Caro, Mich- 
igan. Of this company he continued to be 
president until 1906, when the plant and busi- 
ness were sold to the Michigan Sugar Com- 
pany, in which he remains a stockholder and 
director. He also has other important inter- 
ests, being a director of Hammond, Standish 
& Company, provision packers, and also a 
member of the directorate of the Commercial 
National Bank. For three years he served as 
president of the Michigan Wholesale Grocers' 
Association, and he is known as one of the 
state's alert, progressive and substantial busi- 
ness men and as one of the loyal and liberal 
citizens of Detroit. He is a member of the 
Yondotega Club, the Detroit Club, the Country 
Club, the St. Clair Fishing Club and other 
social and civic organizations of prominence. 
His political support is given to the Republican 
party. 

On the i6th of June, 1885, Mr. Lee married 
Miss Sara Hammond, daughter of the late 
George H. Hammond, of Detroit. Her death 
occurred on the 7th of October, 1892, and she 
is survived by one son, George Hammond Lee, 
who was born September 17, 1887. On the 
26th of January, 1896, Mr. Lee wedded Miss 



Harriet Norton, daughter of the late John D. 
Norton, of Pontiac, Michigan, and they have 
one son. Norton D. Lee, who was born June 
15- 1899. 

RICHARD HAIGH, SR. 

One of the strong, symmetrical cfearacters 
eminently worthy of consideratici?i in connec- 
tion with every history touching Vvayne county 
was that of Richard Haigh, Sr., who here 
maintained his home for more than half a cen- 
tury and who is well entitled to remembrance 
as one of the honored pioneers of the county 
and state. In the township of Dearborn he 
developed one of the finest farmsteads of the 
state, and the major portion of this old home- 
stead is still in the possession of the family. 
Mr. Haigh was a man of impregnable integrity, 
of much intellectual strength and of intrinsic 
kindliness of spirit. He lived a sane, normal 
life, one duly prolific in worthy accomplish- 
ment and one prolonged to the patriarchal age 
of more than ninety years. No shadow rests 
on any portion of his life record, and in con- 
templating his career there are to be gained 
both lesson and incentive. 

Richard Haigh, Sr., was born at Wakefield, 
Yorkshire, England, on the 4th of May, 181 1, 
and his death occurred at his beautiful old 
homestead in Dearborn, Wayne county, Michi- 
gan, on the 5th of December, 1904. He was 
a mere boy at the time of his father's death, 
about 1822, and his mother was left to care for 
her large family of children, to whom her de- 
votion was of the most insistent type. She en- 
abled them to acquire at least the'rudiments of 
education and to lay foundations for future 
usefulness in connection with the practical af- 
fairs of life. The subject of this memoir thus 
gained his fundamental education under the 
limited advantages of the school in his native 
village, and after coming to America he con- 
tinued his studies whenever and wherever op- 
portunity offered. During his later years he 
rounded out this earlier discipline by wide and 
intelligent reading. In 1825, when but four- 
teen years of age. Mr. Haigh severed the ties 
which bound him to home and native land and 
came to America, confident that iiere he could 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



421 



find superior opportunities for gaining for him- 
self a position of eventual independence. For 
somewhat more than a year after his arrival in 
New York city he was there employed by 
Joseph Harris, who had a small establishment 
for the refinishing of cloths. In 1827 he en- 
tered the employ of John Barrows & Sons, 
who were at that time extensive manufacturers 
of woolen cloths, in the national metropolis. 
He later removed to Glenham, New York, 
where he entered the service of Peter H. 
Schenck, who was engaged in the same line 
of enterprise. He was there employed in the 
finishing room, where he received in wages 
three dollars a week, which was considered a 
fair remuneration. For overtime work a shill- 
ing an hour was paid. Mr. Haigh had deter- 
mined to become an expert in the branch of 
business in which he had thus directed his en- 
ergies, and with this end in view he removed 
to Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1828, and there 
entered upon an apprenticeship in the "art and 
mystery of wool stapling," in the establishment 
of Thomas Williams & Sons. Here he served 
a full apprenticeship of six years' duration and 
became an expert workman in his craft. At 
the expiration of his apprenticeship he returned 
to Glenham and again entered the employ of 
Peter H. Schenck, in whose factory he was 
able to earn two dollars a day as a wool-sorter. 
In 1835 Mr. Haigh took up his residence in 
Rochester, New York, where he secured em- 
ployment as a wool-sorter in the mill of E. & 
H. Lyon. In 1837 the mill was destroyed by 
fire and he then entered into a contract with 
the Waterloo Woolen Mills, at Waterloo, New 
York, where he assumed charge of the buying 
and assorting of all the wool used in the mills. 
His contract proved to him a profitable one, 
and within five years he had accumulated a 
capital of about five thousand dollars. In 1842 
he engaged in the manufacturing of linseed 
oil, at Waterloo, and in this enterprise he was 
successful until the repeal of the tariff protect- 
ing the industry, in 1846. During the ensuing 
five years he gave his attention mainly to the 
purchase and sale of wool and sheep pelts, and 
in the meanwhile established at Seneca Falls, 



New York, a small tannery, for the handling 
of sheep-skins. 

In 1853, at the solicitation of his brother, 
the late Henry Haigh, who was for more than 
fifty years engaged in the retail drug business 
in Detroit, the subject of this sketch came to 
this city, though his intention at the time was 
to make permanent location at some point 
farther in the west. He was so favorably im- 
pressed with Michigan that he decided to re- 
main here, and within the year last mentioned 
he effected the purchase of the place which has 
ever since been known as the Haigh homestead, 
in the village of Dearborn, where he continued 
to reside until he was summoned from the 
scene of mortal life, fifty-one years later. He 
developed his land into one of the best farms in 
the county and became an authority in the 
matter of successful agriculture and stock- 
growing. His original purchase comprised 
some three hundred acres, and of this entire 
tract he continued to be the owner until 1873, 
when he sold about two hundred acres to the 
Sisters of Charity, who there established the 
St. Joseph Retreat, one of the largest institu- 
tions of the kind in the United States. The 
major portion of the remainder of the farm is 
retained in the possession of his family. In 
1 90 1 the beautiful old homestead residence was 
totally destroyed by fire, but this was rebuilt 
before his death. The loss of the old home, 
in which his interests had centered for so many 
years, proved a source of much sadness to 
Mr. Haigh, but he found solace in the fact that 
the surroundings remained the same, so that he 
was not denied reminders of the hallowed and 
gracious associations of the past. 

Mr. Haigh was a man who kept in touch 
with the questions and issues of the day, and 
he took a deep interest in public affairs of a 
local nature, though he never sought or held 
political office, to which he had naught of in- 
clination. He became a supporter of the Re- 
publican party at the time of its organization 
and was specially vigorous in upholding the 
policv of maintaining a protective tariff.— pos- 
sibly^ as has been said, due "to the fact that the 
repeal of the tariff of 1842 had caused the 
closing up of his linseed-oil factory in New 



422 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



York." During his entire mature life Mr. 
Haigli was a communicant and zealous mem- 
ber of the Protestant Episcopal church, at- 
tending its services with marked regularity. 
He was one of the organizers of Christ church, 
in Dearborn, and was senior warden of the 
same from the time of its inception, in 1866, 
until his death, nearly forty years later. As 
previously stated, this venerable and honored 
pioneer was summoned to the life eternal on 
the 5th of Dec, 1904, and his remains rest be- 
side those of his second wife in Northview 
cemetery, near the village of Dearborn, where 
a consistent memorial monument has been 
erected. Until within about a year prior to 
his death Mr. Haigh retained to a wonderful 
degree his mental and physical faculties, and 
he continued to supervise the various details of 
the management of his beautiful farm until he 
was more than ninety years of age. He was a 
man of fine integrity of character, and the 
popular appreciation of this fact was shown 
in the uniform confidence and esteem vouch- 
safed by all who knew him. He had sympathy 
for "all sorts and conditions of men," and 
manifested a constant spirit of helpfulness, 
though his naturally reserved nature ever 
caused him to avoid all of ostentation or pa- 
rade. All in all, he was a man of sterling 
attributes, and as such his life counted for 
good in all its relations. 

In 1836 Mr. Haigh was united in marriage 
to Miss Bessie Williams, daughter of Thomas 
Williams, of Poughkeepsie, New York, and 
she died six years later. In 1844 he married 
Miss Lucy Billings Allyn, of Waterloo, New 
York, whose beautiful and gentle character 
fully complemented his own. Of the five chil- 
dren three were born of the first marriage and 
two of the second. Concerning them the fol- 
lowing brief data are given : Captain George 
W., who served with distinction through- 
out the civil war and who was captain of 
Company D, Twenty-fourth Michigan Volun- 
teer Infantry, is now a resident of Mankato 
Minnesota; Dr. Thomas Haigh, who died in 
1 87 1, was a representative physician and sur- 
geon in the city of New York ; Bessie W wife 
of Professor Frank A. Gulley, died in Phoenix 



Arizona, in 1902; Richard Haigh, Jr., was 
formerly secretary of the Michigan State 
Agricultural College but is now residing on 
the old homestead, in Dearborn; Henry A. 
Haigh is successfully engaged in the practice 
of law in Detroit and is individually mentioned 
on other pages of this work. 

A revelation of the true character of the 
subject of this memoir is to be found in the 
intimate estimates given by his sons in a spe- 
cial memorial issued by them after his death, 
for private circulation, and there can be no 
impropriety in offering in the present connec- 
tion brief extracts from the offering there made 
by his son Henry Allyn Haigh : 

"My father lived in Dearborn for more than 
half a century. He ruled the paternal acres of 
the family homestead longer than any sover- 
eign reigned in England, save only Queen Vic- 
toria, whom he venerated. Though nearly ten 
years her senior, and she probably the oldest 
queen in human history, he survived her sev- 
eral years. He was, however, a very staunch 
and true American, and when the test came, he 
sent two sons to help defend the nation's life. 
* * * My father lived to a great age, 
nearly a century, and he lived in a way that 
brought him a long, comfortable twilight of 
healthful repose. He achieved something of 
the ideal which sanitarians and scientists pre- 
dict may become possible for all humanity 
under favorable conditions. Long life is what 
we all strive for, but it is of little value if it is 
dragged out in pain, poverty, dependence and 
distress. Such was not father's fate. His life 
was so well ordered that after the Scriptural 
allotment of time had expired, after he had 
striven, achieved and acquitted himself, he was 
left with a quarter of a century of comfortable 
existence, — not idle existence by any means, 
but rational and helpful and satisfying. A 
quality well worthy of emulation in this spend- 
thrift age was his thorough mastery and 
habitual practice of a practical economy which 
simply compelled success. There was no luck 
nor chance nor fortune in his life. His ac- 
quired competence and ability for the full dis- 
charge of every obligation, the care of his de- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



423 



pendents, the education of his children and 
their establishment in life, and his long subse- 
quent period of useful life on the 'sunny side 
of Easy street, were simply the inevitable re- 
sults of his persistent course of economic prac- 
tice. * * * 'Yhe modern fortuitous phase 
of human effort was a sealed book to him. He 
did know, however, that well directed and 
faithful labor rarely failed of reasonable re- 
ward, and upon that principle he worked, and 
he worked hard. He got what he wanted and, 
though he never said so, I think he felt fairly 
well satisfied. Surely in a life like this there 
is something worth thinking about. I doubt 
if he thought much about it himself, but if I 
were to sum up the substance of his methods 
of success, I would express it in two words, — 
regularity and moderation. These, with per- 
sistence, were the keynotes of his career." 

The death of the second wife of Mr. Haigh 
occurred on the 24th of September, 1903, and 
concerning the remainder of his life we draw 
further from the article from which the pre- 
ceding extracts are made : "As long as mother 
lived he experienced something of the old 
charm of living, but when she died, though he 
never said it, the light of his life went out. 
He seemed lost, as one in a dream. He was 
inclined to wander aimlessly and take little 
note of matters near at hand. His mind drifted 
back to early days. He talked of his mother 
tenderly and reverently, of his brothers, spe- 
cially of his brother John and his uncle Will- 
iam, and of the trials and triumphs of the days 
of long ago. Passing events could not arouse 
his interest. His vision was fixed on some- 
thing far away. Surrounded with every care 
and comfort that affection and solicitude could 
bestow, attended by his three sons and by 
other relatives who watched him lovingly, the 
end came — peacefully and painlessly — and his 
frail body, that had served so well, was laid in 
the village cemetery on the hillside overlook- 
ing the scenes of his long and useful life." 



EMORY W. CLARK. 

When it is stated that Mr. Clark is a repre- 
sentative of the third generation of his family 
to be officially identified with the First Na- 



tional Bank of Detroit, of which he is now 
vice-president, an idea may be gained of how 
prominently the family name has been identi- 
fied with the history of banking in this city. In 
1859 his grandfather, ex-Governor Myron H. 
Clark of New York state, was one of those 
primarily instrumental in the organization of 
the State Bank of Michigan, which began op- 
erations in February of that year. Interested 
in this institution also from the start was Lo- 
renzo E. Clark, father of the subject of this 
sketch. It was organized under the free bank- 
ing law of the state, being the only one ever es- 
tablished under this law until after the imlim- 
ited-liability clause was eliminated. This bank 
went into voluntary liquidation in January, 
1865, and its business was transferred to the 
First National Bank, of which Mr. Clark be- 
came vice-president, holding this office until 
the expiration of its charter, in 1882. A re- 
organization at once took place, under the same 
title, and Lorenzo E. Clark became cashier un- 
der the new regime, later being chosen vice- 
present, of which position he continued incum- 
bent until May, 1899, when he resigned, after 
long and faithful service, and made permanent 
retirement from business. 

Emory W. Clark, the immediate subject of 
this review, was born in Detroit, on the loth 
of July, 1868, and is a son of Lorenzo E. and 
Elizabeth (Sheley) Clark. He was reared to 
maturity in his native city, to whose schools 
he is indebted for his early educational disci- 
pline. At the age of nineteen years he assumed 
a clerical position in the office of the wholesale 
drug house of Farrand, Williams & Company, 
with whom he remained three years. In 1890 
he organized the Clark Can Company, and be- 
gan the manufacturing of tin cans for the use 
of the packers of meats, fruits, etc. The enter- 
prise became one of the important manufactur- 
ing industries of Detroit, its output in a single 
year having reached the enormous aggregate 
of fifteen millions of cans. The company was 
incorporated with a capital stock of fifty thou- 
sand dollars, had a finely equipped plant, util- 
izing a substantial four-story building, and 
employment was given to one hundred persons. 
Mr. Clark was president of the company from 



424 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the time of its organization until 1901, when 
the property and business were sold to the 
American Can Company. Thereafter Mr. 
Clark gave his attention to other capitalistic 
investments, and he organized the National 
Silica Company, of Monroe. Upon the death 
of Senator James McMillan he was elected a 
member of the directorate of the First National 
Bank, in which he had been a stockholder for 
a number of years prior to this time, and in 
1904 he was elected 2d vice-president of the 
bank, of which position he has since remained 
incumbent, giving the major portion of his 
time and attention to the executive affairs of 
this institution, a history of which appears else- 
where in this compilation. Mr. Clark was one 
of the chief promoters and organizers of the 
Security Trust Company, and the major por- 
tion of its stock was sold through his inter- 
position and effective efforts. Of this corpora- 
tion he is vice-president, and since 1902 he 
has been a director also of the Home Savings 
Bank. He is also a member of the directorates 
of the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation 
Company, the Wabash Portland Cement Com- 
pany, and other important industrial corpora- 
tions of Detroit and the state. He is known as 
an alert, progressive business man, — one of 
those to whom is due the magnificent industrial 
development of Detroit within the last decade. 
He is a valued member of the Board of Com- 
merce and is chairman of its executive commit- 
tee, and is a member of the board of directors 
of the New York Mutual Life Insurance Com- 
pany. He is identified with the Detroit Club 
and other local organizations of a civic or so- 
cial order, is a staunch advocate of the princi- 
ples and policies of the Republican party, and 
is a member of the Jefferson Avenue Presby- 
terian church. 

In 1895 Mr. Clark was united in marriage 
to Miss Lucie H. Wing, who was born and 
reared in Kentucky. 



JAMES DWYER. 

Far into the perspective stretches the history 
of Mr. Dwyer's association with the industrial 
and civic life of Detroit, and he has long been 



a prominent figure in the business world, hav- 
ing risen from the plane of small beginnings to 
that of commanding position as one of the cap- 
tains of industry in our great republic. He 
is now vice-president and general manager of 
the Peninsular Stove Company, whose upbuild- 
ing has been in largest measure due to him, as 
is shown in the special article devoted to the 
company on other pages of this work. Ad- 
equate data concerning the family history of 
Mr. Dwyer are offered in the sketch of the life 
of his elder brother, Jeremiah Dwyer, in this 
publication, so that a further resume is not de- 
manded in the present connection. It is, how- 
ever, particularly suggested that in connection 
with the present sketch the reader make ref- 
erence to the two just mentioned, as thus will 
be gained a comprehensive view of the career 
of Mr. Dwyer. 

Mr. Dwyer finds no little source of pride in 
the fact that he can claim Detroit as the place 
of his nativity. He was born in this city on 
the 6th of September, 1842, and here he was 
reared and educated; here has been the scene 
of his life's fruitful and earnest labors. His 
early educational advantages were those af- 
forded in the schools of the city, and his mem- 
ory recalls many pleasurable incidents clinging 
about the old Barstow school, which he at- 
tended. At the age of fourteen years he en- 
tered upon an apprenticeship to the machin- 
ist's trade, in the Hydraulic Iron Works, owned 
and operated by Charies Kellogg & Company. 
Endowed with much natural mechanical ability 
and thoroughly enjoying his work, he made 
rapid progress in his command of technical and 
practical knowledge and soon became a skilled 
artisan. In 1859 Mr. Dwyer went to the state 
of New York, for the purpose of amplifying 
his experience in connection with his chosen 
vocation, and he worked at his trade in various 
cities and towns along the Hudson river, con- 
tinuing a resident of the old Empire state, the 
former home of his parents, until 1866. At 
Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1862, was sol- 
emnized his marriage to Miss Susan Lane, who 
was born in Ireland, and came to the United 
States as a child. She was a daughter of 





L-^-^^^^cS*/ 




DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



425 



William and Ellen (Davern) Lane, and her 
father was a railroad man by vocation. 

In 1866 Mr. Dwyer returned to Detroit and 
joined his brother in the foundry and machine 
business, under the firm name of J. Dwyer & 
Company. They began the manufacture of 
stoves, and the enterprise thus founded was 
that from which has been built up the magni- 
ficent industry now represented in the opera- 
tions of the Peninsular Stove Company. Of 
his association with this great concern a due 
outline is given in the article pertaining to the 
same, and to said sketch reference should be 
made for data concerning his rise to his pres- 
ent position of prominence in the industrial 
world. Mr. Dwyer is also a stockholder in the 
Security Trust Company and the People's State 
Bank, being recognized as one of the substan- 
tial capitalists and able and public-spirited 
business men of his native city. 

In politics Mr. Dwyer has never been an 
active factor, but he is ever loyal to the duties 
of citizenship and exercises his franchise in 
support of the principles and policies for which 
the Democrats stand sponsor. 

Of tlie children of Mr. Dwyer the following 
data are given : William H., who died January 
13, 1902, was treasurer of the Peninsular 
Stove Company at time of his death ; Mary E. 
is the wife of Daniel F. Crowley, of Detroit; 
Jeremiah J., who died October 11, 1901, was 
also associated with his father, as assistant su- 
perintendent of the stove works; Sarah E., 
now Mrs. Kinnucken, of Detroit; James M. 
is treasurer of the Peninsular Stove Company; 
Edwin L. is purchasing agent of the same com- 
pany; Albert E. also is connected with this 
company ; and Blanche S. is at the paternal 
home. Mrs. Dwyer passed to the life eternal 
April 3, 1902. 



JEROME H. BISHOP. 

To the larger and surer vision there is no 
such thing as luck. No man achieves anything 
worthy until he learns the power of conviction 
and, appreciative thereof, bends his energies to 
the accomplishing of a definite purpose. 
Among the representative citizens and influ- 



ential business men of Wayne county is Mr. 
Bishop, who has risen to a position of marked 
precedence in the commercial world by the vig- 
orous assertion of courage, staying power, 
pluck and determination. His has been the 
conviction born of the consciousness of 
strength and of integrity of purpose, and thus 
has his success-position been amply fortified at 
all times. With scarcely nominal capitalistic 
reinforcement, but equipped with ambition, de- 
termination and strong intellectual powers, he 
proved equal to emergencies as they arose in 
his path, pushing forward until he now stands 
at the head of the most important industrial 
enterprise of its kind, that controlled by the 
J. H. Bishop Company, of Wyandotte, manu- 
facturers of fur coats and robes. On other 
pages of this work is given a description of the 
company, so that a repetition of the data is not 
demanded in the present connection. 

Mr. Bishop is a native of the old Empire 
state of the Union and is a scion of distin- 
guished and patrician stock. He was born in 
Jefferson county. New York, on the 3d of Sep- 
tember, 1846, and is a son of William and 
Betsey Jerome (Stearns) Bishop, both of whom 
were likewise born in New York state. The 
original progenitor of the Bishop family in 
America was Richard Bishop, who was born 
in Ipswich, England, and who immigrated to 
the New World in 1628. He was a member of 
the colony formed at historic old Salem, Mas- 
sachusetts, and was a personal friend of the 
illustrious Governor Endicott. The mother of 
the subject of this review was a representative 
of the prominent and influential Jerome family 
whose name has been so conspicuously identi- 
fied with the annals of the state of New York. 
The founder of this family in America was 
Timothy Jerome, who was a native of the Isle 
of Wight, whence he came to America between 
1694 and 1713, settling in Wallingford, Con- 
necticut. The mother of Mr. Bishop was a 
daughter of Zabina Stearns and Betsey (Je- 
rome) Sterns, the latter of whom was the 
only daughter of Aaron Jerome. Aaron Je- 
rome had four sons, Aaron, Judge Hi- 
ram, Isaac and Lefifens. Aaron's sons. 



426 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Leonard, Lawrence, and Addison, settled 
in New York city. A member of the 
family is Mrs. George Cornwallis West, of 
England, who, as Jennie Jerome, daughter of 
Leonard Jerome, first married Lord Randolph 
Churchill, after whose death she became the 
wife of George Cornwallis West. She is a sec- 
ond cousin of the subject of this review, as is 
also William Travers Jerome, the distinguished 
district attorney in New York city. 

William Bishop, the father of our subject, 
was a man who ever commanded the confi- 
dence and esteem of all who knew him. 

Jerome Halland Bishop duly availed him- 
self of the advantages of the common schools 
of his native county, and supplemented this 
discipline by a course of study in an academy 
at Redwood, New York. He gave much time 
to private study and perfected himself in the 
higher branches of academic learning. In 
1869 he came to Michigan, where he assumed 
the position of superintendent of the public 
schools of Decatur, Van Buren county. In 
1 871 he came to Wyandotte, of whose schools 
he continued superintendent until 1875, prov- 
ing a most able and popular instructor and 
capable executive. In 1875 he resigned the 
superintendency and engaged in the manufac- 
turing of fur and skin rugs; fur coats and 
robes were added in 1890. He thus laid the 
foundation for the great enterprise now con- 
ducted under the title of the J. H. Bishop 
Company. For further details reference may 
be made to the article descriptive of the history 
of this company. 

In addition to being one of the most in- 
fluential and successful business men of Wyan- 
dotte, Mr. Bishop has ever stood exponent of 
the highest type of loyal and public-spirited 
citizenship. With the multifarious and exact- 
ing demands of business, he has not hedged 
himself in therewith but has given his aid and 
influence in support of all measures projected 
for the general good of the community and has 
been a leader in public action along such lines. 
In 1885 he was elected mayor of the city of 
Wyandotte, giving a most able and progressive 
administration, the popular appreciation of 



which was indicated by his being chosen as his 
own successor, without opposition, in the elec- 
tion of the succeeding year. During his regime 
as mayor he was also president of the board of 
education, to which he gave the benefit of his 
long experience and fine technical knowledge 
concerning pedagogic affairs. He was the 
prime factor in securing from the board of 
aldermen an appropriation for the establishing 
of a public library in Wyandotte. The finan- 
cial affairs of the city were such that it was 
unable consistently to grant sufficient funds to 
place the library in proper status, and to meet 
the exigencies of the case Mr. Bishop con- 
tributed personally for about eight years an 
amount equal to that given each year by the 
city for the sustaining and amplification of the 
library. This is but one of many instances in 
which his public spirit and practical philan- 
thropy have been manifested. He continued 
his donations to the library until it became pos- 
sible for the city to support the same without 
such aid from him. He has ever shown a most 
lively interest in educational matters in his 
home city and in all that has fostered the moral 
and civic welfare of the community. In 1905 
he was again elected mayor of the city, and 
through successive re-elections he has since re- 
mained incumbent of this office. He has di- 
rected the municipal government according to 
strict business principles, is progressive in his 
policy but never lends encouragement to ex- 
travagance in any form. Within his adminis- 
tration as mayor he has secured many substan- 
tial city improvements, including the paving of 
Biddle avenue, the principal business street of 
the city, also Oak and First streets and the 
opening of Superior boulevard, besides the 
curbing and grading of all other streets. A 
much needed sewerage system has been com- 
pleted ; the municipal electric-lighting plant has 
been rebuilt and an entirely new system in- 
stalled. He is now making a specially ener- 
getic campaign to secure the construction of a 
filtration plant which will insure to the city an 
adequate supply of pure water for domestic and 
other purposes. Mr. Bishop served as a mem- 
ber of the board of control of the state house 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



427 



of correction at Ionia during the administra- 
tion of the late Governor Pingree, and while 
he is a staunch advocate of the principles of 
the Republican party he has not been an as- 
pirant for offices of a political nature. For 
many years he has been a member of the board 
of trustees of Olivet College, at Olivet, Michi- 
gan. He has advanced to high degrees in 
the Masonic fraternity, being identified with 
Michigan Sovereign Consistory of the Ancient 
Accepted Scottish Rite, and with Moslem Tem- 
ple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the 
Mystic Shrine, in Detroit, where he also 
is affiliated with Damascus Commandery, 
Knights Templars. He is a member of the 
Detroit Club, the Old Club, at St. Clair Flats, 
and the North Anderson Shooting Club, and 
is a member of the Electoral College for the 
second district for 1908. 

Mr. Bishop is a man of strong and deep re- 
ligious convictions, and he exemplifies his faith 
in all the relations of life. For the past thirty 
years he has served as superintendent of the 
Sunday school of the First Congregational 
church of Wyandotte, and he has been active 
in all other departments of the church work. 
In 1903 he commissioned the firm of William 
Wright & Company, of Detroit, to secure the 
best possible plans for the old English Gothic 
type of church architecture, and Frederick 
Foote, a member of that firm, made a careful 
survey of such ancient church structures in 
England, and in harmony with his reports 
plans and specifications were submitted to Mr. 
Bishop, who then had erected from the same 
the beautiful edifice of the First Congrega- 
tional church in Wyandotte. This building, 
completed at a cost of thirty thousand dollars, 
was by him presented to the congregation and 
was dedicated in 1904. The edifice is pro- 
nounced by authoritative critics to be the best 
example of the old Gothic church architecture 
to be found in America. Though making this 
splendid benefaction Mr. Bishop, with char- 
acteristic modesty, would not permit the use 
of his name in connection with that of the 
church, but insisted that the original title 
should be retained. It is needless to say that 



the magnificent building is a source of pride 
to all citizens of Wyandotte, and it will remain 
as a worthy and perpetual memorial to the 
honored citizen through whose consecrated 
generosity its erection was made possible. No 
citizen of Wyandotte has been more public- 
spirited than Mr. Bishop, and his entire career 
has been guided and governed by inflexible de- 
votion to principle and by a desire to aid and 
uplift his fellow men. He is to-day a most 
conspicuous figure in the business and civic life 
of his home city, and to him is accorded the 
most unequivocal confidence and regard in the 
community to whose wellbeing he has con- 
tributed in so liberal a measure. He is a man 
of fine intellectuality and finds much of pleas- 
ure and solace in reading and study of the 
best in classical and modern literature. His 
beautiful residence, the most pretentious in 
Wyandotte, is a veritable center of gracious 
hospitality. 

In 1867 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Bishop to Miss Jennie Gray, daughter of Rich- 
ard Gray, of Redwood, New York. She was 
summoned to the life eternal in 1873, being 
survived by one daughter, Maud, who is now 
the wife of William J. Burns, of Wyandotte, 
secretary of the J. H. Bishop Company. In 
1876 Mr. Bishop contracted a second marriage, 
being then united to Miss Ella M. Clark, 
daughter of Isaac Clark, who was one of the 
first settlers in Wyandotte and one of the most 
influential citizens of this section of the county. 
Mr. and Mrs. Bishop have four children, — 
Jerome H., Jr., Delia, Mabel, and Wallace 
Clark. 

Jerome H. Bishop, Jr., who is vice-presi- 
dent of the J. H. Bishop Company, was grad- 
uated in the Detroit School for Boys, as a 
member of the class of 1896, and in 1896-8 
he was a student in the Sheffield scientific 
school of Yale University. In 1900 he was 
united in marriage to Miss Helen Chapin, 
daughter of Charles A. Chapin, who was at 
one time a resident of Niles, Michigan, and 
who now maintains his home in the city of 
Chicago. The children of this marriage are : 
Helen, Evelyn and Jerome H. (3d). 



428 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



BRADFOED SMITH. 

There is no need for conjecture or uncer- 
tainty in determining as to the value and suc- 
cess of the life of the late Bradford Smith, 
who was one of Detroit's foremost educators 
and philanthropists and who realized in the 
most significant sense that the true success is 
not that gained through commercial pre-emi- 
nence or personal aggrandizement, but rather 
that which lies in the eterenal verities of 
human sympathy and helpfulness. His was 
not a worldly success, in the accepted applica- 
tion of the term, but he left the greater heri- 
tage of noble thoughts and noble deeds. He 
was a man qf broad intellectuality and viewed 
life and its responsibilities in their right pro- 
portions. He was not given to half-views and 
rash inferences. The leap from the particular 
to the general is ever tempting to the thought- 
less, but not to this man of strength and judg- 
ment and lofty motives. It is well that in a 
publication of this nature be incorporated a 
tribute to his memory and to his services as 
humanity's friend. He died at his home, loo 
Maybury Grand avenue, Detroit, on the 8th of 
September, 1906, one of the honored and ven- 
erated pioneers of the Michigan metropolis. 
Few men have left such an impress upon 
public men and institutions in Detroit as had 
Mr. Smith. Scores of prominent men and 
women received their early education under his 
guidance, while in the matter of looking after 
wayward boys he originated methods thirty 
years ago that are followed by the juvenile 
courts to-day. In all the relations of life his 
devotion to principle and to duty was abso- 
lutely inviolable, and his was a deep and abid- 
ing human sympathy and tolerance. 

Bradford Smith was born at Moira, Frank- 
lin county. New York, in 1820, and his earlier 
educational training was secured in the schools 
of his native village, after which he continued 
his studies in Potsdam Academy. Through 
his own efforts he was enabled to continue his 
educational work in the higher branches, and 
in due course of time he was graduated in 
Oberlin College, at Oberlin, Ohio, from which 
institution he received the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts and later that of Master of Arts. He 



had been a successful teacher before entering 
college, and through his pedagogic labors 
mainly did he secure the funds which enabled 
him to prosecute his studies at Oberlin. 

In 1851 Mr. Smith came to Detroit, and 
here he was offered the position of principal of 
the old Eighth ward school, now known as the 
Houghton school. There he remained for 
eight years, giving an administration along 
lines never before introduced in Detroit. In 
this school he was "guide, counselor and 
friend" to many who have since become promi- 
nent in the public, civic and business affairs of 
the state and nation. He originated the graded 
system of schools in Detroit, and the Brad- 
ford Smith school, at the corner of Hunt and 
Ellery streets, was named in his honor. 

Mr. Smith was even better known for his 
work among street waifs and newsboys of De- 
troit than for any other feature of his philan- 
thropic work. His labor among young people 
led him to advocate a systematic supen-ision 
of street boys. The late Hon. John J. Bagley, 
former governor of the state, became inter- 
ested in his ideas and in 1875 appointed him 
commissioner of charities for Wayne county, 
— an office of which he remained incumbent for 
several years. Mr. Smith obtained an ordi- 
nance licensing newsboys and bootblacks and 
placing them under the supervision of the 
mayor. He then succeeded in having police ' 
officers detailed, in citizens' clothes, to look 
after the street boys, thus forming the nucleus 
of the present truant squad. He secured the 
establishment of the ungraded or truant school 
and out of his own income provided needy 
boys with clothes. For many years he spent 
more in this noble charity than he did for the 
maintenance of his own family, devoting the 
greater portion of his time to the work. He was 
numbered among the early members of the 
Fort Street Presbyterian church, and for years 
was a member of its board of deacons. Later 
he transferred his membership to Calvary 
church, in the vicinity of his home, and for 
more than thirty years he was an elder in the 
same, besides serving for many years as super- 
intendent of its Sunday school. His principal 
vocation after laying aside school work was the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



429 



real-estate business, in which he platted many 
pieces of property which are now thickly pop- 
ulated. At the outbreak of the civil war he 
organized a company and started for the front, 
but received a serious injury to his knee and 
was incapacitated for active service. He re- 
turned home but maintained a substitute during 
the war. 

In 185 1 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Smith to Miss Lucia Weston, of New York 
city, and her death occurred about 1865. In 
1869 he married Miss Julia Spencer, and her 
death occurred in 1889. Surviving the honored 
subject of this memoir are four sons and one 
daughter, of whom three are children of the 
first marriage. Frederick B. (individually men- 
tioned on other pages of this work), Joseph W. 
and Lucia Weed Smith still reside in Detroit ; 
A. Weston Smith is a resident of New York 
city, and Henry S. Smith of Chicago. 

In several lines the ancestry of Mr. Smith 
can be traced to Pilgrims, Puritans, Huguenots 
and other early settlers of the New England 
colonies. His great-grandfather, Eleazer 
Smith, was a valiant soldier in the Continental 
line in the war of the Revolution and was 
wounded in the battle of Bunker Hill. His 
father, Captain Bradford Smith, was an officer 
in the war of 1812, though only a boy at that 
time. In a more remote way the lineage is 
traced to Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, 
William the Conqueror, and Henry de Bohun, 
the last named having been one of the feudal 
barons who secured the passage of the Magna 
Charta of England. A line of descent from 
Edward I of England has been published, and 
is based upon manuscripts in the British Mu- 
seum. 

In conclusion are offered extracts from an 
editorial which appeared in the Detroit Free 
Press of September 10, 1906: "Bradford Smith 
was one of Detroit's foremost educators and 
philanthropists. It is more often that we have 
citizens to honor who have achieved commer- 
cial success. Here was a man who gave to the 
city more than he received. He cut off from 
himself all hopes of worldly advancement. He 
demonstrated how a citizen may be a philan- 
thropist without having wealth. The methods 



which he initiated years ago in the treatment 
of wayward boys and neglected waifs outlined 
the policies of the juvenile courts of to-day. 
There was something of the Froebel about him. 
Long before modern teaching methods had 
been fixed or even recognized, he put them to 
use. Our schools were first graded by him. His 
pupils at the old Houghton school give ample 
testimony in their frequent remembrances of 
his lovable character. It is much to have lived 
this life of pre-eminent usefulness in the com- 
munity and to have died greatly respected at 
the ripe age of eighty-six years.' The eighty- 
six years of Bradford Smith's strong, courag- 
eous, cheerful life attest that the return in 
pleasure has been greater than the decimal sys- 
tem can account." 

At the time of the death of Mr. Smith for- 
mer mayor William C. Maybury, who had been 
his pupil in the old Houghton school, spoke of 
him in the following words of appreciation : 
"Our old master is gone, but there is great 
comfort in the fact that he lived so long, was 
so much loved and will be so long remem- 
bered." 



GEORGE BECK. 

The subject of this memoir was recognized 
as one of the leading representatives of the 
live-stock and wholesale meat interests of De- 
troit, and at the time of his death, on the 12th 
of March, 1908, was the only person conduct- 
ing individual operations in his particular line 
of industry in the city, where his business was 
one of high relative importance and scope. He 
had been a factor in political affairs in the city 
and as a member of the common council he 
made a record redounding in credit to himself 
as a loyal and progressive citizen and to the 
welfare of the city itself and its people. He 
was well and favorably known in Detroit, with 
whose business interests he first identified him- 
self more than half a century ago, so that he 
was entitled to classification with our pioneer 
business men. 

Mr. Beck claimed as the place of his nativity 
the "right little, tight little isle" of England, 
having been born at Tiverton, Devonshire, on 



430 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



f 



the 27th of August, 1843, ^nd having been a 
son of William B. and Anna (Lee) Beck, both 
representative of staunch old English families. 
In 1850, -when the subject of this sketch was a 
lad of seven years, the family immigrated to 
America, first settling in Memphis, Tennessee, 
whence shortly afterward they removed to 
Cleveland, Ohio, where they remained until 
1852, when they took up their residence in De- 
troit, where the parents passed the remainder 
of their lives, the father having followed as his 
principal vocation, the trade of stone mason. 
Mr. Beck's early educational advantages were 
limited, but he fully availed himself of such 
privileges as were accorded, having secured his 
rudimentary training in his native land and 
supplemented this by attending the common 
schools in America when opportunity offered.. 
As a boy he secured employment in the meat 
market of Smith & Coles, of Detroit, with 
which firm he remained four years, gaining 
practical knowledge of the business in which he 
later was destined to attain so marked individ- 
ual success. In 1857 Mr. Beck entered the em- 
ploy of William Wreford, who at that time 
conducted a retail meat market in the old Cen- 
tral market building, on the present Cadillac 
Square, and who was practically the first to en- 
gage m the wholesale meat business in Detroit 
In 1862 Mr. Beck began buying cattle in the 
Chicago stock-yards, for Detroit, Buffalo and 

of Mr. Wreford, who entrusted him with mosi 
responsible duties aud reposed in him implicit 
confidence. Mr. Beck later covered the St 
Louis market also, and in the meanwhile he 
maintained his home for the major portion of 
the time in Detroit. 

In 1890 Mr. Beck, who had in the mean- 
while become a well known factor in the live- 
stock trade, effected the organization of the 
Michigan Beef & Provision Companv, in which 
he became the heaviest stockholder, holding the 
offices of president, treasurer and general man- 
ager of the company. The business showed a 
steady and substantial expansion under his 
direction and in 1905 he purchased the inter- 
ests of all other stockholders and assumed full 



control of the enterprise, of which he contin- 
ued th-e owner, until his death, the business 
having been conducted under his name after 
the change noted. The annual transactions of 
the concern now represent an average aggre- 
gate of fully one million dollars, and the well 
equipped abattoirs, modern in all accessories 
and sanitary arrangements, are eligibly located 
at the juncture of Dix and Waterman avenues, 
convenient to the stock-yards. Mr. Beck gave 
employment to a force of about sixty men and 
paid out annually in wages more than fifty 
thousand dollars, so that his business has had 
a direct as well as reflex value in connection 
with the industrial activities of the city and 
state. The original plant was erected in 1886, 
but has since been remodeled, and enlarged and 
equipped with the most approved machinery 
and facilities. An average of two hundred and 
fifty cattle, five hundred sheep and one hundred 
and fifty calves are handled in the abattoirs and 
packing house each week. Mr. Beck was a 
member of the National Butchers' Association 
for many years, and had the distinction of be- 
ing elected treasurer of the organization the 
night after he identified himself therewith, in 
1888. In the following year he was chosen as 
his own successor in this office, and he long 
continued active in the affairs of the associa- 
tion. 

For many years Mr. Beck was a zealous 
worker in the cause of the Republican party, 
of whose principles and policies he was a stal- 
wart advocate. He was one of the staunch 
friends and supporters of the late Governor : 
Hazen S. Pingree. whom he aided materially 
in his work both as governor of Michigan and 
as mayor of Detroit. In 1892 Mr. Beck was '■ 
elected a member of the common council, and 
he was re-elected to the body in 1894 and 1896, 
thus serving three consecutive terms. He was 
independent and loyal in his labors as a mem- 
ber of the municipal body and made his influ- 
ence felt in no uncertain way,— always for the 
benefit of the city and its people. The esteem 
hi which he was held in the council was shown 
in his election to the presidency of the same in 
1894 and again in i897,onwhich latter occasion 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



431 



balloting was repeated ninety-seven times be- 
fore a decisive choice was made. Mr. Beck was 
the first Republican alderman elected from the 
eighth ward of the city, and in this office he 
rendered efficient and timely service. As pre- 
siding officer in the council he won distinctive 
commendation for his ability and his impreg- 
nable honesty of purpose, being firm in his be- 
liefs and working earnestly to conserve the 
welfare of the city, while he was a strong advo- 
cate of the somewhat unique policies introduced 
by Mr. Pingree when mayor, — policies which 
in the end justified themselves most fully in the 
popular mind. Mr. Beck was a delegate to the 
Republican state conventions of Michigan in 
1892, 1894 and 1896. He attained to distin- 
guished advancement in the time-honored Ma- 
sonic fraternity, having been affiliated with 
Union Lodge, No. 3, Free & Accepted Masons; 
Monroe Chapter, No. i, Royal Arch Masons; 
Damascus Commandery, No. 42, Knights 
Templars; and Michigan Sovereign Consist- 
ory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Ma- 
sonry, in which he attained to the thirty-second 
degree; he also held membership in Moslem 
Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles 
of the Mystic Shrine. He was a life member 
of the Detroit Yacht Club, and a director of 
the German Salesmen's Society and the Detroit 
Bowling Club. He gave freely to churches, and 
to charitable objects. 

The marriage of Mr. Beck was solemnized 
on the 5th of November, 1863, when he was 
united to Miss Minna A. Miller, daughter of 
David Miller, who was a well known farmer 
of Wayne county, Michigan. Mrs. Beck was 
summoned to the life eternal on the 3rd of 
December, 1893, and she is survived by two 
daughters — Minna E., who is the wife of Hal 
B. West, a cigar manufacturer in Detroit ; and 
Maude E., who is the wife of Raymond D. 
Aldrich, and who resides in Detroit. 



CLAUDIUS H. CANDLER. 

Forty years of continuous business stands 
to the credit of that important Detroit institu- 
tion conducted under the name of the Calvert 
Lithographing Company. It is known as one 



of the largest concerns of the sort in the west 
and is one whose reputation extends through- 
out the entire Union. On other pages of this 
work appears a specific history of the com- 
pany, and thus it is not necessary to enter into 
further resume in the present sketch, which 
has to do with the life record of the able 
president of this corporation, which has done 
much to extend the fame of Detroit in a com- 
mercial way. 

Mr. Candler is a native of the city of Lon- 
don, England, where he was born on the loth 
of March, 1845, being a son of William and 
Letitia (Thomas) Candler, both of whom 
were born and reared in England, where the 
father died. In 1853, the mother, accom- 
panied by her two youngest sons and one 
daughter — four elder sons having already 
made their home here — came to America, lo- 
cating in Detroit, where she passed the residue 
of her life, being summoned into eternal rest 
in 1 87 1. The subject of this sketch was about 
eight years of age at the time when the fam- 
ily home was established in Detroit, and here 
he was afforded the advantages of the public 
schools, including the high school. His entire 
business career has been one of consecutive 
identification with the line of enterprise with 
which he is now so prominently connected. 

In 1863 Mr. Candler entered upon an ap- 
prenticeship to the trade of lithographic en- 
graving, under the direction of John Gibson, 
a lithographer of distinctive talent in this line. 
Mr. Candler has been with what is now the 
Calvert Lithographing Company during the 
entire period of its existence. On the i6th 
of March, 1867, when the Calvert Lithograph- 
ing & Engraving Company was incorporated, 
he was chosen vice-president and secretary 
of the same, remaining incumbent of this po- 
sition during thirty years of its corporate life. 
Upon the death of Thomas Calvert, the hon- 
ored founder of the business, in 1900, Mr. 
Candler succeeded him in the presidency, and 
he has since remained the executive head of 
the great corporation in whose upbuilding he 
has been one of the most important factors. 

Mr. Candler has long been recognized as 



432 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



one of the representative business men and 
progressive citizens of the Michigan metropo- 
lis, where he has varied capitalistic interests 
aside from those in the Calvert Lithographing 
Company. He is president of the Detroit 
■ Casket Company, vice-president of the Roe- 
Stevens Manufacturing Company, and a mem- 
ber of the directorate of the Michigan Mutual 
Life Lisurance Company. He is president of 
the National Association of Employing Lith- 
ographers and is a valued member of the De- 
troit Board of Commerce. In politics he has 
ever accorded allegiance to the Republican 
party, and while he has never sought official 
preferment he has ever shown a deep interest 
in the conserving of efTective municipal gov- 
ernment in his home city. He is affiliated 
with the time-honored Masonic fraternity and 
is past commander of Detroit Commandery of 
Knights Templars. He and his wife are com- 
municants of the Protestant Episcopal church, 
holding membership in the parish of Grace 
church, of whose vestry he is senior warden. 
In 1871 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Candler to Miss Mary V. Kaple, daughter 
of the late Hon. John H. Kaple, of Detroit, 
and they have one child, Gertrude M., who is 
now the wife of Alexander K. Gage, of this 
city. 



JAMES McGregor. 

The honored iiresident of the Home Savings 
Bank is, as the name implies, of sturdy Scotch 
ancestry, the lineage being traced in all of au- 
thenticity to the historic clan McGregor, whose 
name has Ijeen one distinguished in song and 
story in the land of heath and heather. Mr. 
McGregor himself has the distinction of being 
a native Scotsman, having been born in 
Kincardineshire, Scotland, on the loth of 
March, 1830, and being a son of James Mc- 
Gregor. His mother, whose maiden name was 
Burnet, died when the subject of this review 
was a child. The father came to America in 
1857 and located at Hamilton, province of 
Ontario, Canada, where he gave his attention 
to agricultural pursuits, in connection with 
general contracting and building. He was also 



a millwright and did no little contract work in 
connection with this trade. He continued a 
resident of Ontario until his death, which oc- 
curred in 1876, his home having been on a 
farm in the vicinity of Hamilton. 

James McGregor, the subject of this sketch, 
was reared to maturity in his native county 
of Kincardine, where he was afforded the ad- 
vantages of the well conducted school of his 
own parish, laying a solid foundation for the 
successful career which was to be his in con- 
nection with the practical affairs of life. Under 
the direction of his father he served a thorough 
apprenticeship at the trades of millwright and 
joiner, and after perfecting himself in the same 
he worked as a journeyman in different places 
in Scotland and England, being thus engaged 
until 1855, when he came to America and took 
up his residence at Hamilton, Ontario, to which 
place his honored father came two years later. 
In Hamilton he secured employment as a me- 
chanic in the car department of the Great 
Western Railroad, now known as the Grand 
Trunk, and there remained four years, at the 
expiration of which he was sent by the same 
company to Sarnia, Ontario, to assume charge 
of the car department at that point, where he 
continued to reside until March, i860, when he 
came to Detroit, which city has since repre- 
sented his home and been the scene of his suc- 
cessful endeavors as a business man. 

Soon after locating in Detroit, nearly half a 
century ago, Mr. McGregor assumed the dis- 
charge of his duties as superintendent of the 
car department of the Detroit, Grand Haven 
& Milwaukee Railroad. He proved a most val- 
uable executive and was retained in service as 
superintendent of the car department until 
March, 1869, when he became superintendent 
of the Michigan Car Works, which position he 
held until 1892, when, upon the reorganization 
of the company, of which he had become a 
stockholder, he was continued in the office of 
general superintendent, of which he remained 
incumbent until 1897, when he retired, having 
so directed his course as to gain for himself 
a competency in the intervening years and hav- 
ing at all times commanded the implicit con- ; 
fidence and esteem of those with whom he was ' 





^^/^.^/ . 




4^^i.^i^ 




DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



433 



associated in a business or social way. His 
administrative ability in the offices which he 
thus held was on a parity with his mechanical 
skill and thus made him a particularly valuable 
factor in connection with the great industrial 
concern with which he was so long and inti- 
mately identified. He has made judicious in- 
vestments in real estate, including a valuable 
farm on the St. Clair river, near the city of the 
same name, and he is financially interested in 
important business enterprises in Detroit. He 
has been president of the Home Savings Bank 
since 1899, is a director of the Detroit Trust 
Company, and vice-president of the Detroit & 
Cleveland Stealm Navigation Company. His 
various capitalistic interests demand the major 
portion of his time and attention and his 
marked physical and mental vigor belie the 
years which have passed over his head. He 
has achieved success through personal effort 
and by worthy means, exemplifying that thrift 
and energy so characteristic of the race from 
which he sprung. He has been the artificer of 
his own fortune and realizes to the fullest ex- 
tent the method by which temporal success is 
to be gained. Now and then, to be sure, we 
hear of chance effects and happy accidents, but 
they are the exception rather than the rule. 
The "royal road" to success is the lazy man's 
dream, the easy explanation of the envious. 

In politics, as a loyal and public-spirited citi- 
zen, Mr. McGregor takes a deep interest in 
the generic sense, and he exercises his fran- 
chise in support of the principles for which the 
Republican party stands sponsor. He and his 
wife have been for many years zealous mem- 
bers of the Central Presbyterian church, and 
for twelve years he served as a member of its 
board of trustees. He is identified with the 
St. Clair Hunting and Fishing Club, the St. 
Andrew's Society and other social organiza- 
tions. 

In the year 1851, in Scotland, was solem- 
nized the marriage of Mr. McGregor to Miss 
Susan Christie, who was born and reared in 
Kincardineshire, that country, and of their 
seven children six are living, — two sons and 
four daughters. 



EDWARD H. DOYLE. 

If success be predicated from the mark of 
definite accomplishment in the utilization of 
one's individual powers and abihty, then Ed- 
ward H. Doyle, certainly has achieved suc- 
cess. Looking into the clear perspective of his 
career there may be seen the strong line of 
courage, persistence, determination and self- 
confidence which alone work to the point of 
sovereign power. Detroit has reason to take 
pride in claiming him as a citizen, even if 
consideration is taken of nothing further than 
his great work in connection with the Majestic 
building, the first, greatest and most imposing 
of all the distinctively modern business and 
office buildings in the city. Mr. Doyle's thor- 
ough confidence in the ultimate demands 
for such a building was the one force 
that made possible its completion in its present 
form, and it will ever stand as a monument 
and memorial to his name. He is owner of 
one-half interest in this fine structure and has 
other capitalistic interests in the city to whose 
material and civic progress he has contributed 
in so splendid a way. It is certainly consonant 
that at least a brief review of his life history 
be entered in this compilation, whose province 
is to afford due consideration of those who 
have been founders and builders of the 
"Greater Detroit," — a title whose justification 
is assured. 

Edward H. Doyle was born in the beautiful 
and historic old city of Quebec, Canada, on 
the 20th of April, 1849, ^"^ 'S a son of Law- 
rence and Bridget (Gahan) Doyle, both of 
whom were born in county Carlow, Ireland, 
being representatives of sterling old stock in 
the fair Emerald Island. The father was a 
man of fine intellectuality, having been 
afforded the advantages of the best of educa- 
tional institutions of his native land. In 1834 
he came to America and took up his residence 
in the city of Quebec, Canada, where he con- 
tinued to be engaged in the work of his pro- 
fession of teacher until his death, which oc- 
curred in 1852. He became one of the well 
known and popular educators of the province 
and wielded a wide and beneficent influence 
in his chosen field of endeavor. His widow 



434 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



survived him by many years and was called 
to the hfe eternal in 1871, both having been 
communicants of the Roman Catholic church. 
They became the parents of five sons and one 
daughter, of whom the daughter and three 
of the sons are living, all of the sons being now 
residents of the United States. 

Edward H. Doyle, the immediate subject of 
this review, was but three years of age at the 
time of the death of his father, and his mother 
soon afterward came with her family to Michi- 
gan and located in Bay City, Michigan, where 
she passed the remainder of her life. The 
financial condition of the family was one of 
almost penury, and thus the future associate 
owner of the Majestic building had the most 
limited of educational advantages in his youth, 
as he early began to depend upon his own re- 
sources and to assist in the support of his 
widowed mother. With the true dignity of 
one who has wrought out his own success, Mr. 
Doyle reverts to his early struggles with 
naught of subterfuge, being willing that all 
should know the obstacles which he had to 
overcome and that the lesson of emulation 
be learned by such as can appreciate the same. 
He is authority for the statement that his 
entire attendance in the school room never 
covered a period of more than one year for 
his entire life, and yet none familiar with his 
career can fail to discern how well he has 
profited by the educational advantages afforded 
in the broad school of experience. He is to-day 
a man of most alert mentality,mature judgment 
and broad intellectual grasp. From the time 
he was nine years of age until he had reached 
that of nineteen years he worked every week- 
day in a saw mill, devoting the major portion 
of his earnings to the care of his mother, whose 
love and guidance he recalls as one of the most 
precious and inviolate memories of his entire 
life. When twelve years old he swept out a 
country school, built the fires and tended the 
lamps for a writing teacher, who requited his 
services by giving him lessons in penmanship. 
The characteristic ambition of the man was 
thus early manifested in the boy, and, « indeed, 
one here finds a striking exemplification of the 



truth of the old adage that "the boy is father 
to the man." 

As a youth Mr. Doyle had been employed for 
several years in Bay City, where he remained 
until he was twenty years of age, when he 
went to Saginaw and entered the employ of 
B. B. Buckhout, who is still engaged in the 
hardware business in that city. At the age of 
twenty-three years Mr. Doyle married, thus 
assuming added responsibilities, and even after 
this he attended night school at such intervals 
as opportunity presented. A year after his 
marriage he entered the service of Thomas 
Nester, the well known lumberman, in whose 
employ he was stationed in the northern pin- 
eries for the ensuing three years. He then 
allied himself with Jacob Seligman, of Sag- 
inaw, widely known under the more familiar 
title of "Little Jake," and with this leading 
capitalist of the Saginaw Valley he remained 
several years, having financial charge of the 
many and varied financial interests of Mr. 
Seligman. 

In 1885 Mr. Doyle located at Wyandotte, 
Wayne county, where he engaged in the manu- 
facturing of hoops and staves, and with this 
industry he was actively identified at the time 
when he linked his fortunes with the Majestic 
building in Detroit. As originally projected 
and erected this building was fully a decade 
ahead of the times, and when, in 1896, the 
crash came, with the structure partly completed 
but not in shape to yield any returns, the situa- 
tion was at least disquieting to those whose 
investments were thus tied up. Mr. Doyle's 
confideatial friend and former patron, Mr. 
Seligman, held one-half of a second mortgage 
on the building, said mortgage being in the 
amount of three hundred thousand dollars, 
while the first mortgage represented eight hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars. As the build- 
ing stood it represented a practically losing in- 
vestment, and the only recourse on the part of 
those interested was to complete the structure. 
At a meeting of the contractors in the year 
mentioned Mr. Doyle was present as repre- 
sentative of Mr. Seligman, and the contractors 
finally agreed to carry forward the work to 
completion if Mr. Doyle would take the man- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



435 



agement. By this means only could they hope 
to protect their own involved interests as v^fell 
as those of the capitalistic principals. Under 
these conditions Doyle assumed the manage- 
ment of the work, though his original inten- 
tion was to remain identified with the same 
only for six months, within which time he 
was assured that the building could be com- 
pleted. The prescribed limitations set on a 
publication of this nature are such that it is 
neither necessary nor compatible to enter into 
details concerning the carrying forward of the 
great enterprise with which Mr. Doyle thus 
identified himself, but it should be said that 
all that the building represents in itself and to 
Detroit may be placed in largest measure to 
his credit. Of the conditions obtaining at the 
time he assumed control the following per- 
tinent statements have been made: "When 
erected the Majestic was ten years ahead of its 
time, but it was rightly planned for the growth 
of the city, as is proven by the many tall office 
buildings that have been erected in the mean- 
time. Edward H. Doyle was the first man to 
see Detroit's future as it really is to-day, and 
his foresight, so amply vindicated and crowned 
with success, caused him unmeasured criticism 
in the earlier years." He is now associated 
with Waldo A. Avery as half owner of the 
Majestic, whose valuation is placed at the 
highest of any single business building in the 
city, and his connection with the same repre- 
sents his chief capitalistic investment besides 
being a source of unmistakable pride, as well 
it may be. He is one of the largest stockhold- 
ers in the Peninsular Savings Bank, of which 
he served as vice-president for ten years, and 
he has other investments in and about Detroit, 
giving his supervision to his various interests 
and otherwise being virtually retired from 
active business, though still in the prime of a 
strong and vigorous manhood. Honest and 
loyal, straightforward and frank, Mr. Doyle 
has naught but contempt for insincerity and 
equivocal methods. He places a true valuation 
upon the man rather than his possessions and 
environments, and has the greatest respect for 
those who are the world's workers. In politics 
he gives his support to the Republican party. 



In the year 1872 Mr. Doyle was united in 
marriage to Miss Sarah J. Walsh, of Saginaw, 
and of their six children three are living: 
James B., Thomas J., and Mary E. 



RICHARD H. FYFE. 

The difiference between the generations of 
any country with a history is commonly not 
one of principle but of emphasis. The great 
American republic owes its magnificent up- 
building 10 the fact that it has developed men 
of distinct initiative power. There has been 
room for such men in every progressive busi- 
ness, however crowded it might be. The 
strength of the man with initiative is one both 
of ideas and the ability to shape those ideas 
into definite accomplishment. He knows how 
to make beginnings and how to expand his 
practical ideas according to demands or ulti- 
mate possibilities. Such a man in the commer- 
cial life of Detroit and Michigan is Richard 
Henry Fyfe, whose name has long represented 
a power in mercantile and financial circles in 
the metropolis of the state and whose advance- 
ment has come through his own ability, his 
own mastery of expedients. As one of Detroit's 
honored captains of industry he is specially 
worthy of consideration in this publication. 

Mr. Fyfe is a scion of one of the old and 
honored families of Scotland, with whose an- 
nals the name has been prominently identified 
for many generations. His grandfather, John 
Fyfe, was the first to adopt the present ortho- 
graphy of the name, whose original form was 
Fiffe. This worthy ancestor, who was a son 
of John Fif¥e, of Fifeshire, Scotland, was 
reared and educated in that county, whence he 
immigrated to America in 1775, settling in the 
colony of Massachusetts, near the city of Bos- 
ton. He showed his loyalty to the cause of 
independence by serving with the Massachu- 
setts troops while the seat of the war of the 
Revolution was near Boston, and his enroll- 
ment continued until victory crowned the col- 
onial arms. On the ist of February, 1786, 
John Fyfe married Elizabeth Strong, a de- 
scendant of John Strong, one of the founders 
of Dorchester, Massachusetts, to which colony 



436 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



he immigrated from England in 1730. The 
Strong family has been one of special distinc- 
tion in connection with American history, and 
has well been said, "Few families have had 
more educated or professional men among 
them." Soon after his marriage John Fyfe re- 
moved to Salisbury, Vermont, becoming one of 
the pioneers of that section of the old Green 
Mountain state, where his death occurred, on 
the 1st of January, 1813. His wife survived 
him by nearly a quarter of a century, her death 
occurring in November, 1835. They became 
the parents of four sons and three daughters, 
and the youngest of the number was Claudius 
Lucius Fyfe, father of him whose name ini- 
tiates this article. 

Claudius L. Fyfe was born in Vermont, 
January 3, 1798, and in his native state he was 
reared to manhood, receiving such educational 
advantages as were afforded in the somewhat 
primitive school of the locality and period. 
At Brandon, Vermont, on the 6th of April, 
1825, was solemnized his marriage to Abigail 
Gilbert, whose parents were numbered among 
the earliest settlers of Genesee county. New 
York. Claudius L. Fyfe was reared to agri- 
cultural pursuits, to which he devoted his at- 
tention during the eariier years of his inde- 
pendent career, and later he was engaged in 
the tanning and leather business. In 1830 he 
removed with his family from Vermont to 
Knowlesville, Orieans county, New York, and 
for a tune thereafter he resided in Chautau- 
qua county, that state. From Knowlesville he 
came with his family to Michigan in 1837 — 
the year which marked the admission of the 
state to the Union. He remained a short time 
and then returned to New York, but he event- 
ually settled at Hillsdale, Michigan, where he 
remamed until his death, which occurred in 
the year 1881, his wife having passed to the 
life eternal in 1848. They became the parents 
of five daughters and one son, and the latter 
subject of this sketch, was the youngest of 
the children, of whom only one other is now 
living. 

Richard Henry Fyfe was born at Oak Orch- 
ard Creek, Orieans county, New York, Jan- 



uary 5, 1839, and was an infant at the time of 
his parents' return to Michigan. As a lad he 
was enabled to attend the common schools in 
Litchfield, Hillsdale county, but when but 
eleven years of age he began to face the re- 
sponsibilities of life, as his father had met with 
financial reverses which placed the family 
in somewhat staitened circumstances. At 
the age noted young Fyfe became a clerk in 
the drug store of Mott Brothers, of Hillsdale, 
and later he was similarly employed in the 
drug store of E. B. Booth, of Kalamazoo. In 
1857 he came to Detroit, where he secured a 
position in the boot and shoe store of T. K. 
Adams, having in the meanwhile made good 
use of his otherwise unoccupied time by read- 
ing and study, in order to make up for his 
earlier educational handicap. After remaining 
with Mr. Adams about six years he took a 
similar position with the firm of Rucker & 
Morgan, in the same line of trade. In 1865, 
having scrupulously husbanded his resources, 
he was enabled to purchase the business of 
C. C. Tyler & Company, who had succeeded 
his former employer Mr. Adams. The estab- 
lishment was located at loi Woodward av- 
enue, and here a substantial five-story building 
was erected in 1875, offering accommodations 
for the large trade which he had already built 
up. His record as a business man in Detroit 
has been one of solid and consecutive growth, 
and he to-day stands unmistakably at the head 
of the custom and retail shoe trade in this 
city. In 1 88 1 he bought the boot and shoe 
establishment of A. R. Morgan, at 106 Wood- 
ward avenue, and conducted this as a branch 
of his other store. In 1885 he established his 
present store at 185 Woodward avenue. 
The business has been conducted under 
the firm name of R. H. Fyfe & Company 
since 1875, and while he has had able coad- 
jutors, the upbuilding of the great enterprise 
which he now controls has been almost entirely 
due to his own efforts and able management. 
Mr. Fyfe is a man of forceful individuality, as 
may well be understood, and his course has 
ever been dominated by the highest principles 
of integrity and honor,— the elements which 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



437 



justify success. His thoughts have not been 
held within the narrow boundaries of personal 
advancement, but he has been a liberal and pub- 
lic-spirited citizen and has done all in his power 
to further the civic and industrial progress of 
his home city, where his circle of friends is 
numbered only by that of his acquaintances. 
He was one of those primarily interested in the 
reorganization of the Citizens' Savings Bank, 
in 1890, and served thereafter as its vice-presi- 
dent until 1898, when he was elected president 
of the institution, an office of which he still 
remains incumbent. 

Mr. Fyfe served for a term of years as a 
trustee of Michigan Medical College, assisted 
in effecting its consolidation with the Detroit 
Medical College, under the title of the Michi- 
gan College of Medicine, and he has served as 
trustee of the combined colleges, one of the 
splendid institutions of the state in offering ad- 
vantages for technical education. He is a large 
holder of valuable realty in Detroit and has 
done much to further the city's material up- 
building and development. His political sup- 
port is given to the Republican party, but he 
has never manifested any desire to enter the 
domain of "practical politics." He and his 
wife attend St. Paul's church of which Mrs. 
Fyfe is a member. He was at one time 
president of the Detroit Municipal League, 
which rendered most valuable service 
during his administration, and he holds mem- 
bership in the local organizations of the New 
England Society and the Sons of the American 
Revolution, of the former of which he was 
formerly president, and of the latter of which 
he is president at the time of this writing, in 
1908. He is also identified with the Detroit 
Board of Commerce, the Old Club, at St. Clair 
Flats, the Detroit Club and other social organ- 
izations. He was formerly a member of Grosse 
Pointe Club. 

On the 27th of October, 1868, Mr. Fyfe was 
united in marriage to Miss Abby Lucretia 
Albee Rice, who was born at Marlboro, Massa- 
chusetts, a daughter of Abraham W. Rice. 
She has long been prominent in church, chari- 
table and social work in Detroit, is at the 



present time vice-state regent of the Daughters 
of the American Revolution, having formerly 
been regent of the Detroit chapter of the same. 
For some time she was first vice-president of 
the Thompson Old Ladies' Home. She is also 
president of the Colonial Dames, was secretary 
of Protestant Orphanage, and honorary 
member of the same for twenty-three years. 
Mrs. Fyfe has also been prominently identified 
with the Mount Vernon association in Michi- 
gan, of which she served as president. 



WILLIAM LANE HOLMES. 

Mr. Holmes has been one of those alert and 
progressive spirits through whose efiforts has 
been conserved the material upbuilding and 
industrial progress of Detroit, and he is recog- 
nized as one of the city's representative busi- 
ness men and loyal citizens. He has done 
much in the development of local real estate 
and is identified with various industrial en- 
terprises of important order, both in Detroit 
and elsewhere. 

William Lane Holmes was born near the 
village of Blythe, Huron county, Ontario, 
Canada, on the 13th day of July, 1859, and is 
a son of Matthew and Martha (Lane) 
Holmes, the former a native of Ireland and 
the latter of Canada. The Holmes genealogy 
is traced back to stanch and ancient Anglo- 
Saxon stock. One of its representatives be- 
came an officer in the army of Oliver Crom- 
well, and was given by Cromwell a castle in 
county Tipperary, Ireland, where he founded 
the hamlet of Holmes Grove and where the 
family long continued to be one of prominence 
and influence. Richard Holmes, the last of the 
family to reside there, immigrated to America 
about the year 1840, and settled in Huron 
county, province of Ontario, Canada, where 
he became a pioneer and where he engaged 
in agricultural pursuits. His son Matthew, 
father of the subject of this review, was born 
at Holmes Grove, Ireland, and was a child 
at the time of his parents' immigration to 
America. He was reared in Huron county. 
Ontario, and early became familiar with the 
work of an agriculturist, while his educational 



438 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



advantages were those afforded by the com- 
mon schools of the locaHty and period. In 
1865 he removed with his family to Birming- 
ham, Oakland county Michigan, where he be- 
came a farmer. In 1878 he removed to De- 
troit, where he still lives. Of his children 
four are living. Martha Holmes, the wife of 
Matthew and the mother of William L., died 
in Detroit in 1887. Her name is honored and 
commemorated in the beautiful Martha 
Holmes Memorial Methodist Episcopal church, 
at the corner of Lincoln and Putnam avenues. 
William Lane, the maternal grandfather of the 
subject of this sketch, was a native of county 
Tipperary, Ireland, whence he immigrated tc 
America at the same time as did Richard 
Holmes. He settled at ThornhiH. Ontario, 
where he became a successful farmer. One 
of his brothers became a member of the 
Canadian parliament and other representatives 
of the family have been prominent in public 
and industrial affairs of the dominion. 

William Lane Holmes, whose name intro- 
duces this article, was but six years of age 
at the time of his parents' removal from On- 
tario to Oakland county, Michigan, and he 
attended the public schools of Birmingham, 
where he completed the course in the high 
school as a member of the class of 1875. In 
the same year he came to Detroit, where he 
entered the employ of J. M. Arnold & Co., 
dealers in books and stationery, at 189 Wood- 
ward avenue. Within the same year he was 
employed in the clothing store of C. R. Mab- 
ley. From 1876 until 1879 he was again in 
the employ of J. M. Arnold & Co., as book- 
keeper, and thereafter he served until 188 1 
as bookkeeper in the wholesale dry goods 
house of Allan Shelden & Company. From 
1881 to 1883 he held a similar position with 
Peter Hayden & Company, wholesale dealers 
in saddlery hardware. In the latter year he 
became Michigan representative for the well 
known publishing house of D. Appleton & 
Company, of New York. In this position he 
was very successful, having built up a large 
business for the company, and laid the found- 
ation for his future financial success. In 1890 
he resigned his position with D. Appleton & 



Company to engage in real estate operations 
in Detroit. He confined his business to the 
platting, selling and improvement of his own 
property. From 1890 to 1894 he placed on 
the market and sold about fifteen hundred lots 
in what was then the suburbs of Detroit. He 
has erected many houses in various sections of 
the city. 

Mr. Holmes became interested in the financ- 
ing and construction of the system of the De- 
troit Telephone Company, with which he iden- 
tified himself at the time of its organization, 
in 1896. He served as its treasurer in that 
year, and thereafter was president and gen- 
eral manager of the company until its busi- 
ness and property were sold to the Michigan 
State Telephone Company, in 1899. He was 
also instrumental in the organization of the 
New State Telephone Company, in 1896, and 
was its president and general manager until 
1898, when its interests likewise were sold 
to the Michigan State Telephone Company. 
He wielded a pronounced influence in the de- 
veloping and extending of telephone service 
in the state, and in other lines of enterprise 
he has likewise given the benefit of his co- 
operation, financial support and executive tal- 
ents. 

In 1898 Mr. Holmes became interested in 
the development of the Portland cement in- 
dustry which has had such astonishing growth 
during the past ten years, but which at that 
time was in its infancy. Mr. Holmes went to 
Germany to study the cement business and 
brought to America one of the leading Ger- 
man chemists to assist him in the work. 

Mr. Holmes, with others, in 1898, formed 
the Michigan Portland Cement Company, 
which built two large cement works, one at 
Coldwater, Michigan, and one at Quincy, 
Michigan, which have proven to be very suc- 
cessful. Mr. Holmes was president of this 
corporation for several years. In 1902 the 
Wolverine Cement Company succeeded the 
Michigan Company in the ownership and op- 
eration of the plants at Coldwater and Quincy 
and Mr. Holmes is still identified with this 
company. 

In 1899 Mr. Holmes was one of the organ- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



439 



izers of the lola Portland Cement Company, 
which was incorporated with a capital stock 
of four and one-half million dollars and the 
works of which are located at lola, Kansas. 
Of this company he was the first president, 
an office of which he continued incumbent 
until 1904, when he resigned, having disposed 
of his principal interest in the concern. In 
1907 he became one of the organizers of the 
Ohio Cement Company, which has a capital 
stock of four million five hundred thousand 
dollars. This company controls a valuable 
tract of three thousand acres of mineral land 
in Vinton county, Ohio, where it has developed 
practically inexhaustible deposits of coal, lime- 
tone, shales and iron ore. The company has 
built its own railroad to connect the property 
with four trunk lines, and is now building a 
100,000 per day high-grade brick plant. On 
the property the company will also build a 
large cement plant and an iron furnace. All 
minerals entering into the manufacture of the 
various products are to be had on the lands 
owned or controlled by the company. Of this 
important corporation Mr. Holmes is presi- 
dent and general manager. He is also presi- 
dent of the Detroit Tool Company, of which 
specific mention is made on other pages of this 
volume. Mr. Holmes was one of the original 
stockholders of the newspaper company which 
published the Detroit Today, and when this 
was succeeded by the Detroit Times he con- 
tinued as one of the large stockholders of the 
latter. 

In politics Mr. Holmes is aligned as a stal- 
wart supporter of the principles of the Re- 
publican party, but he has never manifested 
any inclination to become a candidate for pub- 
lic office. He is a member of the Detroit 
Board of Commerce, and is a life member of 
the Fellowcraft Club. Both he and his wife 
are active and influential members of the 
Martha Holmes Memorial church, Methodist 
Episcopal, and he served three years as presi- 
dent of the Methodist Episcopal Church & 
Sunday School Alliance of Detroit, and two 
years as trustee of Albion college, at Albion, 
Michigan. Mrs. Holmes is prominent in the 
various women's societies connected with the 



church of which she is a member, is influential 
in the support of charitable and benevolent 
objects, and is a valued and appreciative mem- 
ber of the Century Club of Detroit. 

On the 27th of April, 1881, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Holmes to Miss Emma L. 
Wheeler, daughter of the late Aaron Wheeler, 
a representative citizen of St. Louis, Gratiot 
county, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes have 
four children — Harold Wheeler, Florence 
Julia, Helen, and Ruth. Harold W. Holmes 
was afforded the advantages of the Detroit 
School for Boys, and in 1901 he became a 
student in the engineering department of Cor- 
nell University, at Ithaca, New York. In the 
following year he was matriculated in the 
same department of the University of Mich- 
igan, where he completed his course in en- 
gineering in the class of 1906. He is now as- 
sociated with his father in the latter's various 
business enterprises. Florence Julia, the eld- 
est of the three daughters of Mr. and Mrs. 
Holmes, is now the wife of Frederick C. 
Solms, who is purchasing agent for the cement 
company, at Hamden, Ohio. The two younger 
daughters are students in the Detroit Home 
and Day School. 



EDWARD C. VAN HUSAN. 

A son of the late and honored pioneer of 
Detroit, Caleb Van Husan, to whom a special 
memoir is dedicated in this volume, Edward 
C. Van Husan, prominently concerned in the 
real-estate business in Detroit, is a native of 
this city, where he was born on the 12th of 
May, 1 86 1. As a boy and youth he was af- 
forded excellent educational advantages, hav- 
ing attended the public schools of Detroit, 
and Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 
and later he continued his studies in Adams 
Academy, at Quincy, Massachusetts, and Col- 
gate Academy, at Hamilton, New York. He 
left school in 1879 and returned to Detroit, 
where, at the age of eighteen years, he en- 
tered the employ of Standart Brothers, as a 
messenger. He remained with this firm, whose 
business was that of wholesale hardware, for 
a period of four years, when he became an 
employe of the Detroit Fire & Marine Insur- 



440 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ance Company, of which his father was presi- 
dent, and he continued with the same in cleri- 
cal and executive capacities until 1885, about 
one year after the death of his father. In 
1886 he engaged in the real estate business. 
to which he has since continued to devote his 
attention, handling principally his own prop- 
erty and having built up an enterprise which 
is one of the most important of the sort in 
the city of Detroit. Here he is also interested 
in various industrial and financial concerns, 
being known as one of the substantial busi- 
ness men of the younger generation in his 
native city, and being liberal and public-spir- 
ited in his attitude as a citizen, 

Mr. Van Husan has never manifested aught 
of ambition for public office, but he was ap- 
pointed health commissioner of Detroit, of 
which office he remained incumbent two 
years, doing most effective service. His re- 
ligious faith is that of the Baptist church and 
he is identified with various fraternal and so- 
cial organizations. 

In 1883 Mr. Van Husan was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Kate Morrill, who was born 
in Jackson, this state, a daughter of Marshall 
J. Morrill, who later became a resident of De- 
troit, and the three children of this union are 
Harold M., Marshall W., and Florence. 



MORRIS L. WILLIAMS. 

Morris Lewis Williams, president of the 
First National Bank, has been identified with 
banking interests for more than fifty-three 
years, and has been thus engaged in Detroit 
for forty-three years. His advancement to his 
present high position in the financial circles of 
the state has come through his own ability, 
energy and integrity of purpose,— qualities 
which ever foster popular confidence and 
esteem. A history of the bank of which he 
IS now the executive head appears on other 
pages of this volume, and an incidental review 
of the Commercial National Bank, of which 
he was the virtual founder and which was 
merged with the First National in May, 1908. 
Mr. Williams is a native of the island of 
Anglesea, Wales, where he was born on the 



9th of May, 1841, being a scion of old and dis- 
tinguished Welsh families. He is a son of 
Rev. William and Emma (Prytherch) Will- 
iams, both of whom remained residents of their 
native land until their death, the father hav- 
ing been a distinguished clergyman of the 
Presbyterian church in Wales. One of his 
brothers, Richard, came to the United States 
and took up his residence in Floyd, New York, 
where he died at the patriarchal age of ninety- 
five years. He was for a long term of years 
postmaster of the village and was incumbent 
of this office at the time of his death. 

The subject of this review was afforded the 
advantages of excellent schools in the city of 
Birmingham, England, and his entire business 
career has been one of consecutive identifica- 
tion with the banking business, in which he 
is a recognized authority, having a high repu- 
tation as a financier. In October, i8s5, when 
but fourteen years of age he secured employ- 
ment in the North and South Wales Bank of 
Liverpool, with which institution he remained 
for a decade, being advanced to the position 
of accountant and having made a record for 
faithful and efficient service. In 1865 Mr. 
Williams came to the United States, arriving 
in Detroit in August of that year. He was 
twenty-four years of age at the time, but his 
experience in the banking business well quali- 
fied him to meet the exigencies of life under the 
new conditions and surroundings. Soon after 
his arrival in Detroit he entered the employ of 
the old American National Bank, and for the 
long period of seventeen years he held the 
position of assistant cashier of this institution. 
He retired from this office in 1881, when he 
became one of the organizers of the Commer- 
cial National Bank, of which he was the prin- 
cipal promoter, and he directed the destinies 
of this substantial and popular monetary insti- 
tution in the capacity of cashier until 1902, 
when he was elected president: he had also 
been vice-president while still incumbent of the 
cashiership. Upon the consolidation of the 
First National and Commercial National 
Banks, in May, 1908, he was chosen president 
of the institution, which retains the name of 
First National Bank of Detroit. He is one of 






'/^=^ ^i' aj 



u 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



441 



the best known bankers in the state and his 
name stands for great technical knowledge, 
correct methods and wise conservatism in the 
handling and management of financial affairs. 
He is a director in each of the following De- 
troit companies: The Detroit Drill Company, 
the Security Trust Company, the Michigan 
Savings Bank, and the Michigan Mutual Life 
Insurance Company. As a business man and 
citizen he is liberal, progressive and public- 
spirited. He is a member of the Detroit Board 
of Commerce, the Bankers' Club, the Detroit 
Club, and the various local bodies of the Ma- 
sonic fraternity. His political allegiance is 
given to the Republican party and he and his 
wife hold membership in the First Congrega- 
tional church. 

On the 7th of May, 1867, was solemnized the 
marriage of Mr. Williams to Miss Kate C. 
Williams, daughter of the late William Will- 
iams, of Anglesea, Wales, and a sister of Will- 
iam C. Williams, of Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. 
Williams have no children. 



CHARLES W. HARRAH. 

Charles W. Harrah, brigadier-general com- 
manding the National Guard of Michigan, is 
one of the leading real-estate dealers and 
agents maintaining headquarters in the city of 
Detroit and is known as one of the representa- 
tive business men and public-spirited and pro- 
gressive citizens of the Michigan metropolis. 
His real-estate operations in the local field have 
been especially extended and important, and he 
has also had to do with the development of 
valuable properties in other important cities 
of the Union as well as lands in Cuba. His 
extensive enterprise is conducted under the title 
of the Harrah Realty Company, but he figures 
as the sole owner of the business, which has 
been built up entirely through his energy and 
aggressive policy. 

Mr. Harrah was born in the city of Daven- 
port, Iowa, on the 22d of February, 1862, and 
is a son of William D. and Hester (Hartzell) 
Harrah, both natives of the state of Ohio. 
William D. Harrah was born at Hopedale, 
Jefferson county, that state, in the year, 1832, 



and his death occurred in Detroit, in 1897, and 
four of their children are now living. William 
D. Harrah was long and prominently identified 
with the life-insurance business, in which he 
was acturary for several of the leading com- 
panies doing business in the United States. 
He took up his residence in Detroit in 1875 
and here became special agent for the Mutual 
Benefit Life Insurance Company, of Newark, 
New Jersey; the Travelers' Life Insurance 
Company, of Hartford, Connecticut ; and the 
Imperial Life Insurance Company, of Detroit. 
He was one of the organizers of the company 
last mentioned, and he represented its interests 
until its plan of operation was changed, against 
his vigorous protest : he predicted that under 
the new system the company could not con- 
tinue in successful business, and this was 
proved to be the fact within a brief interval. 
He resigned shortly after the change of oper- 
ation had been instituted by the company. 

The Harrah family was founded in America 
in the colonial epoch, and the original progenit- 
or in the New World was born in the north of 
Ireland, and made settlement in Lancaster 
county, Pennsylvania. He had two sons, Wil- 
liam and Charles. The former had but one 
son, whose descendants of the present genera- 
tion live in Philadelphia and vicinity. Repre- 
sentatives of this branch have been prominent 
in connection with railroad building and the 
iron industry. Charles, the other son, is the 
direct ancestor of General Harrah, subject of 
this review, and from him the latter is in the 
fifth generation of descent. Charles Harrah 
was born in 1746 and was reared to maturity in 
Pennsylvania. He was a loyal soldier in the 
Continental line in the war of the Revolution, 
and in recognition of his services and attitude 
received a certificate of loyalty to the colonies 
and also a large grant of land in Pennsylvania. 
The major portion of this property is still held 
in the possession of his descendants and is lo- 
cated in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, 
where he took up his residence in 1784. He 
became a successful farmer in that section of 
the old Keystone state, where he continued to 
reside until his death, which occurred in 1808. 
He also took part in the conflicts with the 



442 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Indians in western Pennsylvania and was a 
man of prominence and influence in that sec- 
tion. His religious faith was that of the 
Presbyterian church, with which the greater 
number of his descendants are identified. James 
Gilchrist Harrah, son of Charles, married Mar- 
garet Neill, and they were numbered among 
the pioneers of Jefferson county, Ohio, where 
they took up their residence when that section 
was essentially a wilderness. Their homestead 
figures as the site of the present village of 
Hopedale. James G. Harrah was a man of 
strong individuality and was a potent factor in 
the development and upbuilding of Jefferson 
county, where he became a prosperous farmer. 
He was an elder in the Presbyterian church 
and was a man of impregnable integrity of 
character. He continued to reside in Jefferson 
county until his death, in 1871, at the patri- 
archal age of ninety-three years. His son, 
William Neill Harrah, grandfather of the sub- 
ject of this sketch, was bom in Ohio, on the 
26th of October, 1809, and was afforded the 
advantages of the pioneer schools of the old 
Buckeye state. In his youth he studied for the 
ministry of the Presbyterian church, of which 
he was a devout and lifelong member ,and he 
was active in religious work for many years. 
He also learned the tanner's trade, and he 
engaged in the work of the same in partner- 
ship with Philip Delaney. Their tannery and 
yards were located on land now now a part of 
the village of Hopedale, where also was estab- 
lished the first normal school in Ohio. William 
N. Harrah was united in marriage, November 
25, 1830, to Miss Deborah Delaney, who was 
born October 24, 1810, and who was a daught- 
er of Philip Delaney, previously mentioned. 
Said Philip Delaney was born in the residence 
of General George Washington, at Mount 
Vernon, Virginia, in 1767, and was a son of 
John Delaney, who was a native of England 
and who became an employe of General Wash- 
ington, by whom his wife also was employed 
prior to her marriage. William N. Harrah 
finally removed to Iowa, becoming one of the 
pioneers of that state, where he engaged in 
farming and stock-growing and where he 
passed the residue of his long and useful life. 



Charles W. Harrah, whose name initiates 
this article, secured his rudimentary education 
in the public schools of Davenport, Iowa, and 
was about thirteen years of age at the time of 
the family removal to Detroit. Here he con- 
tinued his studies in the public schools, being 
graduated in the old Capitol high school as a 
member of the class of 1880, and in the follow- 
ing year completing a thorough course in the 
Bryant & Stratton Business College in this city. 
He then entered the employ of J. K. Burnham 
& Company, wholesale dealers in dry goods, 
but in 1882 he secured a position in the whole- 
sale shoe establishment of H. P. Baldwin, 2d, 
& Company, where he was employed as ship- 
ping clerk until 1888. In the meanwhile he 
had made judicious investments in local real 
estate, and in the year last mentioned he estab- 
lished himself in active and independent busi- 
ness as a real-estate dealer and agent. His 
success in this important field of enterprise 
has been most pronounced, and he has brought 
to bear great energy, initiative ability and 
reliable methods. General Harrah has platted, 
improved and placed on the market twenty-six 
attractive subdivisions to Detroit. He first se- 
cured twenty acres of land on Holbrook road 
and Chene street, and platted this into one 
hundred and ninety-seven lots, under the title 
of Harrah's subdivision. Since that time he 
has brought into the market the following 
properties : Denton's subdivision, one hundred 
and seven lots, on Denton avenue, and Chene 
and Lumpkin streets; Crosman's subdivision, 
two hundred and forty lots, on Denton avenue 
and Chene street; Harrah's Resubdivision, 
three hundred and thirty lots, on Conant and 
Caniff streets; Hannah & Brandenburg's sub- 
division, on Grand boulevard, one hundred and . 
fourteen lots; Harrah's Toledo avenue subdi- 
vision, four hundred and sixty-nine lots ; Har- 
rah's Dix avenue subdivision, two hundred and 
four lots; Grantor's subdivision, on Toledo 
avenue, two hundred and seventeen lots ; Har- 
rah & Brandenburg's St. Aubin avenue subdi- 
vision, ninety-one lots ; and Harrah & Brand- 
enburg's Forest avenue subdivision, forty-one 
lots. He has also handled a vast amount of 
improved realty in Detroit and its suburbs, and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



443 



has platted subdivisions also in Toledo, Buf- 
falo, Toronto, Cleveland and St. Louis. In 
all he has sold more than ten thousand building 
lots. His business was conducted under the 
title of the Harrah Real Estate Exchange from 
1888 until 1898. In 1907 the present name, the 
Harrah Realty Company, was adopted. In 
1899 he projected the plans for the building of 
the Detroit, Monroe & Toledo Short Line Rail- 
way, and he effected the organization and fi- 
nancing of the company, with which he was 
officially identified until the completion of the 
line. He was in service in Cuba during the 
Spanish-American war and became much im- 
pressed with the investment attractions in that 
tropical isle. After the close of the war he 
extended his real-estate operations by enlisting 
the co-operation of American capital in the 
purchasing of Cuban lands and business prop- 
erties, and between the years 1900 and 1908 he 
has made fourteen business trips to Cuba. In 
1905 he organized the Santiago de Cuba Plan- 
tation Company, in which he became associated 
with William C. Johnson, Edward J. Warren, 
William H. Gillespie, and John H. Tigchon, of 
Detroit, and in this city the home offices are 
established. He is secretary of the company, 
which is incorporated with a capital stock of 
eight million dollars, and which owns eleven 
thousand acres of land in Cuba. This property 
is now devoted principally to the production of 
citrus fruits, with orchards comprising sixty 
thousand trees, and later developments will be 
made in the cultivation of rubber, vanilla, 
cacao, pineapples, etc. 

General Harrah has long been prominent in 
military and athletic affairs, in which connec- 
tion he is widely known. In 1886 he became 
a private in Company A, Fourth Regiment, 
Michigan National Guard, in which he was 
promoted corporal four months later. He rose 
through the various grades and was made cap- 
tain of his company in December, 1892. At 
the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he 
was commissioned major of the Thirty-first 
Michigan Volunteer Infantry, which was the 
first regiment to go to the front from this 
state and which was in active service in Cien- 



fuegos and central Cuba. The command was 
mustered out, at Savannah, Georgia, on the 
17th of May, 1899, — one of the last regiments 
to be mustered out. Upon the reorganization 
of the Michigan National Guard, in 1900, Ma- 
jor Harrah was appointed colonel of the First 
Regiment of Infantry, the well known Detroit 
organization. On the 13th of January, 1905, 
Governor Warner conferred upon him the ap- 
pointment of brigadier-general of the National 
Guard of the state, and he has still retained the 
general command of the Michigan troops. He 
is known as a splendid tactician and com- 
manding officer, and enjoys unqualified popu- 
larity in the body of which he is the official 
head. He is also a member of the Detroit 
Light Guard, of which he has been a director 
since 1892. This organization is maintained 
at a high standard and has received flattering 
commendation from officers in the regular 
United States army. General Harrah is a 
prominent member of the Detroit Boat Club 
and was at one time captain of the Excelsior 
Boat Club. He has attained a high reputation 
as an oarsman, and as such has been a member 
of crews which have won distinctive victories 
in competitive regattas. His crew won the 
medal in the four-oared gig race of two miles 
held at Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1886, and 
its record was at the time the highest made in 
this line of contest. At the meeting of the 
Northwestern Rowing Association, in this 
same city, in 1887, he was a member of the 
crew which made the best record in the pair- 
oared race; and at the regatta of the Missis- 
sippi Valley Rowing Association, held at Pull- 
man, Illinois, in 1887, he and Walter McMillan 
won the pair-oared race. General Harrah is 
also a member of the Detroit Athletic Club and 
is affiliated with Palestine Lodge, No. 357, 
Free & Accepted Masons, and the United 
Spanish War Veterans. His political allegi- 
ance is given to the Republican party. 

On the 31st of December, 1890, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of General Harrah to 
Miss Lela Russell, daughter of Hon. Francis 
G. Russell, a prominent attorney and represen- 
tative citizen of Detroit. The two children of 



444 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



this union are Helen and Hester. Mrs. Har- 
rah is prominent in the social life of Detroit, is 
the present secretary of the Twentieth Century 
Club and is also a member of Louisa St. Clair 
Chapter of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution. General and Mrs. Harrah hold 
membership in the Central Christian church, 
and their attractive home, a center of gracious 
hospitality, is located at 59 Pingree avenue. 



DAVID S. CARTER. 

Manufacturer, secretary and treasurer of 
Larned, Carter & Company, of which he was 
one of the founders, and a director in the 
Citizens' Savings Bank, David S. Carter is 
a native of the city of Detroit, in which he 
was born on the 14th day of February, 1870, 
a son of David and Frances J. (Leonard) 
Carter. In this compilation is entered a me- 
moir to the late David Carter to which the 
reader is referred for supplemental informa- 
tion regarding the history of the family. 

David S. Carter received his education in 
the public schools of Detroit and graduated 
from the high school as a member of the 
class of 1888. Shortly afterward he entered 
the employ of the Leonard & Carter Furniture 
Company, of which his father was president. 
He was made secretary of the company in 
1889 and filled this position with credit. In 
1896 he resigned from the executive force of 
the company to establish his present business. 
In 1897, with Abner E. Larned, he organized 
the corporation of Larned, Carter & Company, 
for the purpose of engaging in the manufac- 
ture of clothing for working men. The busi- 
ness of the concern was established in a mod- 
est way, in quarters at the corner of Twenty- 
fourth and Dalzelle streets, the original work- 
mg force numbering but eight persons. The 
standard of quality of their output soon gained 
for them a secure prestige, and a successful de- 
mand for their products quickly followed In- 
sufficient space for the growing demands of 
their trade soon made removal to larger quar- 
ters necessary and a location at Michigan ave- 
nue and Park Place was secured. In 1903 the 



success of the business had been such as to 
warrant the construction of a plant of their 
own, resulting in the purchase of the property 
at the corner of Eighth and Abbott streets, 
fronting seventy-five feet on the latter street 
and extending south on the former to the 
alley, a distance of one hundred and thirty 
feet. This site was improved with a modern 
brick factory building, three stories in height, 
and equipment of the most improved pattern 
was installed. The growth of the business in 
the next four years was such that even this 
building became too small, and an additional 
purchase of ground was necessary. The com- 
pany acquired the lot adjoining their premises, 
running from the alley south on Eighth street 
to Howard, and with a frontage on the latter 
■ street of fifty feet, thus giving the firm a 
frontage of the entire block from Abbott street 
to Howard street. A four-story and base- 
ment building, so constructed as to afford the 
most sanitary conditions possible to the em- 
ployes, was erected and provided with the 
most modern appliances for the safety and 
convenience of the working force. One of 
the features operated in connection with busi- 
ness deserves mention. The company have 
provided a commodious room for refectory 
purposes. Here they provide and serve with- 
out profit to themselves meals for their opera- 
tives, prepared by competent cooks and from 
the best materials to be had. This enables 
the employe to enjoy at a cost easily within 
his or her means a substantial meal, which, in 
the essentials of preparation and materials 
used, is greatly superior to that of most res- 
taurants, and a large number of the operatives 
avail themselves of this service for all their 
meals. The company employ, under normal 
conditions, about six hundred and fifty per- 
sons and of this force five hundred and fifty 
operate a like number of machines. The av- 
erage output per day has reached the satisfac- 
tory aggregate of three hundred dozen pairs 
of overalls. The progressive ideas and ag- 
gressive advertising policy of Larned, Carter 
& Company have done much to familiarize the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



445 



country at large with the value of Detroit- 
made goods, and the reliability of the com- 
pany's products is convincingly attested by 
their constantly expanding trade. 

In the commercial, social and religious life 
of the city Mr. Carter has been for a num- 
ber of years actively and somewhat prom- 
inently identified. Aside from his interests 
in the company previously mentioned, he has 
other interests of value. He is a director in 
the Citizens' Savings Bank and is treasurer 
of the Victor Manufacturing Company. He 
is also a trustee of Harper Hospital, a mem- 
ber of the Detroit Board of Commerce, the 
Detroit Boat Club, the Country Club, and 
Michigan Chapter, Sons of the American Rev- 
olution. In the work of the First Presbyterian 
church he has taken an active and useful part. 
He has been a member of this congregation for 
twenty-eight years and holds the office of 
elder. 

On the 1 2th of September, 1899, Mr. Carter 
married Miss Grace M. Gillis, daughter of 
the late Ransom Gillis, a memoir of whom ap- 
pears on other pages of this volume. To them 
was born one son — David Grace Carter. Mrs. 
Carter was a woman of rare beauty of mind 
and person, of broad education and accom- 
plishments. Her death, on the nth of June, 
1902, at the age of twenty-six, terminated a 
career which promised a life of great worth 
and usefulness. 



HUGH WALLACE. 

The conditions under which industrial and 
commercial enterprises of magnitude are pros- 
ecuted in this new century of electrical ad- 
vancement in all lines of human activity, de- 
mand men who are forceful, and of strong po- 
tentiality, courage and judgment. Numbered 
among such representatives in the personnel of 
the successful business men prominently identi- 
fied with the industrial and civic progress of 
the "Greater Detroit" Mr. Wallace has gained 
a secure place. He is president of the Hugh 
Wallace Company, and Detroit Concrete Stone 
Company, and vice-president of the Citizens' 



Savings Bank of Detroit, two of which insti- 
tutions are specifically mentioned on other 
pages of this volume. 

Hugh Wallace was born in the city of Gait, 
province of Ontario, Canada, on the 8th of 
October, 1863, and is a son of James and 
Elizabeth (Wells) Wallace, both of whom 
were likewise born in the province of On- 
tario. The founder of the Wallace family in 
America was Hugh Wallace, who was a native 
of Kilmarnock, Scotland, and who took up 
his residence at Gait, Canada, in 1835. He 
purchased a large tract of land and became 
a large landed proprietor in that section of 
the province. The old homestead is now 
owned by his son William, and the place is 
known as "Old Ellerslie." Of his eight sons, 
all are living except James, father of the sub- 
ject of this review, and the other seven sons 
are prominent and influential citizens of Wa- 
terloo county, Ontario. James Wallace, who 
was a successful business man and a prom- 
inent member of the Liberal party, died in 
1905. He is survived by his widow and two 
children — one son and one daughter. 

He whose name initiates this article secured 
his early educational training in the public 
schools of his native city, after which he con- 
tinued his studies in Hamilton Collegiate In- 
stitute, at Hamilton, Ontario. In 1883 he 
assumed the position of traveling salesman for 
the Gait Machine Knife & Edge Tool Works, 
an incumbency which he retained until 1888, 
when he engaged in the retail hardware busi- 
ness in Gait, where he built up a prosperous 
enterprise. He disposed of his business and 
removed to Detroit, where he engaged in the 
manufacturing of robes and various lines of 
cloth. This enterprise was conducted for a 
number of years under the title of the Western 
Robe Company, and since 1907 the present 
corporate name, the Hugh Wallace Company, 
has obtained. The business, under the able 
generalship and control of Mr. Wallace has 
been developed to great magnitude, and adds 
no insignificant quota to the industrial prestige 
of Detroit. As before stated, a description of 
the concern appears elsewhere in this work, so 



446 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



that further review is not demanded in the 
present connection. 

Mr. Wallace was one of the organizers of 
the Detroit Concrete Stone Company, which 
was incorporated in 1905, and he has been 
president of the same from the start. This 
likewise represents one of the important in- 
dustrial enterprises of the Michigan metropo- 
lis. In 1907 Mr. Wallace was elected vice- 
president of the Citizens' Savings Bank, and 
of this office he has since remained incumbent, 
taking an active part in directing the affairs 
of the institution. He is one of the valued 
and enthusiastic members of the Detroit Board 
of Commerce, of whose directorate he was a 
member from 1905 until 1907. In 1907 he 
was elected president of the Milwaukee Junc- 
tion Manufacturers' Association, and he still 
continues at the head of this organization. 
In politics Mr. Wallace is found arrayed as 
a loyal and staunch supporter of the cause of 
the Republican party, and in a local way he 
is active in the party work, though he has 
never consented to become a candidate for 
public office of any description. Mr. Wallace 
well deserves mention as a member of that 
aggressive class of progressive, loyal and sub- 
stantial business men to whom has been due 
the great industrial and commercial advance- 
ment of Detroit within the past decade, and 
his popularity in this city is to be measured 
only by the number of his acquaintances. He 
is fond of travel and finds opportunity to in- 
dulge himself in this line. Each year he 
passes from two to four months in England 
and on the European continent, and these 
tours are made an effective association of busi- 
ness and pleasure. 

On the 25th of March, 1899, was solemn- 
ized the marriage of Mr. Wallace to Miss 
Louise Arms, daughter of the late Edwin 
Arms, who was a prominent and influential 
citizen of South Lyons, Michigan, and a de- 
scendant of William Arms, who settled in Con- 
way, Masachusetts, in 1660; further data con- 
cerning the family history is given in a sketch 
of the career of his son, Floyd G. Arms, on 



other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. 
Wallace have two children — Edwin James and 
Ruth Louise. The attractive city home of the 
family is located at ^t, Virginia avenue and is 
a center of gracious hospitality. Mrs. Wal- 
lace is identified with the social activities of 
the city, is an influential member of the Twen- 
tieth Century Club, and is also a member of 
other leading organizations of a social and 
literary order. Both she and her husband 
hold membership in the Westminster Presby- 
terian church. 



OSCAR R. LOOKER. 

Prominent in the domain of life insurance 
and one of the representative business men of 
"Greater Detroit" is Mr. Looker, who is presi- 
dent of the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance 
Company, a review of whose history appears 
elsewhere in this work. 

Mr. Looker has been identified with life-in- 
surance interests during the greater part of 
his active business career and is a recognized 
authority in this important field of enterprise. 
To him more than to any other one man is due 
the magnificent expansion and amplification of 
the functions of the company of which he is 
the executive head, and in every department 
of his chosen vocation he is able to lend to his 
methods and policy the emphasis of thorough 
knowledge of all details and intimate command 
of technique. 

Oscar R. Looker claims as the place of his 
nativity the fine old Buckeye state, having been 
born in Columbus, Franklin county, Ohio, on 
the 19th of June, 1846. Like many another 
man who has attained to definite and splendid 
success in broader fields of human endeavor, he 
was reared to the sturdy and invigorating disci- 
pline of the farm, the old homestead having 
been located near the capital city of Ohio. He 
was afforded the advantages of the common 
schools of the locality and period and in the 
same laid a substantial foundation for future 
successful manipulations as a man of affairs. 

Although Mr. Looker had barely passed his 
fifteenth year at the inception of the civil war, 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



447 



his intrinsic though youthful patriotism was 
roused to immediate and responsive protest, 
and his ambition was satisfied only when he 
was permitted to tender his active assistance in 
defense of the integrity of the Union. In 
August, 1 86 1, he enhsted as a private in Com- 
pany E, First Battalion of Eighteenth United 
States Infantry, Regulars, and soon after the 
organization of his regiment he was made a 
sergeant in the same, serving in this office 
until the close of the war. His regiment was 
assigned to the Army of the Cumberland and 
its history ofifers the record of his faithful and 
valiant career as a soldier of the Republic and 
as one who lived up to the full tension of the 
great struggle through which the Union was 
perpetuated. As may be naturally inferred, he 
participated in many important engagements, 
and at the battle of Chickamauga, Tennessee, 
in September, 1863, he was captured by the 
enemy, being held as a prisoner for a period of 
nineteen months. He was first confined in a 
stockade at Atlanta, Georgia, and was thence 
transported to Richmond, Virginia, being held 
for a time in Belle Isle prison and then trans- 
ferred to a tobacco warehouse, known as 
Smith's prison, in the capital city of the Con- 
federacy. In the winter of 1864 he was taken 
from this place to Danville, Virginia, where he 
was again placed in a prison converted from a 
tobacco warehouse. Here he was attacked 
with smallpox, as were others of his unfortu- 
nate comrades in distress, and he with others 
was practically cast out to die. Those sufifer- 
ing from the noisome disease were taken to an 
old stable and two of the men who were placed 
with him under the same blanket succumbed 
to the malady. Mr. Looker's strong constitu- 
tion and previous clean living now stood him 
well, for he recovered, though he had suffered 
from lack of attention and from the care which 
even a minor illness would demand. He was 
taken from Danville to Andersonville prison, 
where he was confined about eight months, at 
the expiration of which he was once again 
transferred, being sent to Millen, Georgia, 
from which point he was later sent to Charles- 



ton, South Carolina, and from that city to 
Florence, North Carolina, v here he was placed 
in a stockade prison. From this pen he man- 
aged to effect his escape, and he made his way 
into the marshes of the vicinity, where he 
suffered untold hardships from exposure and 
hunger, while to add to his misery he was 
badly afflicted with scurvy. Some kind-hearted 
negroes assisted him to the extent of their 
power and wished to secrete him until he was 
able to continue his journey toward the Union 
lines. So miserable was his condition, how- 
ever, that he voluntarily returned to the stock- 
ade and surrendered himself. He was soon 
afterward shipped with other prisoners to Sal- 
isbury, North Carolina, and while en route he 
jumped from the freight car under cover of 
darkness, and after the train had proceeded, 
he set out to the east, running into the Union 
lines near Wilmington, North Carolina, being 
practically devoid of clothing and nearly 
starved at the time when he again came within 
the sheltering province of the federal forces, 
in April, 1865, shortly before the final surrend- 
er at Appomattox. He received his honorable 
discharge, at Columbus, Ohio, in the same 
month, and his military career is one which 
will ever bear its quota of honor to his name. 
After the close of the war Mr. Looker lo- 
cated in Columbus, where for a time he gave 
his attention to reading law. However, his 
disposition was too alert long to permit him 
to follow the prosaic technical study demanded 
in this connection, and soon he is found en- 
listed in the field of enterprise in which it has 
been his to gain so marked success. His first 
experience in the insurance business was in 
the general agency of the Equitable Life In- 
surance Company in Columbus, and in 1869 
he became connected with the Cleveland, Ohio, 
office of the Berkshire Life Insurance Com- 
pany, of Massachusetts, with which he re- 
mained two years. At the expiration of that 
period he joined the forces of the Michigan 
Mutual Life Insurance Company, to the execu- 
tive head of which he was destined to rise 
through his own ability and resourcefulness. 



448 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



He came to the home office of the company, in 
Detroit, and this city has ever since represented 
his home. 

Concerning his labors in this field the Michi- 
gan Investor of August 27, 1904, spoke as 
follows : "He was able to demonstrate to the 
directors from time to time the perfect knowl- 
edge he had attained of the life-insurance busi- 
ness, and when John T. Liggett, secretary of 
the company, dropped out, in 1883, Mr. Look- 
er was given his position and was also made 
general manager of the company. In 1893 he 
was elected president, in which office he has 
since served with consummate ability, retaining 
the while the active management of the com- 
pany's affairs. The great growth of the Michi- 
gan Mutual Life dates from the day, more than 
twenty years ago, that Mr. Looker became the 
director of the company's business. He had 
unbounded faith that ultimately the Michigan 
Mutual Life would be able to hold its own with 
any of the big companies of the country, and 
his faith is being justified. First he pulled the 
company out of the narrow rut into which it 
had fallen, and hewed paths for it into new ter- 
ritory. Next he convinced the directors that 
the company must do a diversified business, 
such as other companies were doing. He got 
their hearty support, and to-day the fact that 
the Michigan Mutual Life is to become one of 
the large insurance companies of the world is 
absolutely assured." 

Mr. Looker has not hedged in his life with 
the demands and exactions of the great concern 
of which he is the head, but holds precedence 
as one of the liberal, broad-minded and pro- 
gressive citizens of Michigan's metropolis. His 
political support is given to the Republican 
party, and in a fraternal, business and social 
way, he is identified with many local organiza- 
tions, including Detroit Post, No. 384, Grand 
Army of the Republic, in which he takes a 
deep mterest and of which he is past com- 
mander. He is also a Mason of high rank, 
having completed the round of the York Rite 
bodies, including membership in Detroit Com- 
mandery, No. i, Knights Templars, and also 



having attained the thirty-second degree in the 
Michigan sovereign consistory of the Ancient 
Accepted Scottish Rite. 

In the year 1895 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Looker to Miss Libbie C. Sulli- 
van, who was born and reared in Pontiac, this 
state, and they have two children, — Oscar F. 
and Ream C. 



GILES B. SLOCUM. 

True biography has a more noble purpose 
than mere fulsome eulogy. The historic spirit, 
faithful to the record, the discerning judgment, 
unmoved by prejudice and uncolored by en- 
thusiasm, are as essential in giving the life of 
the individual as in writing the history of a 
people. Indeed, the ingeniousness of the for- 
mer picture is even more vital, because the 
individual is the national unit, and if the unit 
be justly estimated the complex organism will 
become correspondingly intelligible. The 
world to-day is what the leading men of the 
last generation have made it. From the past 
has come the legacy of the present. Art, 
science, statesmanship, government and in- 
dustrial prosperity are accumulations. They 
constitute an inheritance upon which the pres- 
ent generation have entered, and the advan- 
tages secured from so vast a bequeathment de- 
pend entirely upon the fidelity with which is 
conducted the study of the lives of the principal 
actors who have transmitted the legacy. This 
is as true of those whose influence has been 
more or less localized as of those whose labors 
ha\'e had a permeating effect in the national 
life. To such a careful study are the life, 
character and services of Giles B. Slocum pre- 
eminently entitled, not only on the part of the 
student of biography but also of every citizen 
who, guided by the past, would in the pres- 
ent build wisely for the future. A strong man 
and true was this honored pioneer of Michigan, 
and his life and labors had significant bearing 
upon the development and material and social 
prosperity of the commonwealth with whose 
annals his name was linked for a long period 
and up to the time of his death. 

The Slocum family is of sturdy English 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



449 



stock and representatives of the same were 
among the founders of the Society of Friends, 
commonly known as Quakers. The subject of 
this memoir was a direct descendant of Giles 
Slocum, who was born in Somersetshire, Eng- 
land, and whom history records as having been 
a resident of Portsmouth township, Newport 
county, Rhode Island, as early as 1638. Jona- 
than Slocum, great-grandfather of him whose 
name initiates this sketch, was killed in the 
Indian wars, on the site of the present city of 
Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, to which locality 
he had removed with his family from Rhode 
Island about 1774. His son Giles, grandfather 
of the future Michigan pioneer, was born in 
Rhode Island, and accompanied his parents to 
Pennsylvania when young. He was one of the 
sufferers in the historic Wyoming massacre 
in Pennsylvania, being one of the sixty who 
escaped the frightful onslaught of the Indians. 
His sister Frances, then five years of age, was 
held captive by the Indians, among whom she 
grew to maturity, eventually marrying one of 
the tribe. Her relatives could find no trace 
of her for sixty years, and then she was found 
living in Miami county, Indiana, in 1837, with 
numerous descendants about her. She was a 
woman of intelligence, even under the handicap 
of the circumstances under which she grew up, 
and found gratification in learning of her kin- 
folk, though she refused to leave her Indian 
family or to radically change her mode of liv- 
ing. She lived to a venerable age and her 
name has been perpetuated in history, song and 
story. Her remains rest in a grave near the 
former Miami Indian village where she lived 
for so long a period, and in that section of 
Indiana are found to-day many of her de- 
scendants, — folk of high character and stand- 
ing. Through the efforts of kindred, direct 
and collateral, a suitable monument was erected 
over her grave, the same having been unveiled, 
with appropriate ceremon\', on the 17th of 
May, 1900. The chairman of the committee 
in charge of the placing of this memorial was 
Elliott T. Slocum, of Detroit, of whom indi- 
vidual mention is made in this work and who 
is a son of the subject of the memorial here 
entered. 



Giles Slocum (2d) was a volunteer in Sul- 
livan's expedition against the Indians in the 
Genesee valley, and soon after the close of the 
war of the Revolution he removed from Penn- 
sylvania to Saratoga Springs, New York, 
settling on a farm about four miles distant from 
the present village of Saratoga and becoming 
one of the influential pioneers of that section of 
the Empire state, where he passed the re- 
mainder of his life. He purchased his land 
from General Schuyler, the valiant Revolution- 
ary officer, and they were warm personal 
friends. His son Jeremiah married Elizabeth 
Bryan, a representative of an old and promi- 
nent Connecticut family, and of their children 
the subject of this memoir was one. 

Giles Bryan Slocum was born on the home- 
stead farm, near Saratoga Springs, New York, 
on the nth of July, 1808, and his early train- 
ing was in connection with the great basic art 
of agriculture, through association with which 
he waxed strong and reliant, both mentally and 
physically, while the home influences were of 
the most beneficent order for character build- 
ing in the youth. His educational advantages 
were those afforded in the common schools of 
the locality and period, and that he made good 
use of his opportunities is evidenced by the fact 
that he became eligible for pedagogic honors, 
having taught school during four winter terms 
when a young man, in the neighborhood of his 
home and at Lockport, New York. During 
the summer of 1830 he was engaged in farming 
in the northern part of his native state, and in 
the following year he came to Michigan, mak- 
ing the trip by way of the Great Lakes and 
landing in Detroit, from which point he started 
on an extensive prospecting trip in the interior 
country, which was then little more than a 
wilderness. He made special investigations in 
the forests above Black river. He settled for 
the winter on the site of the present city of 
Toledo, Ohio, having there aided in laying out 
the town of Vistula, the nucleus of the city 
mentioned. There he opened the first store 
and he also assisted in getting out timber for 
the construction of the first dock at that now 
important entrepot. The death of his father, 
in 1832, necessitated his return to his home in 



450 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the east, and in the adjustment of the affairs of 
the estate he purchased the interests of the 
, other heirs. Early in the winter of 1833 Mr. 
Slocum returned to Michigan and located at 
the head of Swan creek, on the site of the pres- 
ent village of Newport, Monroe county, where 
he established a general store and was also 
interested in the operation of a stave mill. It 
is interesting to recall the fact that in the spring 
of 1834 he paddled a canoe from the city of 
Jackson down the Grand river to Grand 
Rapids, at which latter place there was practi- 
cally little semblance of a settlement at the 
time. 

In the summer of the year last mentioned 
Mr. Slocum established the first store and 
dock at Truaxton, now Trenton, on the Detroit 
river, where he continued to be identified with 
the merchandise business for a long term of 
years, with but slight intermission. His op- 
erations in real estate in Michigan dated prac- 
tically from 1837, when he sold the old family 
homestead in Saratoga county, New York, 
having definitely established his home in Mich- 
igan, which was admitted to statehood that 
year. An important event in his career oc- 
curred in 1838, when was solemnized his mar- 
rige to Miss Sophia Maria Brigham Truax 
daughter of Colonel Abraham C. Truax' 
founder of the village of Trenton, Wayne 
county. Michigan,— an honored pioneer of 
whom specific mention is made on other pa^es 
of this work. 

Among the primary purchases of realty made 
by Mr. Slocum was a tract with a frontage 
of about three miles along the Detroit river 
m the vicinity of Trenton, and for about a 
score of years thereafter he gave special at- 
tention to farming and sheep raising, becoming 
one of the largest wool-growers in the state 
Each year he added to the area of his landed 
estate, and at the time of his death there stood 
to his credit the reclamation of about two 
thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Tren- 
ton; the major portion of this he had placed 
under effective cultivation. The timber from 
these lands was largely used in ship-building 
at Trenton and in the manufacturing of staves, 
which were shipped to New York. For several 



years also Mr. Slocum conducted a profitable 
enterprise in the building of docks at Detroit, 
Windsor, Springwells. Trenton, Sandwich] 
Gibralter and Grosse He. 

On the 7th of June, 1848, Mr. Slocum en- 
tered into a contract with the county of Wayne 
to construct three bridges, — two across the 
river Rouge and one over the Ecorse river, — 
and through the terms of this contract he came 
into possession of several large tracts of land 
in the eastern part of Muskegon county, said 
lands having been donated by the state to aid 
in the building of such bridges. 

At a point now known as the village of 
Slocum, in the heart of a tract of about five 
thousand acres of heavily timbered land, in 
Muskegon county, Mr. Slocum erected a saw 
mill, and there he built up a lumbering busi- 
ness which he conducted for many years, in 
company with his son, while they also made 
large incidental improvements in the develop- 
ing of the agricultural resources of the land, 
as it was gradually reclaimed, and with the ex- 
tension of railroad facilities this property has 
become very valuable. In the late '50s Mr. 
Slocum purchased large tracts of valuable tim- 
ber land on White river and White lake, and 
in 1859, with Charies Mears, of Chicago, he 
laid out and platted the present village of 
Whitehall, on White lake, in Muskegon county, 
Michigan. 

Mr. Slocum lent a hearty co-operation and 
support in the construction of the Detroit, Mon- 
roe & Toledo Railroad, in 1856, donating to 
the company the right of way through his own 
property and personally purchasing land from 
others for that purpose. On the completion 
of the Toledo, Canada Southern & Detroit and 
the Chicago & Canada Southern railways, the 
junction of the two roads was made on his 
property near Trenton. Of his life and labors 
another has written the following appreciative 
summary: "Notwithstanding the many com- 
mercial changes and business revulsions of his 
time, Mr. Slocum always met his obligations, 
and the fortune he accumulated was the re- 
sult of the numerous enterprises which he con- 
ducted with care and clear business judgment. 
His honesty was never questioned, and he pos- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



451 



sessed the unbounded faith and confidence of 
those with whom he did business. None of 
the early pioneers of this section was more 
widely known throughout the state nor more 
sincerely respected and esteemed. He had a 
kind heart, and helped many men to obtain 
homes, farms and fortunes." The last sentence 
in the above quotation clearly indicates the 
man as a man, and when his measure is thus 
gauged what more need be said? "He had a 
kind heart," yes, and he was humanity's friend 
in the best sense, — hopeful and helpful and ever 
faithful to principle. 

Mr. Slocum was originally an old-line Whig 
in his political affiliations, but when a new 
party came into existence as representative of 
the principles which met his approval, he at 
once transferred his allegiance, becoming a 
stalwart supporter of the Republican party, of 
which he was one of the founders, having been 
a delegate to the historic convention "under 
the oaks," at Jackson, Michigan, in 1854, where 
the party came into existence under its present 
proud title. He was a man of broad mental 
ken, and naturally took a lively interest in 
public affairs of the state in which he had taken 
up his abode in the territorial days. He thus 
wielded no little influence in political affairs, 
and he was especially active in several sena- 
torial campaigns. In the first two senatorial 
elections of the Hon. Zachariah Chandler, Mr. 
Slocum occupied the same room and shared the 
same bed with him at the senatorial head- 
quarters, at Lansing, and took an active part 
in his election. During the civil war his aid 
and influence were freely and loyally given in 
upholding the hands of the administration, and 
he did much to assist in raising funds, recruit- 
ing troops, equipping the same, and otherwise 
helping the state to do its part in the great 
struggle which determined the integrity of the 
republic. For several years prior to his death 
Mr. Slocum was a trustee of the Saratoga 
Monument Association, of which ex-Governor 
Horatio Seymour, of New York, was at the 
time president. His religious faith was that 
of the Protestant Episcopal church, and he was 
ever active in the promotion of moral and 
educational advancement. 



This honored pioneer died at his attractive 
home on Slocum's Island, in the Detroit river, 
on the 26th of January, 1884, and his mortal 
body was laid to rest in Elmwood cemetery, 
Detroit. His widow is still living (January, 
1908,) at the venerable age of eighty- nine 
years. Her life has been one of signal gra- 
ciousness and kindliness, and she is one of the 
oldest representatives of the pioneer families of 
Detroit and Michigan. Of her father. Colonel 
Abraham C. Truax, a memoir appears in this 
work, as already noted. 

Mr. and Mrs. Slocum became the parents of 
three children, — Elliott T., of whom individual 
mention is made elsewhere in this publication; 
Alice, who died at the age of twenty-three 
years; and Mrs. Elizabeth T. Nichols, who is a 
resident of Detroit. 



JEREMIAH HOWE. 

Fortified through technical knowledge, long 
and practical experience, and marked facility 
and resourcefulness in directing men and util- 
izing the forces at his command, Mr. Howe has 
been prominently identified with the copper and 
brass manufacturing interests of the United 
States for a quarter of a century and is now 
incumbent of the responsible office of general 
superintendent of the Michigan Copper & 
Brass Company, which represents one of the 
important and successful industrial enterprises 
contributing materially to the prestige of De- 
troit and to the development of the larger and 
greater city. 

Mr. Howe is a native of the fair Emerald 
Isle, having been born at Nenagh, county Tip- 
perary, Ireland, on the 15th of August, 1850, 
and being a son of Thomas and Bridget 
(Tuohey) Howe, both of whom passed their 
entire lives in Ireland. The early life of the 
subject of this sketch was spent in and about 
his native town, and his educational training 
was secured in the local schools. In 187 1, soon 
after attaining to his legal majority, Mr. Howe 
came to America, having very limited financial 
resources and depending upon himself to gain 
a place in connection with the economic activi- 



452 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ties of the strange land which he adopted as a 
home. He was not lacking in ambition, self- 
reliance and aggressiveness, however, and these 
attributes proved potent in his early career in 
America, as have they also in later years, 
marked by definite and worthy success. 

Soon after his arrival in the United States 
Mr. Howe located in Torrington, Connecticut, 
where he secured employment as a laborer in 
the shops of the Coe Brass Company. He soon 
showed that he had much natural ability in the 
line of mechanics and also that he was able to 
render effective service in directing the labors 
of others : the consequence was that he did not 
long remain in a position of subordinate order, 
but, on the contrary, he was advanced through 
various grades of promotion and assumed 
duties of continuously increasing responsibility. 
He soon familiarized himself with the details 
of brass manufacturing and for a period of 
ten years he continued in the employ of the 
Coe Brass Company. At the expiration of 
that time, in 1881, he was tendered 
and accepted a position with the De- 
troit Copper & Brass Rolling Mills, which had 
been founded but a short time previously and 
which constituted practically the first concern 
in this branch of industrial enterprise in Michi- 
gan. Mr. Howe's duties in connection with 
the corporation at the start were of generalized 
character, being both technical and administra- 
tive. The plant had not been operated profita- 
bly and it became evident that a reorganization 
of the company was expedient, in order that 
the business might be pushed forward under 
more favorable auspices. This desideratum 
was gained through the interposition of F. H. 
Buhl, and under the new regime Mr. Howe 
was made superintendent of the plant. Mr. 
Buhl retired from the company in 1882 and 
was succeeded by Oliver Goldsmith. The en- 
terprise began to assume evidences of pro- 
nounced success soon after Mr. Howe took 
charge of the shops, and by 1884 the business 
had outgrown the capacity of its original 
quarters. Under these conditions the company 
purchased a tract of land on McKinstry av- 



enue, contiguous to the tracks of the Wabash 
Railroad, and the first buildings of the present 
plant of the corporation were erected and 
equipped under the direction of Messrs. Gold- 
smith and Howe. 

The development of this important industrial 
institution offers the record of Mr. Howe's suc- 
cess in his chosen field of endeavor and also 
designates the initial work accomplished in 
connection with the upbuilding of the brass and 
copper manufacturing industry in the state of 
Michigan. Mr. Howe continued incumbent of 
the office of superintendent of the plant until 
November, 1905, when he resigned to become 
one of the organizers of the Michigan Copper 
& Brass Company, with which he has since 
been identified as a stockholder and as general 
superintendent, being the technical expert of 
the company. The various additions to the 
plant were erected under his supervision and 
many improvements in special machinery were 
designed by him : these devices were construct- 
ed in the machine shops of the company. The 
application of these new machines has con- 
served economy of labor and also materially 
enhanced the quality and value of the 
output. Although a description of the 
company and its business is offered on other 
pages of this work, certain salient points should 
be noted in the present sketch, in so far as 
they pertain to the successful efforts of Mr. 
Howe. Under his direction when he assumed 
the superintendency of the Detroit Copper & 
Brass Rolling Mills, in 1881, a force of not 
more than one hundred operatives and assist- 
ants was employed, and at the time of his 
resignation, in 1905, the corps of operatives 
numbered fully one thousand persons. The 
output of a single day in 1905 equalled that of 
an entire month in 1881. This certainly repre- 
sents a splendid development, and none of 
those concerned with the business has failed 
to appreciate that the progress is most largely 
due to the indefatigable efforts and close ex- 
ecutive administration of Mr. Howe. He has 
been signally favored in the kindly relations 
which he has ever maintained with the men 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



453 



working under his supervision. They recog- 
nize his abihty and loyalty and return to him 
unreserved confidence and esteem. In the 
twenty-five years of his identification with his 
present line of business he has never had a dis- 
pute with his men in the matter of labor condi- 
tions, and the Detroit companies of whose 
practical affairs he has thus been superintend- 
ent have never operated their plants with union 
labor. Mr. Howe is recognized as an expert in 
his knowledge of the mixing feature of the 
copper, brass and bronze business, and his 
ability in this line is the direct result of close 
investigation, experimentation and long ex- 
perience. In mechanical work he is equally 
facile, and this fact has enabled him to provide 
many devices of great value in the equipment 
of the plants of which he has been placed in 
charge. He has invented many special ma- 
chines and accessory equipments and the plant 
of the company with which he is now connected 
is a model in all departments, while its products 
are at all times maintained at the highest stand- 
ard. That the co-operation of representative 
capitalists and business men of Detroit was 
secured in effecting the organization of the 
Michigan Copper & Brass Company was large- 
ly due to the implicit confidence they reposed 
in the technical and executive ability of 
Mr. Howe. For a more comprehensive out- 
line of the history of the company reference 
should be made to the article descriptive of the 
same, appearing elsewhere in this volume. 

Mr. Howe is an appreciative member of the 
Detroit Board of Commerce, the Detroit Engi- 
neering Society and the Rushmere Club, at St. 
Clair Flats. In addition to his stock in the 
company of which he is superintendent he has 
made judicious investments in local real estate, 
and his success in life is the result of his own 
energy and well directed efforts, as even the 
data of this brief article clearly indicate. He 
is loyal to the city which has so long been 
his home and is a firm believer in the still 
greater prestige which Detroit is to attam 
along civic and industrial lines. In politics he 
gives his allegiance to the Democratic party 



and he and his family are communicants of St. 
Anne's Catholic church. He is also identified 
with the National Union, the Knights of Co- 
lumbus and the Catholic Mutual Benefit Asso- 
ciation. 

In the city of Torrington, Connecticut, in 
May, 1876, was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Howe to Miss Margaret Ganley, who was 
born in the state of Massachusetts, and they 
became the parents of nine children, of whom 
seven are living, two of the sons having died 
in infancy. Thomas W. is bookkeeper for A. 
Krolik & Company, of Detroit ; Frank is a 
draughtsman in the employ of the Russel 
Wheel & Foundry Company, of this city; and 
Vincent, Leo J., Paul, Sylvester and Mary B. 
are attending school. 



LEARTUS CONNOR. 

Leartus Connor, pliysician and surgeon 
(eye and ear), medical teacher and medical 
journalist, of Detroit, Michigan, was born 
January 29, 1843, at Coldenham, Orange 
county, New York, a son of Hezekiah and 
Caroline (Corwin) Connor; both natives of 
the same county. His father was a lineal de- 
scendant of Jeremiah Connor, who emigrated 
to America about the middle of the seventeenth 
century and owned lands in Exeter, New 
Hampshire, in 1664. His son, Jeremiah 2d, 
was captain of a company of scouts in the 
French and Indian war of 1702; the latter's 
son, Dr. Samuel Connor, was a lieutenant and 
surgeon with the Colonial forces which took 
part in the siege of Louisburg, 1745-6- John, 
a son of Dr. Samuel Connor (born in 1734, 
died 1796 in Walkill, New York), was a 
soldier in the battle of Ticonderoga; a soldier 
in the war of the Revolution; settling at the 
close of the war near Scotchtown, Orange 
county, New York, becoming a successful me- 
chanic and farmer— the sword of his ancestor 
is possessed by his great-grandson, Leartus 
Connor. William Connor, son of John (born 
1777, died 1854) was a soldier in the war of 
181 2, a mason, builder and farmer. On his 
farm near Scotchtown, Orange county, New 



454 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



York, was discovered a partial skeleton of one 
of the largest mastadons extant, now preserved 
in the New York State Museum, at Albany, 
New York. 

Hezekiah Connor, son of William, father 
of Leartus (born 1807 near Scotchtown, New 
York, and died in 1888) was a mason builder 
and a farmer, a Republican and Presbyterian. 
Caroline (Corwin) Connor (born 1817, died 
1864), mother of Leartus Connor, was a 
daughter of Phineas Corwin, a soldier in the 
war of 18 1 2, carpenter, farmer, Presbyterian, 
a direct descendant of Matthias Corwin, who 
emigrated from England, settling in Ipswich, 
Massachusetts, in 1633; removing to Southold, 
Long Island, in 1640. From the same stock 
came Thomas Corwin, the celebrated Ohio 
lawyer, governor of Ohio, member of con- 
gress, United States senator from Ohio, and 
secretary of the treasury under Fillmore — 
said to have been one of the wittiest and most 
forceful of political speakers. 

Leartus Connor was educated in the district 
schools, in Wallkill Academy, and Williams 
College, Massachusetts, graduating a Bachelor 
of Arts in 1865 and Master of Arts in 1868. 
He then served as assistant principal of Mex- 
ico Academy, in Mexico, New York, for two 
years, during his leisure studying the fauna 
and flora of that region, and medicine with 
Dr. George L. Dayton. During 1867-8 he 
studied in the medical department of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, paying especial attention 
to practical work in the chemical laboratory. 
The two following years he spent in the Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons of New York 
city, taking the degree of Doctor of Medicine 
m 1870. During the intervals of his college 
courses he did practical clinical work, in dis- 
pensaries, hospitals and clinics, especially with 
Dr. Herman Knapp at his Ophthalmic and 
Aural Institute and with Dr. Cornelius Agnew 
at his Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital. He 
began practice at Searsville, New York, but 
in February, 1871, removed to Detroit to fill 
the chair of chemistry and director of the 
chemical laboratory in the Detroit Medical 



College; in 1872 he was made professor of 
physiology and clinical medicine; in 1878 pro- 
fessor of diseases of the eye and ear. From 
1871 to 1879 he was attending physician to 
St. Mary's Hospital; from 18S1 to 1894 eye 
and ear surgeon to Harper Hospital, and from 
1894 to 1906 consulting eye and ear surgeon; 
from 1887 to present date he has served as 
eye and ear surgeon to the Children's Free 
Hospital; from 1881 to 1890 he was consult- 
ing eye and ear surgeon to the Woman's Hos- 
pital. 

From 1 87 1 to 1895 Dr. Connor edited a 
medical journal known at different periods as 
the Detroit Review of Medicine and Pharm- 
acy, Detroit Medical Journal, Detroit Lancet, 
and the American Lancet. 

From 1876 to 1883 Dr. Connor was secre- 
tary of the American Medical Association; 
from 1875 to 1 88 1 secretary of the faculty of 
the Detroit Medical College; president of the 
Detroit Academy of Medicine 1888-9 and 
1877-8, and its secretary 1871-2; president of 
the American Academy of Medicine 1888-9; 
president of the American Medical Editors' 
Association, 1883-4; chairman eye section of 
the American Medical Association, 1891 ; vice- 
president American Medical Association 1882- 
3; trustee of the Journal of the American 
Medical Association, 1883-9 and 1892-4. 

Dr. Connor is an active member of the De- 
troit Academy of Medicine; the Wayne Coun- 
ty Medical Society, the Michigan State Medi- 
cal Society, the American Academy of Medi- 
cine, the Michigan Academy of Science, the 
American Medical Association, the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, 
the American Academy of Ophthalmology and 
Oto-Laryngology, and the Detroit Ophthal- 
mological Club. 

He was president of the Michigan State 
Medical Society 1902-3 ; chairman of its coun- 
cil 1902-5. (During this period the profes- 
sion of Michigan was reorganized and on a 
scientific basis that greatly increased its effi- 
ciency and power— a triumph of medical so- 
ciology.) From 1892 to 1894 he was a mem- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



455 



ber of the committee of the American Medi- 
cal Association on revision of its constitution, 
by-laws and code of ethics. 

Dr. Connor's contributions to medical lit- 
erature may be classified roughly as: (i) 
papers and discussions relating to his special 
eye and ear work; (2) those relating to the 
communal life of physicians; (3) public 
health; (4) general medicine; (5) presidential 
addresses before medical societies; (6) his 
editorial work during a period of twenty-four 
years. Space forbids a citation of but a few 
titles of these papers. In the first class we 
select "Hot Water in the Management of Eye 
Diseases" ; "Optic Neuritis in Its Relation to 
Cerebral Tumor"; "Some Features of Stra- 
bismus" ; "The Technique of Tenotomy of the 
Ocular Muscles"; "Strabismus as a Symptom; 
Its Causes and Practical Management" ; "The 
Causes of Glaucoma" ; "Diseases of the Lach- 
rymal Passages; Their Causes and Manage- 
ment"; "Some Sources of Failure in Treating 
Lachrymal Obstruction" ; "The Giant Magnet 
in Ophthalmic Surgery"; "Does Opacity of 
Incipient Cataract Ever Regain Transpar- 
ency"; "What Contribution has Vibratory 
Massage Made to Ophthalmology." 

(2) "The Communal Life of Physi- 
cians" ; "A Year's Experience in Medical Or- 
ganization" ; "The Medical Profession; Its 
Aim and Method" ; "Free Medical Service to 
the Well-to-do in the University of Michigan 
Hospitals." 

(3) "The Needs and Value of Public 
Health Work"; "Common Sources of Danger 
to Human Vision" ; "How to Secure and Pre- 
serve the Best Eyesight." 

(4) "Neuralgia of the Heart Treated by 
Nitrite of Amyl" ; "Unity of Croup and Diph- 
theria"; "Causes of Phthisis Pulmonalis." 

(5) "American Medical Journal of the Fu- 
ture as Indicated by the History of the Medi- 
cal Journals of the Past" (president's ad- 
dress) ; "Department of Medicine and Surg- 
ery, University of Michigan, Considered as a 
Living Organism and as a Factor" (address 
at the laying of the corner stone of the new 



medical building by the president of the Mich- 
igan State Medical, Society) ; "Michigan State 
Medical Society; Its First Eighty-three Years" 
(president's address, June, 1903); "American 
Academy of Medicine; Its Field Work and 
Suggestions for an Increase in Its Efficiency" 
(president's address) ; "The First Twenty 
Years of the Detroit Academy of Medicine" 
(president's address) ; "Methods for Promot- 
ing the Value of the Section on Ophthalmol- 
ogy, American Medical Association" (chair- 
man's address). 

The addresses before the Michigan State 
Medical Society, the American Academy of 
Medicine, and the Section on Ophthalmology, 
American Medical Association, started move- 
ments which radically changed each society 
and the entire American Medical Association. 
Dr. Connor is an elder in the Fort Street 
Presbyterian church ; member of the Old Club ; 
member of the Detroit Club; member of the 
Board of Commerce; member of the Detroit 
Bankers' Club ; and director in the Home Sav- 
ings Bank. On August 10, 1870, he married 
Anna A., eldest daughter of Rev. Charles and 
Nancy (Page) Dame, of Exeter, New Hamp- 
shire, born at Falmouth, Maine, August 23, 
1844. In 1866 she graduated from Mount 
Holyoke College, at South Bradley, Massa- 
chusetts. For the three following years she 
served as preceptress at Mexico Academy, 
Mexico, New York, and Monson Academy, 
Monson, Massachusetts. After building her 
home and rearing her family she devoted her 
life to advancing the intellectual, social, patri- 
otic and religious life of her city. She was 
a constant worker in the Fort Street Presby- 
terian church, generally an officer, and always 
a leader in one or more of the church societies. 
She was the founder of the Michigan Mount 
Holyoke College Alumni Association, and for 
many years its president; a founder of the 
Detroit Twentieth Century Club and of the 
Woman's College Club. She was a member, 
and twice regent, of the Louisa St. Clair 
Chapter of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution. For several years she was cor- 



456 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



responding secretary of the Michigan Chapter 
of the Colonial Dames of America, and was 
completing her second term of service as its 
president at her death, July 21, 1907. With 
high intellectual attainments she blended a 
gracious personality and unswerving devotion 
to her friends, her country and her God. To 
Dr. and Mrs. Connor came two sons, Guy 
Leartus, born October 10, 1874, and Ray, 
born November i, 1876. Both fitted for col- 
lege in the Detroit public schools and at the 
Detroit School for Boys; both graduated 
Bachelor of Arts from Williams College, Mas- 
sachusetts, 1897; and both graduated Doctor 
of Medicine from Johns Hopkins Medical 
School, 1901. Guy at once began medical 
practice in Detroit; for one year he was sec- 
retary and treasurer of the Wayne County 
Medical Society, and served as assistant editor 
of the Journal, Michigan State Medical So- 
ciety. Ray served as house surgeon at the 
Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital in New 
York city till 1903, when he became associated 
with his father in eye, ear, nose and throat 
practice in Detroit. Both sons are connected 
with the Detroit Children's Free Hospital- 
Guy with the department of nervous diseases; 
Ray with the eye and ear service. Both are 
members of the American Academy of Medi- 
cine; of the Detroit Academy of Medicine; 
the Wayne County Medical Society; the 
Michigan State Medical Society; and the 
American Medical Association. Ray is a mem- 
ber of the American Academy of Ophthalmol- 
ogy and Oto-Laryngology, and secretary of 
the Detroit Ophthalmological and Otological 
Club and member of the Detroit Book and 
Journal club. He was founder of the Michi- 
gan Williams College Alumni Association and 
IS its secretary and treasurer. 



ELLIOTT T. SLOCUM. 

Elsewhere in this volume is entered a me- 
moir to Giles B. Slocum, one of the honored 
pioneers and influential citizens of Wayne 
county, who was the father of Elliott T 
Slocum, and in the present sketch it is there- 



fore unnecessary to again review the data or 
take further cognizance of the family geneal- 
ogy. The subject of this sketch has proven 
a worthy successor of his father and has long 
held prestige as one of the prominent busi*^ 
ness men and leading citizens of his native 
county and state. His capitalistic interests are 
wide and varied and his individual and finan- 
cial forces have been exerted along lines which 
touch and enhance the general progress and 
material welfare. 

Elliott Truax Slocum was born at Trenton, 
Wayne county, Michigan, a village which was 
founded by his maternal grandfather. Colonel 
Abraham C. Truax, individually mentioned in 
this work, and the date of his nativity was 
May 15, 1839. He is the only son of Giles 
B. and Sophia Maria Brigham (Truax) 
Slocum. Mr. Slocum was reared on the old 
homestead near Trenton, and his collegiate 
preparatory course was taken in the Episcopal 
school for boys maintained on Grosse He by 
Rev. Moses Hunter, an able educator and a 
prominent clergyman of the Protestant Epis- 
copal church. Mr. Slocum finished his pre- 
paratory course in 1857, and in the following 
year he was matriculated in Union College 
Schenectady, New York— a locality which is 
the ancestral home of the Slocum family He 
was graduated as a member of the class of 
1862, receiving the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts, and his diploma was one of the last 
to bear the signature of Dr. Eliphalet Nott 
who was for many years president of the 
institution and who held a verv high reputa- 
tion in educational circles. In 1869 Mr 
Slocum completed a post-graduate course in 
the University of Michigan, which conferred 
upon him the degree of Master of Arts He 
has ever retained a deep interest in educa- 
tional affairs and has not retrograded in the 
matter of appreciative study of the best lit- 
erature, classical and contemporaneous, bein<^ 
known as a man of broad intellectualitv as 
well as one of great business capacity. 

After his graduation in Union College Mr 
Slocum became actively associated with his 
father in the operation of their extensive stock 
and grain farm near Trenton— one of the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



457 



largest and most admirably conducted in the 
state — and they were also most intimately as- 
sociated in lumbering in Muskegon county 
for a number of years, as will be seen by ref- 
erence to the sketch of the life of the father. 
Elliott T. Slocum individually acquired by 
purchase extensive tracts of land in various 
parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, the greater 
portion being unreclaimed from the primitive 
forest, and with the advent of railroads in 
these sections, and the consequent develop- 
ment of the country, these lands greatly ap- 
preciated in value and constituted a most prof- 
itable investment. He is still interested in 
real estate in western Michigan, where he 
has large and valuable holdings, and where 
he is also concerned in various industrial and 
commercial enterprises of an incidental order. 
He is also the owner of a large amount of 
real estate in Detroit, and his possessions along 
the river front in Wayne county are exten- 
sive and exceedingly valuable. In this, as well 
as other connections, he has done much to 
further the material upbuilding and generic 
progress of his home city and county. 

With a natural predilection for affairs of 
breadth, and trained by a father of great 
pragmatic ability, Mr. Slocum made distinc- 
tive progress along lines of legitimate busi- 
ness enterprise. He was one of the original 
directors of the Chicago & Canada Southern 
Railroad, was one of the organizers of the 
First National Bank of Whitehall, Muskegon 
county, of which he long served as vice-presi- 
dent, and was formerly a director of the De- 
troit National Bank now known as the Old 
Detroit National Bank. He is at the present 
time a director and large stockholder in the 
Union Trust Company, a stockholder in the 
First National Bank of Detroit and the Citi- 
zens' Savings Bank, as well as the City Na- 
tional Bank of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He 
is also one of the principal stockholders of the 
Michigan Wire Cloth Company, one of the 
successful industrial concerns of Detroit. Upon 
the death of his father he assumed control of 
the large estate, and the management of the 
same has demanded much of his time and at- 
tention during the interA^ening pei'iod of more 



than a score of years. He succeeded his father 
as trustee of the Saratoga Monument Associa- 
tion of New York, and with George William 
Curtis, Samuel S. Cox, John H. Starin and 
others was actively concerned in tlie erection, 
under the direction of the association, of the 
beautiful monument on the field of Bur- 
goyne's surrender, at Schuylerville, New 
York, near the old homestead of his father's 
family. This monument is conceded to be one 
of the finest in America and is a worthy 
memorial touching one of the most important 
events in the nation's history. He was also 
chairman of the Frances Slocum Monument 
Committee, through whose efforts a fitting 
monument was erected over the grave of the 
Indian captive, Frances Slocum, in Miami 
county, Indiana. The romantic story of the 
life of this worthy woman, who was taken 
captive when a child of five years and who 
was reared among the Indians, has been told 
in the pages of history, and her kindred in 
generations far removed finally paid a defi- 
nite tribute to her memory by the placing 
of the monument mentioned, the same having 
been unveiled on the I7tli day of May, 1900. 
The occasion was one of historic interest and 
called forth an assemblage of many represent- 
ative men, including a large number who could 
claim direct collateral kinship. Further men- 
tion of Frances Slocum is made in the sketch 
of the life of Mr. Slocum's father, and in 
that article is indicated the direct family re- 
lationship. 

In 1886 Mr. Slocum was appointed a park 
commissioner of Detroit, and he was for sev- 
eral years in turn commissioner, vice-president 
and president of the board. He has made 
several trips to Europe, where, being naturally 
attracted by the wonderful dykes of Holland, 
which have reclaimed vast tracts of lowlands 
from the sea, he spent much time in studying 
the methods and results of the Dutch en- 
gineers. The knowledge thus gained, to- 
gether wit'i that secured through a careful 
study of tl.: parks of Europe, came into use- 
ful play in the smaller field of Belle Isle 
park, which owes much of its attractiveness 
to the efforts and advice of Mr. Slocum while 



458 



DETEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



a member of the board of park commissioners. 
In politics Mr. Slocum has ever been aligned 
as a loyal advocate of the principles of the 
Republican party, and he has been an active 
and valued worker in behalf of its cause. In 
1869 he represented the Third senatorial dis- 
trict in the state legislature, and he proved 
a popular and valuable working member of 
the upper house, his course being marked by 
conscientious application and earnest efforts 
to promote wise legislation. He was always 
an active member of the Michigan Club and 
other political organizations of his party, and 
took great interest in all the senatorial elec- 
tions. Those who know Mr. Slocum appre- 
ciate him for his independence and the frank- 
ness with which he presents his views, without 
demanding that others shall endorse them. In 
1896 he was appointed, by Governor John T. 
Rich, an inspector of the Michigan Military 
Academy, at Orchard Lake. 

Mr. Slocum is a member of the Society of 
Colonial Wars, the Sons of the American 
Revolution, the American Historical Associa- 
tion, the American Forestry Association, the 
Detroit Board of Commerce, the Detroit 
Municipal League, the Detroit Club, the 
Country Club, the University Club, the Fel- 
lowcraft Club, the Bankers' Club, the Detroit 
Assemblies and of other minor clubs and as- 
sociations of Detroit. He is also a member 
of the Chi Psi Club of New York and the 
Peninsular Club of Grand Rapids, Michigan. 
He is a communicant of the Protestant 
Episcopal church and a trustee of Harris 
Hall, in connection with the state university, 
at Ann Arbor. Harris Hall was endowed 
with the Slocum lectureship by his wife, out 
of respect for the late Rt. Rev. Samuel S. 
Harris, bishop of the diocese of Michigan, 
who was the founder of said institution and 
deeply interested in its welfare. When in 
Detroit A/[r. Slocum attends Christ church, 
and_ at his summer home, on Slocum's Island, 
he is senior warden of St. Thomas' churcli, 
Trenton, which was founded by his grand- 
father. Colonel Abraham C. Truax. 

On the 30th of July, 1872, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Slocum to Charlotte 



Gross Wood, daughter of the late Ransom E. 
Wood, an honored pioneer and influential 
capitalist of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mrs. 
Slocum died in Dresden, Germany, on the 6th 
of June, 1891. Mr. Slocum maintains two 
homes— one in Detroit and the other his beau- 
tiful summer residence about sixteen miles 
below Detroit, on the banks of the Detroit 
river. 



JOHN B. HOWARTH. 

Detroit has made definite and substantial 
progress in industrial lines within the last 
quarter of a century, and its commercial im- 
portance in a relative way is of a scope to be a 
source of gratification to those who have con- 
served this result. Among the number is the 
subject of this sketch, who is now treasurer of 
The Pingree Company and who has gained for 
himself a secure place as one of the alert and 
enterprising business men of the city. 

Mr. Howarth claims as the place of his na- 
tivity the old Bay State, having been born in 
the village of Graniteville, Westford township, 
Middlesex county, Massachusetts, on the 29th 
of March, 1858, and being a son of George and 
Margaret (Bradshaw) Howarth, both of 
whom was born in England. The parents 
came to America in 1842 and took up their 
residence in Massachusetts. The father found 
employment as an expert mechanic until 1875, 
when he removed to Detroit, where he passed 
the remainder of his life; he died in 1890 and 
his wife passed away in 1899. 

The subject of this review received his early 
educational training in the public schools of 
his native state and supplemented this disci- 
pline by a course in Westford Academy, in 
Westford Centre. He was seventeen years of 
age at the time of the family removal to De- 
troit, and he soon secured a position in the 
office of the well known shoe-manufacturing 
firm of Pingree & Smith. That he won for 
himself a secure position in the confidence and 
esteem of the firm is shown in the fact that in 
1883 he was admitted to partnership in the 
business. This connection continued until 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



459 



after the death of Hon. Hazen S. Pingree, and 
upon the incorporation of the business, in 1902, 
he became one of the principal stockholders and 
was made treasurer of the company, an incum- 
bency which he has since retained. He has 
proven an able and discriminating executive 
and has reinforced the distinctive business abil- 
ity which he had previously manifested and 
which has led to his preferment. 

Mr. Howarth has not hedged in his affairs 
by bounds of purely personal interest but, 
rather, has shown a broad-minded and liberal 
attitude as a citizen and business man and has 
done all in his power to forward the material 
and civic prosperity of his home city. He was 
one of the organizers of the Detroit Board of 
Commerce and was a member of its committee 
on constitution and by-laws. He was also 
elected a member of the first board of directors 
of the institution and served as a member of 
the executive committee of the body, having 
been chairman of this committee for one year. 
Mr. Howarth has been a zealous worker in 
the ranks of the Republican party and has 
taken a deep interest in local affairs of a public 
nature. He is at the present time (1908) 
treasurer of the Progressive Municipal Voters' 
League, which has done much to further effec- 
tive administration of the city government. His 
religious faith is that of the Protestant Epis- 
copal church, of which he is a communicant 
and in which he is a zealous worker. He holds 
membership and is a vestryman in the parish of 
St. Paul's church and is a treasurer of the 
diocesan board of missions of the diocese of 
Michigan. He is identified with the Detroit 
Club and other social organizations. His con- 
cern in the promotion of moral and religious 
causes is shown in his intimate association with 
the work of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, and he is president of the Detroit or- 
ganization of the same. ' 

In 1884 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Howarth to Miss Frances C. Perkins, a 
daughter of Norman C. Perkins, a prominent 
editor and attorney of Detroit, and the children 
of this union are three in number, namely: 
Marjorie, Winslow and Donald Gridley. 



HENRY STEPHENS. 

Among those who were prominently con- 
cerned in the development of the great lum- 
bering industry in Michigan and who held 
precedence as representative business men of 
the state was the subject of this memoir. He 
was a man of distinctive force of character, 
strong initiative power and sterling integrity, 
and he left a definite impress upon the annals 
of his time. 

Henry Stephens was born in the city of 
Dublin, Ireland, March 14, 1823, and was the 
only child of Robert L. and Emily (O'Brien) 
Stephens. In 1830 the father came to Ameri- 
ca and located at Kingston, Ontario. The sub- 
ject of this memoir was the only child of his 
father's first marriage, and the latter had chil- 
dren from two subsequent marriages. Rob- 
ert L. Stephens died at sea while en route 
to Ireland, his native land. 

As his father was in very moderate circum- 
stances, the subject of this review was "bound 
out" when a lad of nine years. He was per- 
mitted to attend the district schools a portion 
of each year, but his early advantages in this 
line were very limited. A man of strong men- 
tality, he effectually overcame this handicap 
of early years, having attained a broad fund 
of information and developed much intellect- 
ual power through personal application and 
through intimate association with men and 
affairs. During his youth he was employed at 
farm work and as a clerk in a country store. 
Becoming assured that better opportunnities 
were afforded in the United States, in 1844, 
soon after reaching his majority, Mr. Stephens 
came to Michigan and located at Romeo, where 
with a capital of three hundred dollars, he es- 
tablished himself in the general merchandise 
business, beginning operations, as may be in- 
ferred, on a very modest scale. He was ener- 
getic and enterprising, gained and held the 
confidence and good will of the community 
and met with definite success in business. 
Fnally he opened a branch store at .\lmont, 
Lapeer county, where likewise he built up a 
good business. 



460 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



In 1856 Mr. Stephens came to Detroit, where 
he established himself in the hardware busi- 
ness, under the firm name of Stephens & Mar- 
vin. Soon afterward he purchased Mr. Mar- 
vin's interest and thus became the sole owner 
of the business. The financial panic of 1857 
brought serious reverses to his brother, James 
Stephens, who was engaged in the mercantile 
business in what was known as the old 
"Checker" store, on Woodward avenue. In 
attempting to assist his brother Mr. Stephens 
crippled himself and was compelled to dispose 
of his own business. In 1861 he took up his 
residence in Almont and assumed full charge 
of the business which he had continued in that 
village. 

In the period leading up to the civil war 
he was one of the active workers in the "un- 
derground railway," and many negroes were 
helped to Canada and freedom by him and 
his associates. The cellar of his home at Al- 
mont was a station on this historic railway. 

During the civil war Mr. Stephens specu- 
lated largely in cotton goods and nails, through 
which means he laid the foundation for his 
large and substantial fortune. He was among 
the first to realize the value of pine lands, 
and as early as 1868 he had purchased large 
tracts of timber land in Tuscola county, as 
well as in adjoining counties. His first mill 
was located on Clear Lake, nine miles north of 
the present Imlay City, in Goodland town- 
ship, Lapeer county, and was devoted to the 
manufacture of shingles. He later purchased 
a large tract of land north of Lapeer and there 
operated the largest lumber plant of its kind 
south of Saginaw, in the Saginaw valley; also 
developed a large business in handling lumber 
purchased from other mill operators in that 
section. Later he erected a large plant at 
St. Helen's, Roscommon county, being the 
founder of the village mentioned. This was 
one of the largest and best equipped plants 
in the state and Mr. Stephens built up a mag- 
nificent enterprise. He employed in his mills 
and camps from three to five thousand men 
and utilized an average of five hundred horses. 



He also built and operated many miles of 
logging railroad. 

In 1882 Mr. Stephens organized a stock 
company, under the title of Henry Stephens 
& Company, and the interested principals in 
the concern were himself and his two sons, 
Henry and Albert, and twelve old and trusted 
employes. Mr. Stephens continued to be ac- 
tively identified with the management of the 
business until his death, which occurred Feb- 
ruary 22, 1886. Soon after his demise the 
business of Henry Stephens & Company was 
closed and the concern was succeeded by the 
Stephens Lumber Company, under which title 
the enterprise is still continued, under the 
ownership and active control of his son Henry. 
Mr. Stephens was known as one of the largest 
lumber operators in the state at the period 
when the lumber industry was one of the 
greatest in this commonwealth. His mills at 
St. Helen's alone had an output of one hun- 
dred and twenty-five million feet in a single 
year, and within a period of fourteen years 
more than a billion feet of lumber were cut. 
Mr. Stephens was a man of great capacity for 
the handling of affairs of breadth and im- 
portance, and his success was the diametrical 
result of the application of his splendid ener- 
gies along legitimate lines of enterprise. He 
so ordered his course as to retain at all times 
the confidence and esteem of his fellow men. 
In politics Mr. Stephens was a staunch ad- 
herent of the Republican party, having been 
one of its founders, at the historic meeting 
"under the oaks," at Jackson, but he never 
had any desire for public office. He was a 
liberal, broad-guaged man, well fortified in 
his convictions and never lacking the courage 
of the same. 

September 20, 1853, was solemnized the 
marriage of Mr. Stephens to Miss Clarinda 
Leet, daughter of Dr. Albert Leet, who was 
a pioneer physician and influential citizen of 
Macomb county, where he took up his resi- 
dence as early as 1820. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Stephens were born three children— Henry, 
Albert L., and Catherine. The daughter be- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



461 



came the wife of Charles Mclver, and she 
died in 1898, in CaHfornia. Mrs. Stephens 
still survives her honored husband and is now 
seventy-seven years of age (1907). 



JOHN S. NEWBERRY. 

Bearing the full patronymic of his honored 
father and well upholding the prestige of the 
family name, the subject of this review is num- 
bered among the progressive and public- 
spirited citizens and representative business 
men of his native city, where, in addition to 
various other capitalistic interests of impor- 
tance, he is president and general manager of 
the Detroit Steel Castings Company. 

Mr. Newberry was born in the beautiful old 
family homestead, 483 Jefferson avenue, De- 
troit, on the 2ist of July, 1866, and is a son of 
Hon. John S. and Helen P. (Handy) New- 
berry. A memorial tribute to his father ap- 
pears on other pages of this work, so that 
further review of the family history is not de- 
manded in the present connection. The earlier 
educational training of the subject of this 
sketch was secured in the Barstow school, De- 
troit, and the Michigan Military Academy, at 
Orchard Lake. After leaving the latter insti- 
tution he prosecuted his studies for two years 
in Chester Military School, at Chester, Penn- 
sylvania, and in 1890 and 1891 he was a stu- 
dent in Cornell University, New York, where 
he completed a special course year, in the En- 
gineering department. 

Upon leaving Cornell Mr. Newberry re- 
turned to Detroit and became assistant man- 
ager of the Detroit Steel & Spring Company. 
In 1902 he was one of the organizers of the 
Detroit Steel Castings Company, of which he 
became assistant manager at the time of incor- 
poration. In 1905 he was elected to succeed 
his brother, Truman H. Newberry, now assist- 
ant secretary of the United States navy, as 
president and general manager of the company. 
He has since administered the affairs of the 
concern with marked discrimination and ability 
and has shown distinctive qualities of leader- 
ship and initiative,— traits which brought his 



distinguished father so prominently forward in 
the industrial world. He is a director of the 
National Bank of Commerce, Detroit, and is 
a trustee of Grace hospital, of which his father 
was one of the founders and most liberal sup- 
porters. Mr. Newberry is a staunch adherent 
of the Republican party but has never been 
moved to enter the domain of practical politics. 
He is a member of the Detroit Board of Com- 
merce, the Detroit Club, the Yondotega Club, 
the Detroit Boat Club, the Detroit Country 
Club, the Detroit Automobile Club, and the 
Old Club, at St. Clair Flats. He exemplifies in 
his courteous bearing and democratic ways the 
gracious and cultured influences under which 
he was reared, and he enjoys marked popular- 
ity in the business and social circles of his na- 
tive city, to whose interests he is insistently 
loyal, even as he is fully appreciative of the 
city's manifold attractions. 

Mr. Newberry has been prominently indenti- 
fied with the Naval Reserves of Michigan, with 
which he served for six consecutive years, — 
1894-9, both inclusive. During the Spanish- 
American war he was chief quartermaster on 
the United States cruiser "Yosemite," and in 
the department of general history in this vol- 
ume will be found reference to the service of 
the Michigan Naval Reserves at the time of the 
war mentioned. At the present time Mr. New- 
berry is a member of the Gilbert Wilkes Com- 
mand, Naval War Veterans. In the industrial 
and commercial department of this publication 
will be found a review of the Detroit Steel 
Castings Company, of which Mr. Newberry is 
president. 

On the 30th of September, 1908, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Mr. Newberry to 
Mrs. Edith Stanton Field, daughter of Alex- 
ander M. Stanton, a representative citizen of 
Detroit and a member of an old and honored 
family of this city. 

FRANK S. MUNGER. 

On other pages of this work, in the sketch of 
the life of the late James L. Edson. is incorpor- 
ated a review of the upbuilding of the great 



462 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



wholesale dry-goods house of Edson, Moore &cessor. The best voucher fnr hi. 

Comoanv. of wh.Vh Mr at.,„„.. .•„ „„... .,.. .. , . ^^^^ voucher for his success and 



Company, of which Mr. Munger is now the 
senior partner, having been identified with the 
concern from his youth to the present time and 
having won advancement through his fidelity 
and effective efforts in the connection. As one 
of the interested principals in this concern and 
as one of the representative business men of 
Detroit, he is entitled to distinctive recognition 
in this historical compilation, which has to do 
with those who have been the upbuilders of 
the "Greater Detroit." He was admitted a 
member of the firm on the withdrawal of 
Stephen Baldwin from the same. 

Mr. Munger is a native of the Wolverine 
state, where the family was founded in the 
pioneer days. He was born at Dundee, Mon- 
roe county, Michigan, in 1850, and is a son of 
Elizer D. and Mary P. (Simons)) Munger, 
the former of whom was born in Connecticut 
and the latter in Vermont. They came to 
Michigan in 1836, about a year prior to the 
admission of the state to the Union, and the 
father reclaimed a farm in the midst of the 
wilds of Monroe county, remaining identified 
with agricultural pursuits until his death. He 
was a man of inflexible integrity and strong 
intellectuality and wielded no little influence 
m his community, where he held various local 
offices. His wife died in the same county 
she was a member of the Congregational 
church and his political faith was that repre- 
sented by the Republican party. 

Frank S. Munger, the immediate subject of 
this sketch, received his early educational train- 
ing m the public schools and had the further 
advantages involved in the wholesome and 
vigorous discipline of the farm, where he 
waxed strong in mental and physical powers. 
In 1869 lie initiated his business career by as- 
suming a position as clerk in a general- 
merchandise store at Manchester, Michigan, 
where he was employed for three years. At 
the expiration of this period, in 1872, he came 
to Detroit and entered the employ of the whole- 
sale dry-goods house of Edson & Moore, of 
which the present company is the direct suc- 



for his status as an enterprising and reliable 
business man is that afforded in his rise to his 
present responsible position in the concern with 
which he has been so long identified and to 
the furtherance of whose interests he has con- 
tributed in no small measure. The house is one 
of the largest of the kind in the state. 

The welfare and progress of the city of De- 
troit are matters of vital interest to Mr. Mun- 
ger, whose is known as a loyal and public- 
spirited citizen. In politics, though not an 
active factor, he exercises his franchise and 
gives his influence in support of the principles 
and policies of the Republican party, and he is 
identified with various civic, fraternal and so- 
cial organizations. 

In the city of Detroit, on the 7th of July, 
1875, Mr. Munger was united in marriage to 
Miss Fannie A. Caverley, who was born and 
reared m this city, and they have two children 
Frank and Helena. ' 

Since the foregoing sketch was prepared Mr. 
Munger has withdrawn from his active asso- 
ciation with Edson. Moore & Company as is 
indicated in the following extract from the 
Detroit Free Press of Sunday, November i 
1908: 

Frank S. Munger, senior member of the 
wholesale dry goods firm of Edson, Moore & 
Company, and a vice-president of the Whole- 
salers' Association of Detroit, yesterday re- 
tired from the firm after more than thirty 
years connection with it. His associates in 
business and the employes of the firm pre- 
sented him a fine loving cup, manufactured by 
jolm Kay especially for the occasion The 
presentation was made by Edward J Koster 
of Grand Haven, who has been a traveling 
salesman for Edson, Moore & Company for 

r^ T./"''"'; ^^ '^^' ^" effecting scene, 
and Mr. Roster's voice broke as he spoke of 
the kindly treatment of employes bv Mr 
Munger. Mr. Munger is considered one of 
the most expert judges of wash goods in the 
United States and justly carries the reputation 
of being one of the most upright and able 
wholesale merchants in the country When 
asked as to his future plans. Mr. Munger said 
he had none made, and would probably take a 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



463 



rest. A few weeks ago articles of incorpora- 
tion were filed by Edson, Moore & Company, 
hitherto a partnership firm with the nominal 
capital of one thousand dollars. This was 
done as a preliminary step to a reorganization 
of the firm, which will go into effect at the end 
of the year, when the capital stock will be 
increased. 



GEORGE B. PECK. 

On the 3d of November, 1906, in Kansas 
City, Missouri, occurred the death of George 
B. Peck, who was a native of Detroit and who 
honored his native state by his life and serv- 
ices. While he attained to distinctive success 
in the business world and was known as one 
of the world's earnest and indefatigable work- 
ers, the individuality of the man was best indi- 
cated in the exalted nobility of his character, in 
his fervent and dominating Christianity and 
in his insistent charity, toleration and helpful- 
ness as a man among men. He was a son of 
George Peck, one of Detroit's representative 
citizens, of whom specific mention is made in 
this publication, and though the field of his 
labors as a business man was in Kansas City, 
it is fitting that a brief tribute to his memory 
be incorporated in this work. 

George Butler Peck was born in Detroit, on 
the 14th of June, 1863, and in the public 
schools of this city he secured his early educa- 
tional discipline, after which he took a course 
in the Michigan Military Academy, at Orchard 
Lake. At the age of twenty years he was 
given a position in his father's dry-goods es- 
tablishment, one of the leading retail concerns 
of the sort in Detroit at that time, and here he 
manifested in a most unequivocal way his in- 
herent talent for business, the result being that 
he made rapid advancement. His ambition led 
him to seek a wider experience, and for two 
years he was employed in the largest retail 
houses of Albany, New York and Brooklyn. 
Concerning his further business career the fol- 
lowing pertinent statements are consonantly 
entered : "Mr. Peck's resolve to go west came 
about two years after he left Detroit. He met 



L. B. Lester in New York city while Mr. 
Lester was organizing a dry-goods business in 
Kansas City, and he became interested in the 
proposition, taking a block of the stock in the 
Lester store, and came to Kansas City in Oc- 
tober, 1889. He was made a director of the 
company and at once took an active part in 
the management of the store. On the 1 5th of 
July, 1894, Mr. Peck was elected vice-presi- 
dent of the company. He held this office four 
years, and on the 15th of July, 1898, with the 
assistance of his father, bought out the interest 
of Lester and was elected to the presidency of 
the company. Under the management of Mr. 
Peck the business of the store grew rapidly. 
On the 15th of July, 1901. the directors voted 
to change the name of the company to the 
George B. Peck Dry Goods Company." 

From the Michigan Presbyterian of No- 
vember 15, 1906, are gained the following 
data, appearing in a memoir to Mr. Peck : "A 
prominent characteristic in Mr. Peck's person- 
ality was his 'insatiable appetite for hard work,' 
which he possessed as a family trait and which 
insured him an ever increasing business suc- 
cess. But what is regarded as 'getting on in 
the world' was far from being the ruling mo- 
tive in Mr. Peck's life. He was first of all a 
Christian gentleman, and he carried his re- 
ligion into all the complex affairs of an m- 
tenselv active career. He was a member of 
the First Presbyterian church of Kansas City 
and teacher of a large Sunday-school class of 
young women, to whom he devoted his best 
efforts in order to win them to the better life. 
His religion was not of a kind to be laid aside 
on Monday morning when he went to the 
store. A Bible was always on his private desk 
and it was his habit to read a chapter each 
day. * * " Mr. Peck was noted for his 
charities. He never refused money to anyone 
who asked him for assistance. He gave away 
thousands of dollars in charity which no one 
ever heard of. For the past seventeen years 
he has been actively engaged in philanthropic 
work both inside and outside his store. He 
established the Girls' Home Association and 



464 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



has been practically alone in maintaining it for 
the last few years. Any poor working girl 
who came to the city could find a home there. 
If she was able to pay board she was charged 
a small amount, but if she was not she paid 
nothing until she found a location. Then for 
the cash boys and girls in his store he started 
a school, furnished the books, a piano, and paid 
the teachers. In addition to this school Mr. 
Peck rented a cottage in Fairmount park, 
where each employe was given a week's out- 
ing every summer without cost. Many a poor 
boy and girl were helped by Mr. Peck's chari- 
ties. Besides all this, he contributed liberally 
to every established charity of the city. In 
later years he employed a house physician, 
whose services were given without charge to 
the employes of his store. The sufferings of 
men, women and children appealed to him 
strongly, and it was his delight to relieve those 
m distress. His was a fine example of wise 
benevolence in an age when there is a strong 
tendency to what may be called impersonal 
philanthropy,— the endowment of libraries, col- 
leges and churches. 

"Mr. Peck went to the root of things and 
showed such real goodness and sympathy as to 
mspire gratitude and affection. Such men do 
not aim at self-glorification and will not be re- 
membered by statues of bronze or stone and 
yet they shall live in the hearts of the people 
■ who have been helped and saved by them." 
Of Mr. Peck it may well be said that his was 
the faith that makes faithful, and he exercised 
a power for good in every relation of life. 
Purity of thought and purpose, a desire to be 
of help to his fellow men, and integrity of the 
most inflexible order.-these indicated the man 
and made his life stewardship prolific in good 
Overtaxing his physical powers, he finally en- 
dured an attack of nervous prostration, and the 
sequel was his death in the very prime of his 
noble and useful manhood. His memory must 
ever rest as a benediction upon those who came 
within the sphere of his personal influence and 
who have realization that in his comparatively 
brief hfe he accomplished more good than is 



usually recorded to the credit of those who 
reach advanced age. 

On the 17th of April, 1895, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Peck to Miss Eda M. 
Bachman, of Kansas City, who survives him, 
as does also their only child, Eda Marie, who 
was born in 1904. His venerable father and 
his two sisters and one brother reside in 
Detroit. 



ELISHA TAYLOR. 

In the year following the admission of 
Michigan to the Union there came to Detroit 
from the state of New York an ambitious 
and talented young lawyer, who had just at- 
tained to his legal majority, and it was his 
to become one of the pioneers of the little 
city and one of the distinguished members of 
Its bar. Here he remained until his death, in 
the fullness of years and honors, and here he 
made an indelible impress upon the profes- 
sional, civic and business life of the city and 
the state. This young man was Elisha Taylor 
the subject of this brief memoir and one whose 
name is deeply graven on the roll of the ster- 
ling pioneers and public-spirited citizens of 
Michigan's metropolis. 

Mr. Taylor was born at Charlton, Sara- 
toga county. New York, on the 14th of May, 
181 7, and he died at his home in Detroit, Au- 
gust 16, 1906, having thus been nearly ninety 
years of age and having retained to the last 
wonderful control of his mental and physical 
faculties. He was strong, true and noble and 
It IS veritably true 'that his strength was "as 
the number of his days." In the agnatic line 
the genealogy of the family is authentically 
traced back to one of the valorous Normans, 
Baron Taillefer, who accompanied William 
the Conqueror into England, and this sturdy 
ancestor met his death in the battle of Hast- 
ings, on the 14th of October, 1066. His fam- 
ily was afterward awarded large landed es- 
tates in county Kent, England, where the 
baronial rank and appurtenances were long 
maintained inviolate. 

Edward Taylor, of the ninth generation in 
direct descent from Baron Taillefer, was the 



Miii BM tffa'i.'j.iiT.'i'i.'' 




S4^ ^ /'^ /^ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



465 



founder of the family in America, to which 
country he immigrated in 1692, settHng at 
Middletown, Monmouth county, New Jersey, 
where he became siezed of a large landed es- 
tate. His great-grandson, John Taylor, re- 
moved from New Jersey to Charlton, Sara- 
toga county. New York, in 1774, becoming 
one of the pioneers of that section of the 
Empire state and one of the most influential 
and honored citizens of the community. He 
was judge of the county court from 1808 to 
1 81 8, and he passed the closing days of his life 
in the home of his son, John W. Taylor, who 
represented Saratoga county in congress from 
1813 to 1833, and who was twice speaker of 
the national house of representatives. Judge 
Taylor's death occurred in 1829. 

Elisha Taylor, subject of this memorial 
tribute, was a son of William and Lucy (Har- 
ger) Taylor and a grandson of Judge John 
Taylor, just mentioned. His father was a sub- 
stantial farmer in Saratoga county and Elisha 
passed his boyhood and youth amidst the 
scenes of pastoral and agricultural life, receiv- 
ing his rudimentary education in a district 
school, which he attended until he had at- 
tained to the age of twelve years, when he 
entered an academy at Cherry Valley, New 
York, and there continued his studies for 'some 
time. His collegiate preparatory course was 
taken in an academy at Hamilton, New York, 
and in 1833 he was matriculated in Union 
College, at Schenectady, that state. The presi- 
dent of this institution at the time was Dr. 
Eliphalet Nott, who was one of the most dis- 
tinguished educators of his day. Mr. Tay- 
lor's health became so impaired in 1836 that 
he was compelled to withdraw from college, 
and he passed sorpe time in the south, recup- 
erating his energies. Upon his return he re- 
sumed his studies in Union College, in which 
he was graduated as a member of the class of 
1837, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa fra- 
ternity in his alma mater. During his collegi- 
ate life Mr. Taylor also prosecuted the study 
of law under effective preceptorship, and after 
leaving college his first employment was as 



teacher of a select school at Athens, Greene 
county. New York. 

In 1838, shortly after reaching his legal 
majority, Mr. Taylor came to Detroit in com- 
pany with his cousin, a young man of about 
his own age. His father, a substantial citizen 
and wealthy farmer of Saratoga county, had 
previously visited Michigan and had purchased 
a tract of four hundred acres of land at Grand 
Blanc, Genesee county, this state. The father 
died in 1836, at his home in Charlton, New 
York, and the subject of this sketch came to 
Michigan primarily to investigate the holdings 
of the estate here. He arrived in Detroit with 
a capital of five hundred dollars, and his 
cousin also was equally well fortified in a 
financial way. They each purchased an In- 
dian pony, and then set out for a journey 
of investigation through the new state, which 
was still considered on the frontier of civili- 
zation, though Detroit was then, in a relative 
way, an old town. They visited the tract of 
land at Grand Blanc and also passed through 
Jackson, Monroe, Tecumseh, Adrian, Mount 
Clemens, Black River (now Port Huron) and 
other settlements in the eastern part of the 
state. The cousin finally left for Chicago and 
young Taylor returned to Detroit, where he 
determined to take up his permanent abode. 

In coming from the east Mr. Taylor had 
been provided with numerous letters of intro- 
duction and recommendation, but of these he 
presented only one. which was addressed to 
Peter Morey, who was then attorney general 
of the state. Mr. Morey gave him a cordial 
welcome and the young easterner became a 
student in the office of this representative 
member of the bar of Michigan. Shortly aft- 
erward C. C. Jackson introduced Mr. Taylor 
to Governor Stevens T. Mason, who, after 
some conversation, inquired, "Do you want 
an office?" Young Taylor answered promptly 
in the affirmative, and tlie reply of the boy 
governor was: "Very well, I'll make you a 
notary public." In the years far later Mr. 
Taylor often reverted to this incident with 
humorous appreciation and he remained a 
warm admirer of the first governor of the 
commonwealth. 



466 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



In 1839 Mr. Taylor was examined for ad- 
mission to the bar, by Henry N. Walker, act- 
ing for the court. He acquitted himself cred- 
itably and was duly admitted to practice. He 
then entered into a professional partnership 
with his former preceptor, Mr. Morey, and 
under such favorable auspices he soon ac- 
quired a fairly lucrative law practice. Every 
year he would lay aside his law work for a 
time and go to the farm at Grand Blanc, 
where he applied himself to strenuous manual 
labor, through which he waxed strong, being 
able to return invigorated to his office, the 
while having made progress in the develop- 
ment of the land. The farm was owned 
jointly by himself and his nine brothers and 
sisters, but as he earned money he purchased 
from time to time the interests of the other 
heirs and finally became the sole owner of the 
property, which was gradually appreciating in 
value and which eventually yielded him large 
financial returns. 

Mr. Taylor resided for many years in the 
old third ward of Detroit, and, as a Democrat, 
was active in ward and city politics. He be- 
came well known as a lawyer and as a man 
of worth and ability, so that it was but natural 
that he should be called to positions of public 
trust. He served as master in chancery from 
1842 to 1846, was city attorney in 1843, mem- 
ber of the board of education in 1843-4, cir- 
cuit court commissioner from 1846 to 1850; 
clerk of the supreme court in 1848-9 (when 
Detroit was still capital of the state), regis- 
trar of the United States land office from 1853 
to 1857, and United States pension agent from 
1854 to 1870. At the time of the inception 
of the civil war Mr. Taylor still remained 
an ardent Democrat, but he eventually felt 
that the principles of the Republican party 
more nearly represented his ideas of public 
polity at the time, and he identified himself 
with the latter, showing in this instance, as 
m all other relations and exigencies of life, 
the courage of his convictions, in which he 
was ever well fortified. When the govern- 
ment announced that it needed money to pros- 
ecute the war Mr. Taylor voluntarily sent as 
his contribution to the United States treasury 



in New York the sum of eight thousand dol- 
lars. This was subsequently repaid, with four 
per cent interest. 

In his religious affiliation Mr. Taylor was 
originally a communicant of the Protestant 
Episcopal church, but his wife was a Presby- 
terian and after his marriage he identified 
himself with that denomination. In 1854, 
with forty-three other members, he assisted 
in organizing the Jefiferson Avenue Presby- 
terian church. In 1856 he was elected an 
elder in the same, and he continuously held 
this office until his death, a full half century 
later. He also served as commissioner to the 
general assembly of the Presbyterian church 
at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1868; at Sar- 
atoga Springs, New York, in 1884; and at 
Detroit in 1891. He was president of the 
Detroit city mission board in 1879, this hav- 
ing been a charitable society with extended 
aims and functions, and in 1866 he was presi- 
dent of the Presbyterian alliance of Detroit. 
He was a most zealous and devoted worker 
in the cause of the Divine Master and ever 
exemplified in his daily life the "faith that 
makes faithful." 

Mr. Taylor was a man of fine appearance 
and of distinctive personal graciousness, em- 
phasized by his culture and great intellectual 
powers. He was five feet ten inches in height 
and weighed about one hundred and seventy- 
five pounds; he was well proportioned, with 
bluish-gray eyes and medium complexion. His 
hair, originally brown, turned snowy white, 
and with his long beard, which he wore during 
the last fifty years of his life, his appearance 
became in time truly patriarchal. It has been 
noted that, perhaps, in recent years he was the 
only gentleman of the old school who wore 
upon the streets of Detroit a dress coat. 

He possessed a goodly share of material 
wealth, owning real estate and other interests 
in Detroit and elsewhere in the state. All 
through his long and signally useful life he 
enjoyed a reputation for strict integrity, hon- 
orable dealing and generous and discriminat- 
ing kindliness. Further than this, the reputa- 
tion fully denoted the intrinsic character of 
the man. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



467 



In the year 1844 Mr. Taylor returned to 
New York and at Schoharie, that state, was 
married to Miss AureHa H. Penfield, the love 
of his boyhood and youth. She was a daughter 
of Thomas Penfield, a successful manufac- 
turer and prominent citizen of Schoharie. He 
brought his bride to Detroit and here they 
lived in mutual love and sympathy until her 
death, which occurred on the 226. of Novem- 
ber, 1888. Mr. Taylor passed the declining 
years of his life in the home of their only 
surviving child, DeWitt H. Taylor, who is 
now one of the representative members of the 
Detroit bar and of whom individual mention 
is made in this volume. 



H. BYRON SCOTT. 

Among those who have been concerned in 
the upbuilding of the great retail dry-goods 
house of Newcomb, Endicott & Company, of 
Detroit, is Mr. Scott, who is second vice-presi- 
dent of the corporation and who is known as a 
reliable, enterprising and substantial business 
man, and as one who stands essentially repre- 
sentative in his chosen sphere of effort. Else- 
where in this volume appear reviews of the 
careers of the founders of this leading mercan- 
tile house, Messrs. Cyrenius A. Newcomb and 
the late Chades Endicott, and in the sketches 
thus presented is incorporated the record of 
the development of the business, so that the 
articles in question should be noted as comple- 
mentary to the one at hand, and should be 
read in the same connection. 

H. Byron Scott was born at Colborne, 
province of Ontario, Canada, on the 27th of 
February, 1848, and is one of the many valued 
citizens whom that dominion has contributed 
to Detroit. To the public schools of his na- 
tive province the subject of this review is in- 
debted for his early educational discipline, 
which was effectively supplemented by a course 
of study in Clark College, at Aurora, Illinois. 
In 1869 he left school and initiated his busi- 
ness career, having been twenty-one years of 
age at the time. He entered the employ of 
the firm of Barnes & Bancroft, retail dry-goods 



dealers, in the city of Buffalo, New York, 
where he remained as a salesman until 1875, 
when he resigned his position to accept one of 
similar order in the leading dry-goods estab- 
lishment of L. S. Ayres & Company, of In- 
dianapolis, Indiana, where he eventually rose 
to the position of buyer and manager. 

In New York city Mr. Scott formed the ac- 
quaintance of Cyrenius A. Newcomb, of De- 
troit, and thereafter they frequently encoun- 
tered each other while in the eastern market 
for the purchase of goods. The final result 
was that, in 1881, Mr. Scott was tendered and 
accepted a position with the firm of Newcomb, 
Endicott & Company, with whose interests he 
has since continued to be closely identified. In 
1887 he was admitted to partnership in the 
business, a merited recognition of his value to 
the concern, and upon the organization and 
incorporation of the stock company, under the 
original title of Newcomb, Endicott & Com- 
pany, in February, 1903, Mr. Scott became 
second vice-president of the corporation, an 
executive office of which he has since remained 
in tenure, while his entire time and attention 
are given to the affairs of the concern, which 
is one of the largest of the kind in the west. 
He is known as one of the most thoroughly 
informed men in the retail dry-goods trade, 
having a broad and comprehensive knowledge 
of the multifarious lines of goods handled and 
being especially discriminating in the selection 
of stock. He is the foreign buyer for the house 
and in the establishment itself he has direct 
charge and supervision of the second floor, 
devoted to women's suits, cloaks, coats, lin- 
gerie, etc. He is essentially and typically a 
business man, alert, vigorous and far sighted, 
so that he proves a valuable coadjutor in the 
handling of the magnificent mercantile enter- 
prise with which he has been identified for 
more than a quarter of a century. 

Mr. Scott passes the major portion of the 
year at his beautiful estate. Halcyon Place, on 
Grosse He, and his is one of the finest of the 
many beautiful country seats on the island. 
There he owns a tract of one hundred and forty 



468 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



acres, and he maintains a fine herd of the 
highest grade of imported Guernsey dairy 
cattle, in which he takes much pride and in- 
terest and through which his place has gained 
a wide reputation. In politics Mr. Scott gives 
support to the cause of the Republican party, 
and he is a member of the Detroit Club, the 
Detroit Boat Club, the Detroit Automobile 
Club, and the Old Club, at St. Clair Flats. He 
and his family hold membership in the St. 
James church, Protestant Episcopal, Grosse 
He, and he is a member of its vestry. 

In the year 1877 was celebrated the mar- 
riage of Mr. Scott to Miss Harriet C, daugh- 
ter of the late John Cane, a representative citi- 
zen of Indianapolis, Indiana, and they have 
one daughter, Grace Louise. The family is 
prominent in the social life of Detroit. 



C. H. HABERKORN. 

It is gratifying to the publishers of this work 
to be able to present within its pages a review 
of the career of this representative business 
man of Detroit, where he has attained distinct- 
ive success through his own well directed ef- 
forts and, incidentally, built up an industrial 
enterprise, which adds to the economic and 
commercial precedence of the fair "City of the 
Straits." 

He is the founder of the business conducted 
under the title of C. H. Haberkorn & Com- 
pany, and the exclusive product of his fine es- 
tablishment is parlor and library tables of the 
highest grades. This is an age of specializing, 
and Mr. Haberkorn had the prescience to real- 
ize that much was to be accomplished by thus 
limiting the variety of goods produced in his 
factory, the results having fully justified the 
wisdom of his course, as his products are now 
in demand not only in the most widely sepa- 
rated sections of the United States but also in 
foreign countries. A description of the busi- 
ness and plant appears elsewhere in this volume 
and reference should be made to the article in 
question in connection with this brief sketch 
of the life of the founder. 



Mr. Haberkorn has the satisfaction and dis- 
tinction of claiming Detroit as the place of his 
nativity, since he was born in this city, on the 
27th of July, 1856. He was afforded the ad- 
vantages of the excellent public schools of De- 
troit, and, when but eleven years of age, he 
became concerned with the practical aflfairs of 
life. At the age noted he entered upon an 
apprenticeship, at the trade of carpenter and 
joiner, and in due time he became a skilled 
artisan. After completing his apprenticeship 
he was in the employ of the contracting firm 
of Morehouse & Mitchell, of Detroit, until 
1873, and somewhat later he went to San 
Francisco, California, where he secured profit- 
able employment as a journeyman at his trade 
and where he assisted in the erection of the 
Palace Hotel. He then returned to Michigan. 
In 1876 he was employed in connection with 
the building of the court-house at Sault Sainte 
Marie, in the upper peninsula of this state, 
and thereafter he returned to his native city, 
Detroit, where he has since maintained his 
home, and where, in 1878, he founded the man- 
ufacturing business of which he has since been 
the proprietor, and which, as before stated, is 
specifically mentioned in this publication, so 
that a repetition of the data is not demanded. 
It is interesting and pertinent, however, to 
state that of the eight men who entered his em- 
ploy at the time he founded his factory, three 
still remain with the concern, having the un- 
qualified esteem of their employer and accord- 
ing to him confidence and affectionate regard, 
as may be inferred from the association which 
has continued during a period of thirty years. 
Mr. Haberkorn's aim, at all times, has been 
to turn out from his factory the best articles 
possible, and to give his customers even better 
values than they expected. His adherence to 
this rule has been potent in building up the 
thriving enterprise of which he is now the 
owner. Mr. Haberkorn is also a director of 
the Pressed Steel Sanitary Manufacturing 
Company, and has other investments in connec- 
tion with local industrial enterprises He fof- 
lows a progressive policy in his business af- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



469 



fairs, and as a citizen is essentially public- 
spirited. His standing in the business circles 
of his native city is one of marked security and 
popularity, and he is a true type of the self- 
made man — the type of which America is ever 
proud. 

In politics Mr. Haberkorn has never been an 
active factor, though he is true to all civic 
duties and responsibilities, and is independent 
of partisan lines in the exercising of his fran- 
chise, preferring to support the men and meas- 
ures which meet the approval of his judgment. 
He and his family are members of the Con- 
gregational church. He is also a member of 
the Detroit Club, the Country Club, the Wayne 
Club, the Young Men's Christian Association, 
the Archaelogical Society, the Tuberculosis So- 
ciety, the William A. Davis Brotherhood, and 
the Geographical Society of America, besides 
being eligible for, and associate member of, 
Detroit Post No. 384, Grand Army of the 
Republic. 

Mr. Haberkorn is an extensive traveler, 
passing a portion of each year in travel, and 
is an enthusiast in the operation of the auto- 
mobile. He is fond of golf, and thoroughly 
appreciative of the out-door life, with its bene- 
ficent recreation. For many years he main- 
tained a summer home at Grosse Pointe. His 
city residence is located at 45 Ferry avenue, 
and is one of the attractive homes of that sec- 
tion of the city. 

On the 24th of October, 1884, Mr. Haber- 
korn was united in marriage to Miss Fannie 
H. Ruehle, daughter of Frederick K. Ruehle, 
an honored and well known citizen of Detroit, 
of whose board of aldermen he was a member 
for about twenty years, and of whose board of 
public works he was president for twelve 
years. Mr. and Mrs. Haberkorn have two 
children,— Christian H., Jr., and Adelaide D. 
The son, who was born on the 26th of May, 
1889, secured his preliminary education in the 
public schools, and had the distinction of being 
the first student to be enrolled on the member- 
ship list of the Detroit University School at 
the time of its opening. In this institution he 



was graduated in June, 1907, and, in the fall 
of the same year, he was matriculated in the 
Master of Arts department of historic old Har- 
vard University, where he is now a student. 



WILSON S. KINNEAR. 

The dual office of which Mr. Kinnear is in- 
cumbent stands in significant evidence of his 
technical and administrative ability, and it will 
readily be understood that great responsibili- 
ties devolve upon him in connection with the 
supervision of the construction of the gigantic 
tunnel which the Michigan Central Railroad 
Company is placing under the Detroit river. 
He is Chief Engineer of the Detroit River 
Tunnel Company and Assistant General Man- 
ager of the Michigan Central Railroad. The 
building of the tunnel mentioned represents one 
of the gigantic engineering feats of the twen- 
tieth century and the work is being rapidly 
pushed forward to completion under the gen- 
eral supervision of Mr. Kinnear. He has 
gained a high reputation in his chosen profes- 
sion and is one of its leading representatives in 
the Union. On other pages of this work will 
be found definite mention of the tunnel which 
is now being constructed under the Detroit 
river for the accommodation of trains on the 
Michigan Central and New York Central lines, 
and it is needless to say that the undertaking is 
one which will have a great and beneficent in- 
fluence in furthering the civic and industrial 
precedence of Detroit. 

Mr. Kinnear was born in Pickaway county, 
Ohio, on the 25th of May, 1864, and is a son 
of Richard and Mary (Crow) Kinnear, both 
of whom were born in the state of Pennsyl- 
vania. The father was a civil engineer and 
surveyor by profession and for a number of 
years he held the office of county surveyor of 
Pickaway county, Ohio, where he was a citi- 
zen of prominence and influence and one hon- 
ored by all who knew him. His grandfather 
and great-grandfather also were surveyors. In 
1868 Richard Kinnear removed with his fam- 
ily to Franklin county, Kansas, where he de- 
voted the remainder of his life to the work 



470 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



of his profession and where he served many 
years as county surveyor. He died in that 
county and his widow now maintains her horne 
in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Wilson S. Kinnear was afforded the advan- 
tages of the public schools of Kansas, and in 
1884 he was matriculated in the University of 
Kansas, at Lawrence, where he devoted three 
years to the study of civil engineering. Upon 
leaving the university he entered the employ 
of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad 
Company, where he soon became assistant in 
location and construction work. He remained 
with this corporation for a period of three 
years, and thereafter he was similarly em- 
ployed in Kansas, Texas, Missouri and other 
states in the southwest until 1887, when he 
removed to California, where for some time 
he was engaged in private professional work 
as a civil and hydraulic engineer. In 1888 
he went to Sotith America as assistant chief en- 
gineer for the American Construction Com- 
pany, which held a contract with the govern- 
ment of Chili for the construction of more 
than seven hundred miles of railroad. Soon 
after becoming identified with this work Mr. 
Kinnear was promoted to the office of acting 
chief engineer, and he continued the super- 
vision of the work until it was abandoned, as 
a result of the Chilian rebellion of 1889. ' In 
the following year Mr. Kinnear entered the 
service of the Michigan Central Railroad Com- 
pany, in the position of assistant engineer of 
the Canada division, and under his supervision 
was completed the construction of many miles 
of new second track. In 1895 he represented 
the New York Central Lines' interest in the 
construction of the Toronto, Hamilton & Buf- 
falo Railroad, in the capacity of supervising 
engineer, remaining until this line was prac- 
tically completed. In 1896 he was called to 
Detroit to assume the position of principal as- 
sistant engineer of the Michigan Central Rail- 
road, under the late Augustus Torrey, and he 
has since remained with this company, for 
which he has accomplished much important 
work aside from the gigantic enterprise to 



which he is now giving his attention. In 1901 
he entered the operating department, as As- 
sistant Superintendent of the Canada division, 
and at the end of the first year he received 
further recognition of his ability and fidelity, 
being made Assistant General Superintendent 
of the entire system. On the death of Mr. 
Torrey he was madeChief Engineer.and under 
his supervision practically the entire road was 
rebuilt and double-tracked. In 1905 he re- 
ceived further preferment in being appointed 
Assistant General Manager of the road, and 
has since remained incumbent of the two re- 
sponsible offices. Upon the inception of the 
project to build a tunnel under the Detroit 
river he was made chairman of a tunnel com- 
mittee, on which his associates were W. J. 
Wilgus, vice-president of the New York Cen- 
tral & Hudson River Railroad Company, and 
the late E. H. Handy, an official of tl:e Lake 
Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. The 
committee reported favorably in regard to the 
project, and upon the organization of the De- 
troit River Tunnel Company Mr. Kinnear was 
appointed Chief Engineer of the company. The 
entire plans and specifications for the great 
tunnel were prepared by him, under the direc- 
tion of an advisory board of engineers, con- 
sisting of W. J. Wilgus, of New York (chair- 
man), H. A. Carson, of Boston, and the Chief 
Engineer of the Tunnel Company. He has 
had the active supervision of the work of build- 
ing the tunnel, which will be completed in 1909. 
Mr. Kinnear is a man of distinctive initiative 
and administrative talents, and his profes- 
sional career has been one of consecutive 
progress and one marked with splendid suc- 
cess. He is a valued member of the American 
Society of Civil Engineers and also of the 
American Railway Engineering & Main- 
tenance of Way Association, of which he is a 
charter member. He is also identified with 
the Detroit Engineers' Society. In politics, 
while never active in party work, he gives a 
stalwart allegiance to the Republican party, 
and he is essentially progressive and public- 
spirited as a citizen. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



471 



In 1887 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Kinnear to Miss Caroline Nichols, of 
Springfield, Ohio, and they have two children 
— Carmen and Lawrence. Mr. Kinnear has 
maintained his home in Detroit since 1896 
and he is well known throughout the Union in 
connection with the work of his important 
profession. 



ALBERT H. WILKINSON. 

A publication of this nature exercises its 
most important function when it takes cogniz- 
ance of the life and labors of those citizens 
who have risen to prominence through their 
own well directed efforts and who have been 
of material value in furthering the advance- 
ment and development of the commonwealth. 
Mr. Wilkinson is best known to the citizens of 
Detroit and the state of Michigan as a mem- 
ber of the bar, to which he was admitted in 
June, i860. Except for a period of four years, 
1873-7, during which time he occupied the 
bench of the probate court of Wayne county, 
he has continuously practiced his profession, 
and in his practice has gained such success as 
should fill to the full the measure of ambition. 

Albert H. Wilkinson was born in Novi, 
Oakland county, Michigan, on the 19th of No- 
vember, 1834, and is a son of James and Eliza- 
beth (Yerkes) Wilkinson. James Wilkinson 
was a native of New York, and was bom on 
the 24th of February, 1800. In 1826 he came 
to Michigan, becoming a settler of Oakland 
county. He purchased eighty acres of land 
from the government, the grant being signed 
by Thomas Jefferson, and his first few years 
as a resident of the state were attended by the 
hardships incident to pioneer life. His entire 
life was spent in agricultural pursuits, and he 
became prominent among that county's landed 
proprietors. He was elected to, and filled with 
credit, various offices in the gift of the people, 
among which were those of town clerk, justice 
of the peace and supervisor. He ever stood as 
an exponent of loyal citizenship, and was a per- 
sonality whose memory is cherished in the sec- 



tion in which his life of enlightened usefulness 
was lived. He married Elizabeth Yerkes, 
daughter of Joseph Yerkes, a pioneer settler of 
the northwest section of Wayne county. His 
death occurred on the 3d of February, 1872, 
and that of his wife on the 26th of September, 
1863. They were survived by two sons, Albert 
H. and Charles M. Wilkinson. 

Albert H. Wilkinson received his early edu- 
cation in the district schools of Oakland county, 
later attending Cochrane Academy, at North- 
ville, and in the fall of 1852 became a member 
of the first class in the State Normal School 
at Ypsilanti, completing his studies there in 
1854. In the fall of that year he was offered 
and accepted the position of principal of the 
union school at Centerville, St. Joseph county. 
He further prepared for college in the private 
school of Rufus Nutting, at Lodi Plains, and 
in 1855 entered the literary department of the 
University of Michigan, graduating with the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1859. He at- 
tended the first term of the law school of the 
University of Michigan, later entered the law 
office of Judge M. E. Crofoot, at Pontiac, and 
in June, i860, was admitted to the bar. In the 
fall of that year he formed a partnership with 
Henry M. Look, and later with O. F. Wisner. 
Mr. Wilkinson became a resident of Detroit 
on the 30th of August, 1861, and formed a 
partnership with W. P. Yerkes, at the time 
judge of the probate court of Wayne county, 
to which office he himself was destined twelve 
years lated to be elected. In 1866 Mr. Yerkes 
removed to Northville and on January i, 1867, 
formed with Hoyt Post the firm of Wilkinson 
& Post. After assuming his duties as probate 
judge, in 1873, he retired from the firm, form- 
ing with his brother, Charles M. Wilkinson, 
the firm of A. H. & C. M. Wilkinson, an asso- 
ciation which continued under this style until 
his term on the bench expired, in 1877. after 
which Mr. Post again became a member, under 
the firm style of Wilkinson, Post & Wilkinson. 
C. M. Wilkinson retired in 1884, and the firm 
again became Wilkinson & Post. In 1898 the 
present firm of Wilkinson, Post & Oxtoby was 



472 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



formed. The firm of Wilkinson, Post & 
Oxtoby is one of the prominent and influential 
law firms of the state, and includes among its 
clients many of the most important financial 
and industrial corporations of the city. Dur- 
ing his practice, which has covered nearly fifty 
years and which has been seldom equalled in 
respect to length, Judge Wilkinson has ap- 
peared in connection with important litigations 
in both the state and federal courts. He is a 
man of strong character and powerful indi- 
viduality, a speaker of no mean power, and in 
argument is logical and convincing. His po- 
litical allegiance has been given to the Re- 
publican party and of its policies he has ever 
been a consistent and active supporter. He 
was elected judge of the probate court of 
Wayne county in 1872, as previously stated, 
and served two terms as a member of the board 
of education of the city of Detroit. His prac- 
tical activities have not been confined to the 
practice of law, however, as he has been an 
influential factor in the development of the 
business life of the city. He was one of the 
organizers of the Michigan Mutual Life Insur- 
ance Company and of the Michigan Fire & 
Marine Insurance Company, of which he was 
the attorney of record and a member of the 
board of directors. He was also one of the 
organizers of the Michigan Savings Bank. The 
law firm of which he is the senior member are 
and have been since the organization of these 
corporations their attorneys. Mr. Wilkinson 
has been extensively engaged in the develop- 
ment of the residence section of the city, prin- 
cipally in the east end. He is a member of 
Kilwinning Lodge, Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons, the Fellowcraft Club, American Bar As- 
sociation, Michigan Bar Association and the 
Detroit Bar Association. He was elected 
president of the last named organization in 
1906 and re-elected in 1907. He is a member 
of the First Baptist church and has served 
upon both its boards of trustees and deacons, 
and was also superintendent of its Sunday 
school for many years. 



On the 4th of July, 1859, Mr. Wilkinson 
married Miss Elvira M. Allen, daughter of 
Henry Allen, a pioneer settler of West Bloom- 
field, Michigan. They have one son, Ralph B.. 
Wilkinson, personal mention of whom appears 
elsewhere in this volume. 



JAMES L. EDSON. 

James Lafayette Edson was born at Batavia, 
New York, July 31, 1834, and died at Detroit, 
Michigan, August 25, 1895. 

The founder of the Edson family in Amer- 
ica was Deacon Samuel Edson, who came to 
this country from England in the year 1639, 
and who lived in turn at Salem and at Bridge- 
water, Massachusetts. He was a man of prom- 
inence and influence in the community and held 
various ofiices of public trust. 

Nathaniel Edson was a "minute man" in 
service at the time of the war of the American 
Revolution. He held the rank of sergeant and 
participated in many of the engagements of 
that war. He was the father of Barney Hall 
Edson, who was born at Petersham, Massa- 
chusetts, in the year 1776. 

Barney Hall Edson was the father of Lewis 
Morgan Edson, who was born February 22, 
1807, and who was the father of James L. 
Edson, the subject of the present sketch. 
James L. Edson's mother's maiden name was 
Sarah Ames Flint. She came of a sterling 
New England family. He was the eldest of 
five children, only one of whom, a sister, is now 
living. Two brothers lost their lives in the 
cause of the Union in the civil war. 

He was born on a farm and attended the 
common schools of his native state. At the 
age of seventeen years he secured a position as 
clerk in the store of Charles M. Rich, the 
leading merchant of Batavia, New York. Sub- 
sequently he entered the employ of Howard 
Whitcomb & Company, a wholesale dry-goods 
house of Buffalo, New York. While in that 
city he determined to avail himself of the lar- 
ger opportunities the west afforded to young 
men, and without definite decision as to where 
he would locate arrived in Detroit on the 7th 
of December, 1855. Though an entire stran- 





JAMES L. ED SON 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



473 



ger, with but little money, he soon found a 
position in what was then known as the 
"Checkered Store" on Jefferson avenue, one of 
the leading mercantile establishments of the 
city. 

In 1857 he secured a position in the large 
wholesale dry goods house of Orr, Town & 
Smith who had succeeded Zachariah Chand- 
ler & Company at 23 Woodward avenue. In 
the spring of 1866 this firm was succeeded by 
that of Allan Shelden & Company in which 
firm he became a partner and continued to be 
such until in February, 1872, when he, with 
George F. Moore, Charles Buncher, Ransom 
Gillis and Stephen Baldwin, organized the firm 
of Edson, Moore & Company wholesale deal- 
ears in dry goods and notions. This enterprise 
soon became one of very high standing in the 
business world. It deserved and achieved suc- 
cess. Its reputation for fair dealing and hon- 
orable business methods was, as it still is, un- 
surpassed and universally recognized. It be- 
came from the outset a very potent factor in 
the upbuilding of the city. Its success was 
largely due to Mr. Edson's ability and because 
he impressed his character upon it. 

It was not only as the founder of a great 
business that his life was a benefit to the public. 
He served it in other capacities. He was a di- 
rector of the Peoples' Savings Bank ; an organ- 
izer and director of the Brush Electric Light 
Company, which was the first company to pro- 
vide electric light for the city; one of the 
promoters and organizers of the Detroit Mu- 
seum of Art, a liberal contributor to its funds ; 
and one of the committee who selected the site 
of the present postoffice. Although solicited 
to hold public office he steadily refused, but 
never refused to do his full share in any move- 
ment which looked to the betterment of public 
conditions, the relief of the unfortunate, or the 
advancement of the moral and intellectual 
growth of the community. 

He was a communicant of the Catholic 
church, sincere and devout, but of broad liber- 
ality and wholly free from intolerance. In 
social life he was courteous, genial, generous, a 
delightful companion and had troops of friends. 

Born an American, his life was an exempli- 



fication of the best traits of American character, 
— thorough honesty, a strong sense of right 
and justice, hatred of shams, clear mental and 
moral vision and an ability and determination 
to meet and fulfill the duties and obligations of 
life fearlessly. His death was recognized as a 
public loss, and his memory is revered by all 
who knew him. 



WILLIAM H. HOLDEN. 

Never before has Detroit been so big or 
S0 conspicuous in the eyes of the world, never 
have elements of strength been better organ- 
ized and working more effectively than in this 
first decade of the twentieth century, marked 
by opulent achievement along all lines of in- 
dustrial activity and civic advancement. All 
this is but the natural sequel of definite forces 
working to a definite end. The industrial 
spirit has been quickened in the minds of the 
representative capitalists and business men, 
who have thus been prompted to show forth 
more clearly to the world the great natural 
and acquired advantages which belong to the 
Michigan metropolis. Detroit has long held a 
distinct and solid industrial status, and in view 
of the great advancement within the past few 
years there must be given a mede of special 
praise to these men who laid the foundations 
for this prestige and recognition of those in- 
dustries, fostered by them, which have for a 
longer period brought recognition to the city 
in the commercial marts of the world. Among 
such concerns none can possibly take prece- 
dence of that of Parke, Davis & Company, 
the largest manufacturers of pharmaceutical 
preparations in the world, and the publishers 
of this work find marked satisfaction in in- 
corporating within its pages not alone a review 
of the history of the great business but also 
specific mention of those who have been the 
founders and builders of the same. Among 
the number is the subject of this sketch, the 
able and honored superintendent of the manu- 
facturing department of the company's mag- 
nificent plant. 



474 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



William Henry Holden, like many others 
of the representative business men of Detroit, 
is a native of the dominion of Canada, hav- 
ing been born at Merrickrvalle, Grenville county, 
province of Ontario, on the 26th of July, 1859, 
and being a son of John Henry and Mary 
Esther (Sawyer) Holden, the former of whom 
was born at North Gore, Ontario, and the lat- 
ter in Cobourg, Ontario. 

The original progenitor of the Holden fam- 
ily in America was Richard Holden, or Hol- 
lenden, as the name was originally spelled. 
This worthy ancestor, a scion of one of the 
sterling families of England, emigrated from 
Ipswich, England, to America in 1634, mak- 
ing the voyage on the ship "Francis." He 
located first at Watertown, Massachusetts, 
whence he later removed to Groton, that 
colony, in that part which is now known as 
Shirley, and the ancient records of the place 
show that he became a citizen of prominence 
and influence. The magnificent Hollenden hotel 
in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, was erected 
by a descendant of the family, who thus 
perpetuated the original orthography of the 
name. From Richard Holden the line of 
direct descent to the subject of this review is 
traced through the former's son Stephen, then 
in turn through John, Caleb, Caleb (2d), 
Jonathan, Charles and John Henry, the last 
named being the father of him whose name 
heads this article. Caleb Holden (2d) left 
six sons, one of whom, James, was adopted by 
the Rev. Stephen Call, a prominent clergy- 
man of his day at Ballston, New York, and the 
latter's daughter Esther eventually became the 
wife of James Holden, the foster son. They 
finally removed to Canada and their daughter 
Esther married Merrick Sawyer. Mary 
Esther Sawyer, a daughter of this union, be- 
came the wife of John Henry Holden, and 
thus the two branches of the Holden family 
were united when was celebrated the marriage 
of the parents of the subject of this sketch. 
Reverting to the genealogy in the agnatic line, 
it may be stated that Jonathan Holden, second 
son of Caleb, in time became a farmer at Gal- 



way, Saratoga county. New York, where he 
married, and his son Charles followed the 
uncle James to Canada, where he married, 
becoming the father of John Henry Holden,' 
who married Mary Esther Sawyer, as already 
noted. Charles Holden became a successful 
carriage builder and also furnished a part of 
the equipment used in the construction of the 
Rideau canal, with the building of which he 
was otherwise prominently identified, and he 
became one of the most influential citizens in 
the Rideau valley of Ontario, where he con- 
tinued to reside until his death. The Holden 
family has been prominently identified with 
banking and professional interests in Prescott 
and Belleville, Ontario. When he left Massa- 
chusetts James Holden, maternal ancestor of 
our subject, located at Augusta, Grenville 
county, Ontario, where he passed the residue 
of his life. 

William Henry Holden, to whom this sketch 
is dedicated, was adopted by his maternal 
grandfather, Merrick Sawyer, who was at that 
time engaged in the drug business at Belle- 
ville, Ontario. Mr. Sawyer was a man of fine 
intellectuality and much executive ability. In 
early life he had been a successful school 
teacher in Rochester, New York, and later he 
followed the pedagogic profession in Port 
Hope and Cobourg, Ontario, in which latter 
place he established and successfully conducted 
the Sawyer private school for boys, from 
which was developed the Victoria University, 
of which he was the first business manager. 

William H. Holden was reared under auspi- 
cious home surroundings and influences, and 
his early educational discipline was secured in 
the public schools of Belleville, where he com- 
pleted the curriculum of the high school. He 
had in the meanwhile begun to assist in the 
drug store of his grandfather, and finally he 
was matriculated in the Ontario School of 
Pharmacy, in Toronto, in which he completed 
the prescribed technical course, and was grad- 
uated as a member of the class of 1879 He 
at once secured a position as pharmacist in 
the establishment of Kenneth Campbell & 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



475 



Company, leading druggists in the city of 
Montreal, later holding a similar position ih 
the drug store of H. R. Gray, of that city, 
where he finally accepted a place as foreman 
of the manufacturing department of the large 
establishment of H. Sugden Evans & Com- 
pany, wholesale druggists and manufacturing 
chemists. He developed skill in his chosen 
profession, being admirably fortified in tech- 
nical knowledge as well as in facility for the 
handling of the manifold and important de- 
tails of his department. He continued with 
this concern until March, 1881, when he re- 
signed his position to accept that of assistant 
foreman of the finishing department in the 
laboratories of Parke, Davis & Company, of 
Detroit, with which great corporation he has 
since continued to be identified in a practical 
and executive capacity. Within the first nine 
months of his connection with this concern he 
received four promotions, with a correspond- 
ing increase in salary, and in 1882 he was 
given charge of the finishing department. 
Somewhat later he assumed also the super- 
vision of the stock department, and in 1883 
he was made superintendent of the shipping 
and stock departments. His capacity and fidel- 
ity made him a valuable employe and his serv- 
ices with the company have never fallen short 
of definite appreciation. In 1899 Mr. Holden 
was promoted to the responsible and exacting 
office of general superintendent of the manu- 
facturing, with charge of raw materials, buy- 
ing of the same, etc. The gradual perfecting 
of the system of mechanical operations and the 
arranging of the various departments of the 
producing division of the business, represent 
the tangible embodiment of Mr. Holden's 
ideas, and his interest in the work in all its 
phases has been equalled only by his ability in 
an initiative and executive way. The great 
growth and expansion of the business of 
Parke, Davis & Company has necessitated a 
corresponding relative division of the various 
departments, and in 1906 the manufacturing 
feature of the enterprise became represented 
in the present four well ordered and admirably 



systematized departments. Mr. Holden re- 
tains the superintendency of the manufactur- 
ing proper and has also the-general supervision 
of the work of these four integral but com- 
bined departments. His technical ability as a 
chemist and his discernment and discrimina- 
tion in the handling of the vast business of his 
departments have made him a potent and rec- 
ognized factor in the further extension of the 
gigantic enterprise to which he has given his 
time and attention for more than a quarter of 
a century. He is a stockholder in the corpora- 
tion of Parke, Davis & Company and is recog- 
nized as one of the progressive business men 
of the city of Detroit. In addition to his in- 
terests in this great concern he has been suc- 
cessful in connection with the development of 
oil properties in the south, and is president of 
the Currie Cement Construction Company, as 
well as of the Currie Coal Company and the 
Meso Island Company. It may be stated inci- 
dentally that the Currie Cement Construction 
Company has built several of the finest build- 
ings representing this new and modern type of 
architectural work in the city of Detroit. The 
Meso Island Company owns about three- 
fourths of Hickory island, at the mouth of the 
Detroit river, and has most effectually devel- 
oped the property, making the same one of the 
most attractive of the summer-resort places in 
the vicinity of Detroit, which is opulent in this 
regard to a degree which can be claimed by 
few cities in the Union. On this island Mr. 
Holden erected his own attractive summer 
residence, in 189 1, and since that time the local- 
ity has, largely through his efforts, forged to 
the front as a delightful resorting place. His 
city home is at 366 Cadillac boulevard. 

In politics Mr. Holden gives his allegiance 
to the Republican party, and he is a member of 
the Detroit Club and the Detroit Boat Club. 
The family is prominent in the social life of 
Detroit and the home is a center of generous 
hospitality. He and his wife are members of 
the First Congregationalist church. 

On the 9th of June, 1887, Mr. Holden was 
united in marriage to Miss Ella Bancroft 



476 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Jones, daughter of Nathan Jones, one of the 
honored and influential citizens of Belleville, 
Ontario, where he was for many years en- 
gaged in the dry-goods business. Mrs. Holden 
is a descendant of the well known Bancroft 
family which has produced so many men of 
note, including the distinguished historians, 
George and Herbert H. Bancroft. She is presi- 
dent of the Detroit Federation of Women's 
Clubs, is identified with the Michigan chapter 
of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 
the Twentieth Century Club, the Detroit 
Shakespeare Club, the Detroit Sorosis and 
other representative organizations in Detroit, 
in a number of which she has held ofificial posi- 
tions. Mr. and Mrs. Holden have two chil- 
dren,— Howard Bancroft, aged twenty years, 
and Alma Clement, aged fifteen years. (1908). 



ARNOLD A. SCHANTZ. 

There has not, nor can there be for all time, 
a more important port on the entire Great 
Lakes system than is Detroit, through whose 
beautiful river ride the stately fleets which rep- 
resent the greatest of marine traffic on the 
lakes. Here have been founded and fostered 
many gigantic enterprises in the way of pas- 
senger and freight traffic, but no company has 
ever taken precedence of the Detroit & Cleve- 
land Navigation Company, which dates its in- 
ception back more than half a century and 
which is most consonantly made the subject of 
a special descriptive article on other pages of 
this work. Data concerning the company is 
also to be found in the memoir to the late 
David Carter, who was for many years its 
secretary and general manager. The succes- 
sor of Mr. Carter in the office of general man- 
ager is Arnold A. Schantz, who has ably car- 
ried forward the great work of his predecessor 
and has continued his policies in such manner 
as to bring to the Detroit & Cleveland line still 
greater prestige, through his energy and pro- 
gressiveness. He also holds a similar office 
with the Detroit & Buffalo Steamboat Com- 
pany, an allied line. 



Mr. Schantz is of staunch German ancestry 
m the agnatic line, as the name implies, and the 
family was founded in America about the year 
1840, the original ancestors in the new worid 
havmg settled in Ohio. Mr. Schantz was bom 
in Gabon, Crawford county, Ohio, on the loth 
of April, 1861, and is a son of John and Bar- 
bara A. (Buckingham) Schantz, the former of 
whom was born in Lingerfelt, Bavaria, Ger- 
many, and the latter in Ohio, a repre- 
sentative of one of the old and honored lami- 
hes of the Buckeye commonwealth. John 
Schantz took up his residence in Mansfield, 
Ohio, about 1864, and became one of the lead- 
ing merchants and influential citizens of that 
place, where he was also, for many years, man- 
ager and one of the proprietors of the Miller 
opera house. He is still hving and his wife 
died in 1902. 

The immediate subject of this sketch was 
about three years of age at the time of the 
family removal from Galion to Mansfield, and 
to the public schools of the latter place he is 
indebted for his early educational discipline, 
which was supplemented by effective study 
under the tutorship of Professor W. A. Tor- 
rence, who was a member of the faculty of 
Hayesville Academy, Ohio, and who was a 
personal friend of the Schantz family. Mr. 
Schantz became familiar with the practical du- 
ties and responsibilities of life when a mere 
boy, and his entire career has been marked by 
indefatigable energy, ambition and definite ac- 
complishment. At the age of fourteen years 
he became the Mansfield agent for the Cincin- 
nati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Star, for each 
of which he built up a good circulation in his 
home town, making his deliveries with scrupu- 
lous punctuality and care. During his in- 
cumbency of the position noted he also held a 
clerkship in the general store of A W Remy 
& Company. In 1877, at the age of sixteen 
years, he secured a position as general-delivery 
clerk in the Mansfield postoffice, and one year 
later he was promoted to the office of super- 
intendent of carriers. While in tenure of this 
position he also secured the local agency of the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



477 



Detroit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Com- 
pany. During his vacation in 1880 he organ- 
ized a party and conducted the same over the 
Detroit & Cleveland line of steamers to Macki- 
nac island, and in the following year he per- 
sonally secured a much larger company to 
make the same delightful lake voyage. So 
marked was his success in this connection that 
he gained special recognition from the Detroit 
& Cleveland Company, whose officials were 
thus moved to tender him the position of trav- 
eling passenger agent of the line. He ac- 
cepted this office and at once applied his ener- 
gies and initiative ability to the furtherance of 
the interests of the company. Appreciation of 
his efforts was not denied, and he won rapid 
promotion. In 1881 he was made traveling 
passenger agent, and in 1883 became general 
western traveling passenger agent for the line. 
In 1886 he succeeded E. B. Whitcomb as as- 
sistant general passenger agent, and in 1887 he 
was promoted to the office of general passen- 
ger agent. In 1901 occurred the death of the 
company's honored secretary and general man- 
ager, David Carter, and shortly afterward Mr. 
Schantz was elected general superintendent and 
passenger traffic manager. This dual office he 
retained until 1905, when he was inducted into 
his present office of general manager of the 
company, shortly after the death of William C. 
McMillan, who had been president of the com- 
pany. In 1901 was organized and incorporated 
the Detroit & Buffalo Steamboat Company, 
with essentially the same interested principals, 
and Mr. Schantz from the start held the same 
positions with this as with the Detroit & Cleve- 
land Navigation Company, of both of which he 
is now general manager. 

In connection with his executive duties and 
responsibilities in handling the passenger busi- 
ness of the two lines Mr. Schantz has origi- 
nated and developed for them a most effective 
system of advertising, his productions in this 
important field being recognized as the best 
ever evolved in exploiting the attractions and 
facilities of any marine transportation line. He 
was the first passenger manager to put into use 



an eight-sheet advertising poster, and the at- 
tractive notices of the opening and closing of 
the navigation seasons of his companies were 
originated by him and have gained the most 
unequivocal commendation and appreciation on 
the part of those actively concerned with navi- 
gation interests as well as on the part of the 
general public. To him is primarily due the 
great expansion of the passenger business of 
the two companies and also, incidentally, of 
the freight business, since the popularity of the 
former department implies an equivalent ap- 
preciation of the latter. As general manager 
he is making an admirable record, holding the 
inviolate confidence and esteem of the officers 
and stockholders of his companies and through 
his invariable courtesy having gained the high 
regard of the patrons of the lines. Mr. Schantz 
has not relied upon influence or fortuitous cir- 
cumstances in his business career, but has 
worked his way upward through his own ef- 
forts, being distinctively worthy of the valued 
American title of self-made man. He is essen- 
tially progressive and public-spirited, is an in- 
defatigable worker and an able administrative 
officer, and he is a prominent and popular fig- 
ure in lake-marine circles of the most repre- 
sentative order. He is a valued member of the 
Great Lakes & St. Lawrence River Associ- 
ation, of which he served as president in 1889, 
and he also holds membership in the Passenger 
Association of the United States, of whose 
executive committee he is a member and of 
which he was president in 190 1-2-3. The latter 
organization covers the passenger business of 
all coast, sound, lake and river lines in the 
United States and Canada. He is also a mem- 
ber of the American Association of Genera! 
Passenger & Ticket Agents, touching all rail 
and water lines of North America and Mexico. 
Though not active in the field of practical 
politics, Mr. Schantz is a stalwart supporter of 
the cause of the Republican party, and follow- 
ing is a brief record concerning his social and 
semi-business associations in Detroit : He is a 
member of the Detroit Club ; the Detroit Yacht 
Club; hfe member of the Fellowcraft Club; 



478 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



member of the Detroit Light Guard; Detroit 
Lodge, No. 34, Benevolent & Protective Order 
of Elks ; president of the Ohio Society of De- 
troit; member of the Transportation Club, of 
which he was president for the first two terms 
of its existence ; member of the Detroit Board 
of Commerce, the Commercial League, and the 
Newsboys' Association, in the work of the last 
of which he has been very active and of which 
he was a director for three years; and he at- 
tained the thirty-third and supreme degree in 
Scottish Rite Masonry, September 15, 1908, 
being a most appreciative member of the 
various bodies of this time-honored fraternity. 
On the 15th of July, 1906, Mr. Schantz was 
united in marriage to Miss Lila R. Rankin, 
daughter of Chester Rankin, who was a pio^ 
neer of St. Clair county, Michigan, and whose 
widow resides in the village of St. Clair. 



CHARLES P. BIELMAN. 

Prominent among those conspicuously iden- 
tified with lake-marine interests in Detroit is 
Mr. Bielman, who is secretary and trafific man- 
ager of the White Star Line of steamers, sec- 
retary and treasurer of the Stewart Transpor- 
tation Company, and ex-president of the De- 
troit Board of Commerce. He is known as 
one of the progressive and public-spirited busi- 
ness men of the Michigan metropolis and has 
a wide and representative acquaintanceship in 
marine circles. 

Charles Frederick Bielman is a native of 
Detroit, and a member of one of its well 
known and highly honored families. He was 
born on the 20th of April, 1859, and is a 
son of Frederick and Ellen C. (Daley) Biel- 
man. To the public schools of Detroit he is 
indebted for his early educational discipline, 
and while still a boy he initiated his connection 
with the line of enterprise along which he was 
destined to attain so much of success and pres- 
tige. At the age of fourteen years he went 
to Marine City, where he entered the employ 
of John J. Spinks, dealer in general merchan- 
dise, postmaster and local agent of the Star 
Line steamers, which ran between Detroit and 



Port Huron, and of which the present White 
Star Line are successors. 

Mr. Bielman was thus engaged for a period 
of seven years, within which time he gained 
a thorough and discriminating knowledge of 
the details of lake-marine traffic. In 1882 he 
became clerk of the steamer "Evening Star," 
owned and operated by the Detroit & Cleve- 
land Steam Navigation Company, and he re- 
mained with this vessel until 1883, when he 
was transferred to the "City of Mackinac," 
of the same line. In 1889 occurred a merging 
of the operating interests of the Star and the 
Cole lines of steamers, which had previously 
been in competition in the passenger and 
freight traffic, and the interested principals in 
the new combination requested David Carter, 
then general manager of the Detroit & Cleve- 
land Steam Navigation Company, to select for 
them a competent manager for the business of 
the Star-Cole Line, representing the consoli- 
dated interests. His appreciation of the serv- 
ices and ability of Mr. Bielman was at this 
time shown in a most significant way, for he 
warmly recommended the subject of this 
sketch as a most eligible candidate for the 
position in question. Mr. Bielman had been 
in the employ of the Detroit & Cleveland Com- 
pany for a period of six years, and had amply 
demonstrated his executive and technical abil- 
ity, as evidenced in the selection made by Mr 
Carter. In March, 1887, Mr. Bielman en- 
tered upon the duties of his new office, and 
the following year he returned to the Detroit 
& Cleveland Line steamer "Alpena." In July, 
1888, he became associated with the late 
Darius Cole in securing control of the Star 
line, Mr. Cole already owning the line which 
bore his name, and the two continued the 
operation of what was designated as the Star- 
Cole Line, one of the most important of those 
having virtual headquarters in the city of De- 
troit. Mr. Bielman became secretary and treas- 
urer of the company, and he has since been 
conspicuously identified with the passenger 
and freight traffic of the lake system. In 1893 
he became associated with Aaron A. Parker, 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



479 



Captain James W. Millen and John Pridgeon, 
Jr., in the purchase of the Red Star Line, and 
he was made secretary and traffic manager of 
the same. In 1896 the White Star Line was 
incorporated under the laws of the state and 
assimilated the interests of the Red and White 
Star lines. Mr. Bielman was chosen secre- 
tary and traffic manager of the new corpora- 
tion and has since served in that capacity. A 
description of the White Star Line is given 
on other pages of this publication. 

The building up of the flourishing business 
of the White Star Line has been largely due 
to the indefatigable energy and marked ad- 
ministrative ability of Mr. Bielman, and the 
company now operates four large and thor- 
oughly modern passenger steamers. From 
1889 until 1896 the Red Star, Star-Cole and 
White Star lines were operated conjunctively, 
under a pooling arrangement, and Mr. Biel- 
man had charge of the traffic interests of the 
combination. Since 1892 he has been secre- 
tary and treasurer of the Stewart Transporta- 
tion Company, engaged in the freight trans- 
portation business. Mr. Bielman is a member 
of the American Association of General Pas- 
senger & Ticket Agents, the International 
Water Lines Association, the Great Lakes & 
St. Lawrence River Association, and the Cen- 
tral Passenger Association. His dictum con- 
cerning marine traffic is authoritative and he 
is specially well fortified in his knowledge of 
all details of the business. 

Mr. Bielman is one of the wheel-horses of 
the Republican party in Detroit and has been 
an active worker for the party cause. His 
name has several times been brought forward 
in connection with candidacy for the office of 
mayor of his native city, but this fact does not 
indicate that he is imbued with office-seeking 
proclivities. Mr. Bielman served as the third 
incumbent of the office of president of the 
Detroit Board of Commerce, to which office he 
was elected in 1906, and he not only gave a 
most effective administration, loyal and pro- 
gressive, but his selection for the office shows 
the estimate placed upon him by the repre- 



sentative business men who are banded to- 
gether for the development of the larger and 
greater Detroit. He holds membership in the 
Detroit Club, the Harmonic Society, and the 
Detroit Whist Club, as well as the Michigan 
Whist Association, of which he was elected 
president in 1907. 

On the 22d of January, 1890, Mr. Bielman 
was united in marriage to Miss Katherine Bar- 
ium, daughter of Thomas Barium, of whom 
individual mention is made in this volume. 
Like her husband, Mrs. Bielman is one of the 
ardent devotees of the game of whist, being 
recognized as an adept in the same. They 
have two children, — Florence C, and Charles 
Frederick, Jr. 

In 1895 Mr. Bielman leased the steamer 
"Florence B." to the United States govern- 
ment for collection and delivery of mail to 
passing traffic on the Detroit river. Since 1896 
he has held the contract for operation of this 
service, — the only one of its kind in the coun- 
try. In 1907 Mr. Bielman built for this serv- 
ice the new steel steamer, named "C. F. Biel- 
man, Jr.," at a cost of $15,000. The contract 
expires in 1909. His interests in a business 
way are confined essentially to lake-marine 
traffic. 



WILLIAM T. DE GRAFF. 

For more than forty years has Mr. DeGraff 
been identified with banking interests in the 
city of Detroit and he is now incumbent of the 
responsible and exacting office of cashier of 
the Old Detroit National Bank, whose history 
is related in adequate detail on other pages of 
this work. His career as an executive has 
been continuously with the present institution 
and the two which figure as its lineal prede- 
cessors, and he holds precedence as one of the 
well known and able bank officials of his native 
state. 

Mr. DeGraff initiated his banking career 
when a youth of seventeen years. He at that 
time secured a position as messenger for the 
old-time banking house of C. & A. Ives, with 
whom he remained two years. June 6, 1865, 



480 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



he assumed the position of junior clerk in the 
counting room of the Second National Bank, 
and in 1867 he was promoted to the office of 
paying teller in that institution. In 1882 he 
was made assistant cashier, serving as such 
until the expiration of the bank's charter, in the 
following year, and then being chosen incum- 
bent of the same office in the succeeding insti- 
tution, the Detroit National Bank. January 
14, 1892, he was elected cashier of the bank as 
successor of Clement M. Davison, who had re- 
signed. His long service and thorough tech- 
nical knowledge fully qualified him for the 
onerous duties of the office to which he was 
thus called, and he continued cashier of the 
Detroit National until the expiration of its 
charter, in November, 1902, when a reorgani- 
zation took place and the institution was re- 
incorporated as the Old Detroit National Bank. 
Mr. DeGraff was continued in the office of 
cashier and he has done much to further the 
interests of the business with which he has so 
bng been identified in an executive capacity 
He has a wide circle of friends in the business 
and social circles of his native city and is re- 
garded as one of its representative citizens 

Wilham T. DeGrafif was born in Detroit 
September 27, 1846, the homestead in which he 
first opened wondering eyes having stood on 
the site of the present Penobscot building on 
Fort street west. He is a son of Harmon and 
Mary (Vemor) DeGrafif, both of whom were 
bom m the state of New York, and the former 
of whom was of staunch Holland Dutch 
Imeage. Harmon DeGrafif became a promi- 
nent and influential business man of the fair 
City of the Straits," whither he came in an 

Der i"l^^' ' "'''^^'' °^ the firm of 
DeGraff & Townsend, he established himself in 
the retail hardware business and later he be- 
came a member of the firm of DeGraff & Ken- 
drick, which operated a foundry and well 
equipped machine shops. He was one of the 
founders of the Detroit Locomotive Works 
and was otherwise prominently concerned in 
early enterprises of important nature. He was 
one of the pioneer firemen of Detroit, having 



become captain of Company No. 2, when the 
service was still of volunteer order. He died in 
the city of Detroit and his wife survived him 
by many years. They became the parents of 
four sons and one daughter, all of whom are 
deceased except the subject of this sketch and 
his sister, Miss Margaret DeGraff, who still 
resides in Detroit. 

William T. DeGraff, whose name initiates 
this article, was reared and educated in De- 
troit, and here he has attained to success and 
prestige through his own well directed efforts. 
His business career has already been outlined.' 
He IS a Republican in his political allegiance 
IS a member of the Bankers' Club, and he and 
his family are communicants of St. John's 
church, Protestant Episcopal. 

In 1872 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
DeGraff to Miss Anne L. Hutchings. who was 
bom in the city of Buffalo, New York, a 
daughter of John Hutchings, who was a promi- 
nent steamboat man on the Great Lakes. Mr. 
and Mrs. DeGraff have two children : Will- 
iam H., who was graduated in the department 
of mechanical engineering in the University of 
Michigan, as a member of the class of 1907, 
and Bessie L., who is the wife of Edward L.' 
Warner, of Detroit. 



ROBERT E. PRAZER. 

One of the representative legists and jurists 
of the state of Michigan was Judge Robert E. 
Frazer, who presided on the bench of the 
Wayne county circuit for a long term of years 
and who was thereafter engaged in the practice 
of his profession in the city of Detroit until 
his death, which occurred on the gth of Mav 
1908. ^' 

Robert Emmett Frazer was a scion of one of 
the sterling pioneer families of the Wolverine 
state, where his entire life was passed. He 
was born at Adrian, Lewanee county, Michi- 
gan, on the 2d of October, 1840, and was a son 
of Thomas and Sarah (Wells) Frazer, the 
former of whom was born in county Down, 
Ireland, and the latter in Chelsey, England.' 





f E ^\ 




DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



481 



Thomas Frazer was reared to maturity in the 
fair Emerald Isle, where he had only a few 
months of specific schooling, but through his 
own efforts and his experience in connection 
with the practical affairs of life he became a 
man of broad knowledge and strong intel- 
lectuality. He became a skilled civil engineer 
while still a young man and in his native land 
was identified with important work in the line 
of his profession, including assistance in com- 
pleting a government topographical survey. In 
1837 he immigrated to America and came to 
Michigan, which was admitted to the Union in 
that year. He first located in Monroe, which 
was then a commercial and civic rival of De- 
troit, and there he found employment in the 
work of his profession, principally through the 
kindly consideration of that honored pioneer, 
Dan Bramble Miller, who was at that time of- 
ficially connected with the Lake Shore & Michi- 
gan Southern Railroad, then in process of con- 
struction. Incidentally, it may be stated in this 
connection that specific mention of Dan B. 
Miller appears in the sketch of the life of his 
son, the late Sidney D. Miller, of Detroit, on 
other pages of this work. Thomas Frazer ar- 
rived in Monroe with a financial reinforcement 
of but five dollars, and was accompanied by his 
wife and their one child, so that he had no de- 
sire for or opportunity of enjoying any period 
of sybaritic ease after his advent in the new 
commonwealth of Michigan. As a civil engi- 
neer he was identified with surveying and con- 
struction work on the line of the Lake Shore 
& Michigan Southern for nearly three years, 
having been thus engaged during the building 
of practically the entire line between Monroe 
and Chicago. 

After his retirement from this work Mr. 
Frazer took up his residence in Adrian, Michi- 
gan, where he continued to make his home until 
1841, when he removed to Detroit and entered 
the employ of the Michigan Central Railroad 
Company, with whose construction work he 
became prominently identified in a professional 
capacity, having been superintendent of con- 
struction and also having served in various 



other official or executive capacities. With the 
incidental survey work as well as that of con- 
struction he was associated with Colonel John 
M. Berrien, chief engineer, during the building 
of the line through from Kalamazoo to Chi- 
cago, being assistant engineer, and after this 
work was completed he returned to Detroit and 
entered the permanent engineering department 
of the company, giving his attention to the su- 
pervision of bridges and to allied work. About 
the year 1845 ''^ "^^^ with an accident on the 
railroad, and this incapacitated him for farther 
active work. He was then given the office of 
general ticket agent for the company in Detroit, 
being the first to fill this position, which he re- 
tained for several years. He finally resigned 
the office to give his attention to his private 
business. He introduced the coupon railroad 
ticket, of which he was the originator, and he 
continued to reside in Detroit until his death, 
which occurred in 1902. His first wife, mother 
of the subject of this memoir, died in 1849, and 
later he married Miss Cecilia Clancy, of De- 
troit, who preceded him to the life eternal by 
several years. Of the four children of the first 
marriage two died in childhood, and of the 
two who attained to maturity Judge Frazer 
was the elder; his sister, Charlotte B., resides 
in Detroit. Four children were born to the 
second marriage, — Thomas C, Georgiana, 
Lucius W., and Allen H., — and all are living 
except Thomas C. 

Robert E. Frazer was about five years of 
age at the time when his parents took up their 
abode in Detroit, and the major portion of his 
life was passed in this city, where he rose to a 
position of distinctive prominence and in- 
fluence, both in his profession and as a citizen. 
He was afforded the advantages of the public 
schools of Detroit, and supplemented this dis- 
cipline by study in private schools both in 
this city and at Grosse He. In 1855 he was 
matriculated in the literary department of the 
University of Michigan, in which he was grad- 
uated in June, 1859, with the degree of Bach- 
elor of Science ; he was not yet nineteen years 
of age at the time of his graduation. At the 



482 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



opening of the next university year he en- 
tered the law department, which had recently 
been established, and he was graduated as a 
member of its second class, — that of June. 
1861,— which was of itself a distinction, as 
was also that implied in the fact that he had 
not yet attained to his legal majority when 
he thus received his technical degree of Bach- 
elor of Laws. In October, 1861, Judge Frazer 
was admitted to the bar, in Washtenaw county, 
and there he initiated the active practice of his 
profession, appearing in a case presented be- 
fore the circuit court in the same session in 
which he had been admitted to practice by that 
court. He built up a good business and con- 
tinued in practice at Ann Arbor until 1882, 
when he went to Jackson, having been re- 
tained as one of the leading counsel for the 
defendants in the famous Crouch murder case, 
a cause celebre in the history of criminology 
in the state. His client, Daniel Holcomb, w^s 
acquitted, and the identity of the murderers of 
the Crouch family has never transpired to the 
present day. 

Soon after the termination of this celebrated 
trial Judge Frazer returned to Detroit, his 
professional reputation having been greatly 
heightened by his able services in the cause 
noted, and here he became associated in a 
professional partnership with Levi L. Barbour 
and Dwight C. Rexford, under the title of 
Frazer, Barbour & Rexford. This alliance 
obtained for some time and thereafter Judge 
Frazer continued in individual practice, beings 
retained in many of the most important litiga- 
tions brought before the federal and state 
courts and having a clientage of representative 
order. After his retirement from the bench 
he continued in active practice and at the time 
of his death he was one of the veteran members 
of the Detroit bar, holding the confidence and 
unequivocal esteem of his professional con- 
freres and being known as a jurist whose rul- 
ings were ever made with true judicial acumen 
and discrimination; few of his opinions were 
reversed by the higher tribunals than that over 
which he presided with such marked strength 
and acceptability. 



Judge Frazer never consented to accept any 
public office aside from those directly in line 
with the work of his chosen profession. While 
engaged in practice at Ann Arbor he served 
as city attorney for some time, also held the 
office of circuit-court commissioner, and for 
three terms was prosecuting attorney of Wash- 
tenaw county, making an excellent record as a 
public prosecutor. In 1894 Governor Rich 
appointed him judge of the circuit court for 
the Wayne circuit, and thereafter he was twice 
elected to this office, serving for a consecutive 
period of twelve years and three months and 
by his services enriching and dignifying the 
judicial history of the state. 

In politics Judge Frazer was originally 
aligned as a supporter of the principles of the 
Democratic party, but, with the characteristic 
courage which he ever showed in maintaining 
his convictions, he arrayed himself in the ranks 
of the Republican party at the time of the 
campaign which placed General Garfield in the 
presidential chair, and he ever afterward gave 
his allegiance to this party, in whose cause he 
rendered efifective assistance. While on the 
bench he inaugurated many reforms, syste- 
matizing the work so thoroughly as greatly to 
expedite court procedures, and the system 
which he thus formulated is that which has 
ever since been followed by the circuit judges 
of Wayne county. As a political speaker^he 
gained a high and extended reputation, having 
taken an active part in numerous campaigns, 
and his services on the stump having been 
given in presidential campaign work in most 
diverse sections of the Union, including New 
York state and city, Maine, Connecticut, New 
Hampshire, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin. Penn- 
sylvania and other states, including his own. 
He was associated with Hon. James G. Blaine 
in the campaign work in the latter's native 
state. In the Republican national convention 
m 1888, at Chicago, he placed in nomination 
for the presidency the late and honored Gen- 
eral Russell A. Alger, of Detroit. His nomi- 
nating speech, made without notes or previous 
preparation, was a most remarkable one and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



483 



was printed by leading newspapers in all sec- 
tions of the Union. Judge Frazer was identi- 
fied with the National Bar Association and also 
those of Michigan and Detroit, and was af- 
filiated with various social organizations in his 
home city. His religious faith was that of the 
Protestant Episcopal church. 

Judge Frazer also gained no little influence 
and prestige in the commercial and industrial 
world. He was president of the Frazer Paint 
Company, which has well equipped plants both 
in Detroit and Bedford, Virginia, and he per- 
sonally discovered the process by which the 
mineral-paint products of these factories are 
turned out. The development of the large and 
successful business of this company was due 
almost entirely to his efforts. He also dis- 
covered and placed on the market a mineral 
paste which is used for remedial purposes and 
has met with the strong endorsement of the 
medical profession. This product is termed 
"Fermisal," and in the manufacturing of the 
same Judge Frazer was the owner of the busi- 
ness, conducted under the name of the Fer- 
misal Chemical Company. He also invented 
the locomotive-front cement, which is now 
used by fifteen different railways, and the 
Frazer non-corrosive pipe-joint paste, which is 
handled by the American Radiator Company. 

On the 3d of August, 1863, at Ann Arbor, 
Michigan, was solemnized the marriage of 
Judge Frazer to Miss Abbie M. Saunders, 
who was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, and 
who survives him, as do also their three chil- 
dren, — Carrie W., who is now the wife of 
Walter Ruan, of Bedford, Virginia; Frances 
A., who remains with her widowed mother; 
and William R., who is paymaster of the 
Detroit United Railway. 

In consistent conclusion of this brief tribute 
are entered the following extracts from the 
resolutions passed by the Detroit Bar Associ- 
ation at the time of the death of Judge Frazer: 

Judge Frazer had a long and brilliant career, 
both at the bar and upon the bench of the 
state of Michigan. As a member of the bar 
his practice was never confined to the circuit 



of his residence. His brilliant mind and pow- 
erful method of presenting his side of a case 
to a jury, called his services into demand in 
many parts of the state where trials of im- 
portance were in progress. This was par- 
ticularly true with reference to criminal mat- 
ters. As an advocate he was remarkably quick 
to grasp the weak points in his opponent's case, 
and equally strong in presenting the strong 
points in his own case; by emphasis of what 
was favorable to his contention he over- 
shadowed what was weak. During his active 
career at the bar he had and deserved the 
reputation of being one of the very strongest 
advocates in the state before a jury. 

During his career on the bench, covering a 
period of nearly fourteen years, he built for 
himself a reputation for rugged honesty, which 
stands to-day perhaps as the brightest attribute 
of his character. He could grasp the exact 
point in controversy with almost unerring cer- 
tainty and, having grasped it, could define the 
issue with absolute clearness. With the issue 
defined, he went with an alertness and direct- 
ness to the solution, along lines of natural jus- 
tice, with the greatest celerity. He was not 
overawed by a principle simply because it was 
stated in a book, if it did not appeal to his own 
sense of justice and right. As one of the 
bench of six judges, his services were inval- 
uable. The qualities which made his worth as 
an individual jurist were highly accentuated in 
conference. His associates were wont to con- 
fer with him on all matters doubtful to them, 
and no conferences of this nature were fruit- 
less. He was always prepared to state his 
views frankly, and when those views were 
later compared with authority they were 
almost invariably found to be correct. 

Aside from his prominence as an advocate 
and as a judicial officer, he had acquired a 
very wide reputation as a political speaker. 
His services were in demand in every cam- 
paign, because of his incisive wit and his elo- 
quent, forceful utterances. He was a man 
of peculiarly domestic character. His hours 
of leisure were spent entirely in his own home. 
Fond of nature, he obtained perhaps his chief 
enjoyment in life from his garden. His trees 
and his flowers were to him personal friends. 

In the death of Robert Emmett Frazer the 
bar has lost a distinguished member and the 
state has lost a citizen whose influence was 
always for that which is best in civic life. 



484 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



GEORGE P. CODD. 

That the scriptural statement, "A prophet 
is not without honor save in his own country," 
is not susceptible of application in the case of 
Mr. Codd, needs no further voucher than that 
offered by the fact that he has served as mayor 
of his native city of Detroit, justifying fully 
in his administration the confidence and suf- 
frages of the community in which he was born 
and reared. He is one of the representative 
members of the Detroit bar and is here en- 
gaged in the active practice of his profession. 
Mr. Codd was born in the family home on 
Adelaide street, Detroit, December 7, 1869, 
and is a son of George C. and Eunice' (Law- 
rence) Codd. George C. Codd came to De- 
troit in 1850 and became one of the well 
known, honored and influential citizens of the 
Michigan metropolis, where he continued to 
reside until his death, in 1904. He was made 
mcumbent of local offices of distinctive trust, 
havmg served four years as sheriff of Wayne 
county and having been postmaster of Detroit 
under the administrations of Presidents Hayes 
and Arthur. He was a member of the city 
council for a number of years and was a loyal 
and public-spirited citizen. He was a leader 
in the local cohorts of the Republican party 
and did effective service in the cause of the 
same. His wife was summoned to the life 
eternal in 1903. 

George P. Codd, the immediate subject 
of this sketch, secured his early educational 
discipline in the public schools and was gradu- 
ated in the Detroit high school, where he was 
prepared for collegiate work. In 1887 he was 
matriculated in the University of Michigan, 
in which he was graduated as a member of the 
class of 1891, with the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts. 

Immediately after his graduation Mr. Codd 
began reading law, under the preceptorship of 
Alfred Russell, one of the leading members of 
the Detroit bar, and that he made rapid progress 
in his absorption and assimilation of the sci- 
ence of jurisprudence is evident when we re- 
vert to the fact that in 1892 he was admitted 



to practice in the courts of his native state. 
Later he was admitted to practice in the fed- 
eral courts, including the supreme court of the 
United States. For some time Mr. Codd was 
associated in legal work with the firm of 
Grifiin, Warner & Hunt, and in 1893 he re- 
ceived the appointment of assistant city attor- 
ney, in which office he served two and one-half | 
years. He then became a member of the law 
firm of Warner, Codd & Warner, in which his 
confreres were Messrs. Carios E. and Willard 
E. Warner. This alliance continued for a long 
period and the firm attained to marked prece- 
dence in the volume and character of its law 
business. Upon the death of the senior mem- 
ber, Carlos E. Warner, in 1901, the firm was 
dissolved, and thereafter Mr. Codd continued 
in an individual practice until 1906, when he 
formed a partnership with A. B. Hall, under 
the firm name of Codd & Hall. This alliance 
continued until 1908. Mr. Codd controls a 
large and representative practice and is known 
as a lawyer of splendid force and talent. 

Mr. Codd has never faltered in his allegiance 
to the Republican party, of whose principles 
and policies he is an able exemplar. In 1902 
he was elected to represent the first ward on 
the board of aldermen, being thus chosen to 
fill a vacancy, and in 1904 he was elected as his 
own successor, having proven one of the valu- 
able and loyal working members of the body. 
In the autumn of the same year (1904) still 
greater honor came to Mr. Codd in connection 
with the municipal government, since he was 
then elected mayor of his native city, an office 
of which he remained incumbent until January 
I, 1907. His administration was sane, pro- 
gressive and business-like, and his name will 
pass into the annals of the city as that of one 
of its excellent and popular chief executives. 

Mr. Codd is an appreciative member of the 
time-honored Masonic fraternity, in which he 
has completed the circle of the York Rite, be- 
ing a member of Detroit Commandery, No. i. 
Knights Templar, and he has also become en- 
rolled as a member of Moslem Temple, An- 
cient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



485 



Shrine, as well as of the Knights of Pythias, 
and Delta Kappa Epsilon college fraternity, 
with which he identified himself while an un- 
dergraduate in the University of Michigan. 
He is also a member of various local organiza- 
tions of a social and semi-business order. 

In October, 1894, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Codd to Miss Kathleen Warner, 
daughter of Carlos E. Warner, of Detroit, 
and they have three children, — ^John W., 
George C. and Kathleen. 



GEORGE F. MOORE. 

As one of the foremost representatives of 
the wholesale dry-goods trade in Detroit for a 
long period of years Mr. Moore was a con- 
spicuous figure in business affairs and he was 
also known as a citizen of unequivocal loyalty 
and integrity and as one whose public spirit 
led him outside the line of direct personal ad- 
vancement to do his part in the promotion of 
the general welfare of the community and the 
material upbuilding of the city with whose in- 
terests his own were so long and prominently 
identified. He was one of the founders of the 
great dry-goods house of Edson, Moore & 
Company, and he continued one of its inter- 
ested principals until his death, which occurred 
on the 25th of March, 1904. 

Mr. Moore was born in picturesque old 
Berkshire county, Massachusetts, on the loth 
of December, 1832, being one of the twelve 
children of John and Clara Moore, both rep- 
resentatives of old and honored families of 
New England. His paternal grandfather was 
a native of Holland and was numbered among 
the early settlers of Berkshire county. His 
descendants have left a record of worthy ac- 
complishment not only in New England but 
elsewhere in the Union. Mr. Moore's mother 
was of Scotch lineage, and her original Ameri- 
can ancestors settled in Massachusetts prior to 
the war of the Revolution. John Moore was a 
man of sturdy character and strong mentality, 
being influential in his community. He dealt 
largely in land, becoming the owner of large 



tracts in Berkshire county, where he was also 
engaged in the coal and timber trade for a 
term of years. In 1847 he removed to Batavia, 
New York, where he and his wife passed the 
remainder of their lives, his death occurring in 
1858. 

The subject of this memoir was afforded the 
advantages of the common schools of Mas- 
sachusetts and New York, having been fifteen 
years of age at the time of the family removal 
to the latter state, where he was reared to ma- 
turity. At the age of eighteen years he became 
a salesman in the retail dry-goods store of 
Wells & Seymour, of Batavia, with whom he 
remained three years, after which he was simi- 
larly employed in the city of Buffalo for one 
year. He passed the winter of 1854 in the 
south and then returned to Buffalo, wherte he 
was again employed as a salesman, remaining 
three years. 

In 1859 Mr. Moore made his advent in De- 
troit, and during the first six years of his resi- 
dence here he was employed in the old-time 
dry-goods store of Town & Shelden. At the 
expiration of that period he was admitted to 
partnership in the business, as was also the 
late James L. Edson, with whom he was so 
long associated in business. At the time of 
their admission to the firm the title was changed 
to Allan Shelden & Company, one of the in- 
terested parties in the concern having been the 
late Senator Zachariah Chandler. In 1872 
Messrs. Moore & Edson retired from the firm 
and established the present wholesale dry-goods 
house of Edson, Moore & Company, of which 
further and adequate mention is made in the 
memoir dedicated to Mr. Edson and appearing 
on other pages of this volume. 

Mr. Moore's close personal supervision of his 
extensive mercantile interests gave him but 
limited opportunity to direct his efforts in other 
directions, but no citizen showed in more sub- 
stantial ways his deep interest in all that per- 
tained to the good of Detroit. Progressive and 
public-spirited, his aid was never refused to 
any deserving projects. He was a man whose 
entire life was guided on the plane of loftiest 



486 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



integrity and honor and upon his name rests 
no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil. He 
was a RepubHcan in his political proclivities 
and was a zealous member of the First Pres- 
byterian church, with which he was actively 
identified for a long term of years prior to his 
demise. 

In 1855 Mr. Moore was united in marriage 
to Miss Adela S. Mosher, daughter of Amasa 
A. and Susan Mosher, and they became the 
parents of five children, namely: Edward H., 
George F., Jr., Willis Howard, Harriet L., and 
Adela S. All of these are deceased excepting 
Adela S., who is the wife of J. Ledlie Hees, of 
New York city. The wife of Mr. Moore died 
in 1902. 

WILLIAM A. JACKSON. 

In the career of Mr. Jackson, whose name 
has been indissolubly connected with the de- 
velopment of the telephone industry in the 
state of Michigan, is shown that definite am- 
bition and persistence which are the mind's in- 
spiration in the surmounting of obstacles, — the 
vitalizing ideal that transforms dreams into 
deeds. After more than thirty years of active 
identification with the telephone business in 
this state, Mr. Jackson retired from adminis- 
trative and executive association with the same 
in April, 1908. In connection with the devel- 
opment of the industry from the day of small 
things to its present sphere of advanced use- 
fulness he made an admirable record of accom- 
plishment, and it is certainly consonant that in 
this publication recognition of his services be 
given, even though the article be but a brief 
outline. 

William A. Jackson is a native of the old 
Empire state of the Union but practically his 
entire life has been passed in Michigan. He 
was born in the city of Ithaca, Tompkins 
county, New York, on the 9th of September, 
1848, and is a son of Clark and Phoebe Jack- 
son, likewise natives of Tompkins county. New 
York. The father was engaged in farming in 
New York state until about 1857, when he re- 
moved with his family to Michigan, settling in 



Branch county, where he turned his attention 
to the business of railroading. Later he re- 
moved to White Pigeon, St. Joseph county, 
where he and his wife continued to reside until 
their death. He died in 1874 and she passed 
to the life eternal in 1879. The subject of this 
sketch is their only surviving child. 

William A. Jackson passed his youthful days 
in Bronson and White Pigeon, Michigan, in 
whose common schools he gained his early 
educational discipline, which has been effec- 
tively supplemented by the lessons acquired 
under the direction of that wisest of all head 
masters, — experience. At the age of eighteen 
years he entered the office of the Lake Shore 
& Michigan Southern Railroad at White 
Pigeon, where he learned the art of telegraphy, 
becoming an expert operator. He entered the 
service of the Western Union Telegraph Com- 
pany in 1866, at Detroit, and he remained 
thus engaged until 1875, after which he was 
engaged in manufacturing electrical apparatus 
for about two years. At the expiration of this 
period, in 1877, he identified himself with the 
telephone business, which was then in its in- 
fancy, with very crude equipment as judged by 
the standards of the present day. Every stage 
of progress in this important field has been 
touched by him in a practical way, and it may 
safely be said that no man in Michigan has 
played a more active part in the work of tele- 
phonic development. The company with which 
he first connected himself was a purely local 
concern and its operations were conducted on 
a small scale. In 1878 these operations were 
extended to cover the larger towns of the 
southern part of the state, with Detroit as 
headquarters. Difficulties and obstacles were 
encountered on every side, but with the im- 
proving of the scientific apparatus employed 
the venture became more substantial in prac- 
tical results. Mr. Jackson was manager of the 
Michigan Telephone Company until 1885, after 
which he was engaged in street railway build- 
ing, etc., in Detroit until 1896, when he went 
to Chicago, where he became a director in the 
Chicago Telephone Company, in the practical 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



487 



management of whose business he became a 
potent factor. He and three others built and 
operated the first electric Hne in Michigan, — 
from Detroit to Highland Park. In the west- 
ern metropolis he gained distinctive prestige in 
connection with telephone development, and for 
some time he was president of the Central 
Union Telephone Company, which operated 
lines outside of Chicago. In 1904 he returned 
to Detroit and assisted in the organization of 
the Michigan State Telephone Company, with 
whose affairs he thereafter was actively con- 
cerned until his retirement from active busi- 
ness, in April, 1908, as noted in a preceding 
paragraph. Long ago Mr. Jackson gained a 
place as one of the representative citizens and 
business men of Detroit, where he has ever 
commanded unqualified confidence and esteem. 
He is a stockholder of the First National Bank 
of this city and also of the United Machine 
Company, whose plant is located at the comer 
of Thirteenth and Howard streets. He is also 
a stockholder of the Michigan State Telephone 
Company and has other capitalistic interests of 
important order. 

Essentially a business man and one of the 
world's workers, Mr. Jackson has never had 
aught of inclination to enter into active politi- 
cal affairs, though he gives a staunch support 
to the cause of the Republican party. He is 
identified with leading social clubs in Detroit 
and also with the various bodies of the Masonic 
fraternity. 

In the year 1873 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Jackson to Miss Nellie Moore, of 
Three Rivers, Michigan, and they have one 
daughter, Louise, who is now the wife of 
Harry H. Robinson, of Chicago. 

In concluding this sketch there is much of 
propriety in perpetuating an editorial which 
appeared in the Detroit News at the time of 
Mr. Jackson's retirement from the presidency 
of the Michigan State Telephone Company. 

The announcement is made of the retire- 
ment from active participation in the telephone 
industry in this state of William A. Jackson, 
of this city, who has spent better than thirty 
years of his life in its development. The event 
of Mr. Jackson's giving over his active connec- 



tion with the industry may well be made the 
occasion for the consideration of the tremen- 
dous influence which one modest man has had 
in the development in Michigan of the most 
popular form of modern communication. 
When the Michigan rights to the use of Pro- 
fessor Bell's invention came, in 1877, into con- 
trol of James McMillan and George W. Balch, 
both now deceased, its development was in- 
trusted to Mr. Jackson, then a youthful teleg- 
rapher. The device at that time offered for 
public use was the simple magnetic telephone, — 
the receiving instrument commonly in use to- 
day. The carbon telephone, invented by Blake 
and later perfected by Berliner, which is the 
present transmitting instrument, had not then 
appeared for public use. The conditions for 
promotion and popularization were not the 
most attractive. 

When one recalls that in 1888 there were 
less than three hundred telephones — of the 
kind they were — in all of Michigan, whereas 
there are to-day something like one hundred 
and fifty thousand of the Bell and other types 
in service, the character of the groundwork 
that was laid for the use of the new device can 
well be estimated. No Methodist circuit rider 
ever covered Michigan more assiduously than 
did this Mr. Jackson in his campaign for the 
installation of the telephone into our cities and 
villages. It is much easier to get a million to- 
day for such enterprises than it was to get ten 
thousand then, but somehow he found the 
money or charmed it out of his principals, and 
the first stage of telephone development saw 
an exchange established in every place of size 
in the state. 

The stage of isolated local installations was 
followed by what was considered at the time 
to be Mr. Jackson's folly, — the construction of 
long lines from Detroit. Under the conditions 
prevalent at the time communication between 
Detroit and Wyandotte was none too good, yet 
an experiment was made upon one line to Am- 
herstburg and another to Port Huron. The 
most that was expected of them was that such 
service as it might be possible to render would 
be advantageous to marine interests, for the 
reporting of vessel movements. It developed 
that the lines would carry other kinds of con- 
versation than ship talk, and these two lines 
became the foundation of the immense network 
of long-distance telephone lines later installed 
in Michigan by the Bell Company and still 



488 



DETEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



later duplicated and supplemented by those of 
other telephone companies. 

The growth from the magnetic telephone of 
thirty years ago to the perfection of system 
that obtains to-day, with the highest develop- 
ment of apparatus, the underground system, 
the metallic circuit, the central energy system 
and all other concomitants that make for sat- 
isfactory service; the market quotations at the 
farmer's home every morning ; the sense of se- 
curity in the urban home and the disappearance 
of isolation in the rural farm house,— all these 
have come into Michigan since Mr. Jackson 
first exploited the telephone in Detroit. In 
taking leave of his life work,-covering the time 
of a full generation, he may well say with the 
hero of the classic, "All of this have I seen, 
and much of it I have been." 

As much as any contribution to the growth 
of Detroit and Michigan during the last quar- 
ter century has been that of the modest gentle- 
man whose retirement from active service has 
just been chronicled. For while his service 
was interrupted by an absence of a few years, 
the interval of absence was simply a period of 
exploitation and bankruptcy. The entire real 
development of the telephone industry of this 
state, from first to last, as exemplified in the 
Bell companies, was accomplished by him and 
through him. When the history of the devel- 
opment of communication in Michigan comes 
to be written no kindlier chapter will be made, 
nor none more deservedly so, than the one 
which is devoted to the life work of William A. 
Jackson. 



WILLIAM C. COLBURN. 

The patent of nobility which rested its hon- 
ors and distinction in the person of William 
Cullen Colburn came from the high authority, 
since it was based upon fine character and 
marked ability. His life was marked by valu- 
able and generous accomplishment along prac- 
tical, productive lines, and his measure of suc- 
cess was large, but greater than this was the 
intrinsic loyalty to principle, the deep human 
sympathy and the broad intellectuality which 
designated the man as he was. His career 
in the world of business was such as to ad- 
vance the welfare of others than himself, and 
he had a high sense of his stewardship, though 
at all times significantly free from ostentation. 



His was the reserve which indicates fine men- 
tal and moral fiber, and he was one of De- 
troit's honored and valued citizens and busi- 
ness men up to the time of his death, which 
occurred on Sunday morning, March 12, 1899. 
In usefulness to the community he surpassed 
many another man who has attained to more 
of publicity. Measured by the good he ac- 
complished, his lif€ was one of far more value 
than those of men who sought and obtained 
more prominent place and conspicuous hon- 
ors. Such a life is a public benefaction, and 
its usefulness is cumulative to a degree not 
commonly appreciated. 

William Cullen Colburn came of staunch 
old New England stock and was a representa- 
tive of a family founded in America in the 
colonial era of our national history. He was 
born near Fairhaven, Vermont, on the 6th of 
August, 1833, and his boyhood and youth were 
marked by the labors and recreations common 
to those reared under similar conditions. His 
scholastic advantages were limited, in an aca- 
demic sense, but the sturdy ambition and nat- 
ural intellectual force of the man could not 
but show forth against the seeming handi- 
cap, and he broadened his mental horizon to 
become a person of culture and wide knowl- 
edge, having profited liberally by self-dis- 
cipline and by the lessons to be gained under 
the direction of that wisest of all head-mas- 
ters, experience. Mr. Colburn was reared to 
maturity in his native state,, and in 1854, soon 
after attaining to his legal majority, he came 
to Michigan and took up his residence in De- 
troit,— a city to whose civic and industrial 
development he was destined to contribute in 
no insignificant degree as the fast fleeting 
years fell into the abyss of time. He had pre- 
viously passed about one year in Wisconsin, 
where his father was interested in lead mines.' 
Soon after his arrival in Detroit he became in- 
terested in the Charles Kellogg Company, 
manufacturers of iron and combination bridges 
for railway and highway purposes. This com- 
pany was eventually reorganized under the 
title of the Detroit Bridge & Iron Works, and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



489 



with the latter corporation he continued to be 
actively identified until the time of his death, 
having first been its secretary and treasurer 
and later its president, of which latter office 
he was incumbent until he was called from the 
scene of life's activities. The intervening years 
represented large and definite results attained 
through his ability and active cooperation, and 
he was one of the foremost factors in the up- 
building of the splendid industrial enterprise 
with which his name was so long and con- 
spicuously associated. Throughout his en- 
tire business career in the Michigan metrop- 
olis it may be said that bridge -building repre- 
sented his chief interest, and he held a high 
reputation in this important field of enterprise. 
But his progressive spirit led him to make 
judicious investments in other lines as his capi- 
talistic powers waxed stronger. Thus he be- 
came associated with the late General Russell 
A. Alger in mining and other enterprises, and 
in other fields the two were likewise associated 
with the late Martin S. Smith, another of the 
representative business men of Detroit. Mr. 
Colburn was one of the original members of 
the first board of directors of the Union Trust 
Company, and he continued incumbent of this 
office until the time when the company in- 
augurated the erection of its magnificent new 
building, on Griswold street, when he resigned 
from the directorate, in order that the Detroit 
Bridge & Iron Works, of which he was presi- 
dent, might take the contract for the construc- 
tion of the building mentioned. For a number 
of years he was a valued member of the direct- 
orate of the State Savings Bank, and for sev- 
eral years was vice-president of the Detroit 
National Bank. Of these institutions proper 
record is given on other pages of this publi- 
cation. 

Indomitable will and energy, unflagging in- 
dustry and clear perception, placed Mr. Col- 
burn among the leading business men of Micii- 
igan. He possessed the business courage 
which comes from faith in one's own abilities 
and judgment, and thus he was always pro- 
gressive in his attitude. A self-made man in 



the best sense, he was unassuming in demeanor 
but firm and persevering in the course which 
he decided to be right. Thorough and earnest 
in every undertaking, all of his affairs were 
conducted with systematic exactness. There 
was nothing sensational or spectacular in his 
career, and he used his large fortune in ways 
that contributed much to the material advance- 
ment of Detroit. In sterling good sense, genu- 
ine public spirit, thorough integrity, and a pri- 
vate life above reproach, he stood as one of 
Detroit's honored and valued citizens and rep- 
resentative business men. He was an agree- 
able, courteous gentleman, and won and re- 
tained inviolable friendships, though, as be- 
fore stated, he was somewhat reserved, never 
having been given to speaking much of him- 
self, even in the precincts of his ideal home. 
In politics, while never an active factor and 
never a seeker of official preferment of any 
description, he was a loyal supporter of the 
principles and policies for which the Repub- 
lican party stands sponsor. In Detroit he was 
identified with representative clubs and other 
social organizations, and it should be noted in 
particular that he was one of the founders of 
the Lake St. Clair Fishing & Shooting Club 
(commonly designated the Old Club), of 
which he became the first president, — an office 
which he retained consecutively until the time 
of his death. This club was organized in 
1872, and associated with Mr. Colburn in ef- 
fecting the organization were N. D. Lapham, 
A. M. Van Duser, E. B. Smith and Dr. George 
L. Field. Mr. Colburn found much pleasure 
and agreeable recreation through his identifi- 
cation with this organization, and also with the 
Turtle Lake Club. It is but consonant that 
in this brief review of the career of Mr. Col- 
burn be perpetuated the text of the memorial 
adopted by the Lake St. Clair Fisliing & Shoot- 
ing Club : 

William C. Colburn, the president of this 
club, died in this city, March 12, 1899. In the 
prime of lii'e and in the maturity of his pow- 
ers, with an apparent prospect of many years 
of activity and usefulness, the sudden and un- 



490 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



expected death of Mr. Colburn has brought 
sorrow to many hearts. 

By those who knew him only as the man of 
affairs, prompt, energetic, courageous and de- 
termined in matters of business, wise and 
sagacious in counsel, patriotic and public spir- 
ited in furthering the interests of the city and 
state, his premature removal will be regretted 
as the loss of a good citizen and an honorable 
and high-minded man who could ill be spared 
by the community. But to us who have known 
him m the intimacy and good-fellowship of 
club life, the sense of bereavement is far deeper 
and more personal. 

Mr. Colburn was the first and only presi- 
dent of this club. For twenty-seven years he 
has gone in and out among us, participating in 
our pleasures, guiding us with his wisdom and 
sparing neither time nor trouble in furthering 
the best interests of the organization. To his 
sagacious and able leadership we feel that a 
very large part of the success of this club is 
due. To Its affairs he brought the same en- 
ergy, wisdom and decision which so eminently 
characterized him in business life. 

A natural leader of men, he was ever mod- 
est in his pre-eminence, and while firm in his 
convictions as to matters of club policy and 
management, he was temperate in his judg- 
ment and considerate in his treatment of oth- 
ers. He was a true lover of nature and by 
choice sought his recreation "far from the 
madding crowd," in the woods and by the 
waters of the state of his adoption. He was 
a sportsman in the best sense of the term and 
his voice and example were always to be found 
on the side of honor and true manliness. He 
was a most companionable man, and, although 
he was not a great talker himself, he was a 
welcome addition to every circle. Genial and 
courteous, the passing years served only to in- 
crease the respect and esteem of his fellow 
members, and in his death we feel that this 
club has sustained an irreparable loss. 

On the 2 1 St of December, 1864, Mr Col- 
burn married Miss Mary Augusta Standish, 
daughter of the late John Dana Standish, of 
Detroit, and she survives him, as do also their 
three sons and two daughters, concerning 
whom the following brief data are given- 
Evelyn E. is the wife of Charles G. Waldo, of 
Bridgeport, Connecticut; Mary E. is the wife 
of William Lawrence Keane. of Yokohama, 



Japan; Burnham S., of Detroit, is secretary 
and treasurer of the Canadian Bridge Com- 
pany, Limited, of Walkerville, Ontario; Fred- 
erick S. is treasurer of the Carbonic Dioxide 
Corporation in the city of Chicago; and Will- 
iam B. is treasurer of the Pierce Cycle Com- 
pany, in Buffalo, New York. 

John Dana Standish, father of Mrs. Col- 
burn, was a lineal descendant of Captain Miles 
Standish, the most striking figure of that age 
of the Pilgrims which Rufus Choate so fitly 
describes as the American heroic period. Of 
the six children of this sturdy Puritan soldier, 
Josiah, the third son, after passing the greater 
part of an active and influential life in eastern 
Massachusetts, finally removed with his fam- 
ily to Preston, Connecticut. The latter's great- 
grandson, Samuel, removed to Stockbridge, 
Massachusetts, and was a valiant patriot sol- 
dier in the war of the Revolution, after the 
close of which he removed to Vermont, whence 
he later removed to North Granville, New 
York, where was born his only child, Samuel, 
who became an influential citizen of northern 
New York, where he held many local offices 
of trust, including that of surrogate of Wash- 
ington county. The youngest of his children 
was John Dana Standish, who was born in 
North Granville, New York, October i, 18 17, 
and who was of the seventh generation in di- 
rect descent from Captain Miles Standish. 
John Dana Standish received a good academic 
education in his native state, where he re- 
mained until 1837, when he came to Michigan, 
which was admitted to the Union in that year. 
For three years he conducted a select school 
at Birmingham, Oakland county, and in 1841 
he engaged in business in Pontiac. At this 
time he married Miss Emma L. Darrow, of 
Lyme, Connecticut, and they journeyed side 
by side along the pathway of life until their 
death, both having been summoned to the life 
eternal in the year 1884. They were survived 
by four children,— Mary Augusta, widow of 
the subject of this memoir; Eva, widow of the 
late Charles K. Backus, of Detroit; James D., 
of Detroit ; and Frederick D., of Detroit. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



491 



John Dana Standish took up his residence 
in Detroit in 1856, and here he became a prom- 
inent and influential business man, having con- 
ducted large operations in the produce and 
wool trade, and having had large lumbering 
and real-estate interests. He was the founder 
of the village of Standish, Arenac county, and 
established and operated the first saw mill in 
Otsego county, while he was a stockholder in 
numerous and important Detroit corporations 
at the time of his death, which occurred in 
July, 1884. In 1869 he was the Republican 
nominee for mayor of Detroit, but was de- 
feated, though he ran much ahead of his ticket. 
He later served as a member of the board of 
estimates and in 1880 was appointed city as- 
sessor. Three years later he was made a mem- 
ber of the new board of assessors, of which 
body he was the first president. He was a 
prominent and valued member of the Baptist 
church, and at the time of his demise he was 
president of the board of deacons of the La- 
fayette (now Woodward) Avenue Baptist 
church. He was a man of exalted character 
and his name is revered in the city which 
was so long his home. 



EDWIN H. NELSON. 

Within the pages of this work will be found 
definite recognition of many of the representa- 
tive business men who are aiding in maintain- 
ing the commercial prestige of the fair old 
"City of the Straits," and to such recognition 
Mr. Nelson, who is president of Nelson, Baker 
& Company, manufacturing chemists, is emi- 
nently entitled. Special mention of the con- 
cern of which he was the founder and of which 
he is now president will be found in this work. 

Mr. Nelson is a native of Brighton, Ontario, 
Canada, where he was born on the 27th of 
June, 1856, being a son of John and Eliza 
(Thayer) Nelson, the former of whom was 
born in Ireland and the latter in Massachusetts. 
When the subject of this brief sketch was an 
infant his parents removed from Canada to 
Arkansas, where the father became the owner 
of a plantation, which he operated successfully 



up to the time of the civil war, during the 
progress of which the property was used much 
of the time for hospital purposes, by the Union 
army. After his return to Canada the father 
lived retired from business and he and his 
wife are now deceased. 

Edwin H. Nelson, to whom this, review is 
dedicated, was reared to maturity in his native 
province of Ontario, where he was afforded the 
advantages of the public schools, after which 
he became a student in the Ontario College of 
Pharmacy, in Toronto, being graduated in this 
institution as a member of the class of 1878 
and coming forth specially well equipped for 
the profession which he had chosen. In 1879 
Mr. Nelson came to Detroit and entered the 
employ of the old and well known concern of 
Frederick Stearns & Company, whose name 
has been so long and prominently connected 
with the manufacturing of pharmaceutical 
preparations in Detroit. With this concern he 
remained until 1890, when he initiated inde- 
pendent operations in the same line of enter- 
prise, with which he has since been contin- 
uously and successfully identified. For record 
concerning Nelson, Baker & Company refer- 
ence may be made to the article previously 
mentioned. In addition to being president of 
this company Mr. Nelson is a director of the 
National Bank of Commerce and the National 
Can Company, besides being a stockholder in 
other local corporations. 

In politics he accords allegiance to the Re- 
publican party, and he is prominently identified 
with various business and social organizations 
in his home city. He is a member of the board 
of directors of the Detroit Club, of which he 
was secretary in 1907; is a member of the 
directorate and the executive committee of the 
Board of Commerce ; holds membership in the 
Merchants' & Manufacturers' Exchange, and is 
identified with the Detroit Manufacturing 
Club and the Masonic fraternity, in which latter 
he has attained to the Knights Templar de- 
gree. He and his wife are communicants of 
St. Paul's church, Protestant Episcopal. 

In 1884 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 



492 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Nelson to Miss Anna Louise Gilkeson, daugh- 
ter of Dr. Benjamin F. Gilkeson, of Rochester, 
New York, and the two children of this union 
are Frank T. and Nathalie G. The family 
holds a secure place in connection with the best 
social life of the city and Mr. Nelson is a popu- 
lar and valued business man and loyal and 
progressive citizen. 



HENRY M. LELAND. 

A business man of prominence and large ca- 
pacity in technical and administrative affairs is 
Mr. Leland, who occupies the responsible of- 
fice of general manager of the Cadillac Motor 
Car Company's factories, the largest of the 
kind in the world, as shown in the specific ar- 
ticle concerning the company appearing on 
other pages of this volume. 

Mr. Leland is a representative of a family 
founded in America in the colonial epoch, and 
the name has been one of no little prominence 
in the annals of the nation. He reverts to the 
old Green Mountain state as the place of his 
nativity, having been born at Danville, Ver- 
mont, on the i6th of February, 1843, and being 
a son of Leander B. and Zelphia (Tifft) Le- 
land, both of whom were bom in the state of 
Rhode Island. The father, who was a farmer 
by vocation, removed from Vermont to Mas- 
sachusetts when the subject of this sketch was 
but an infant, and he located at Worcester, 
where both he and his wife passed the remain- 
der of their lives,— folk of unassuming ways 
and sterling attributes of character. 

In the common schools of Worcester Henry 
M. Leland received his early educational disci- 
pline and there he was reared to maturity. He 
was eighteen years of age at the time of the 
outbreak of the civil war, and though he did 
not enter the ranks of the "boys in blue" he did 
effective service in upholding the Union, since 
he went to Springfield, Massachusetts, where 
he was employed in the United States armory, 
makmg tools utilized in the manufacture of 
nfles which were required by the Union sol- 
diers. He continued to reside in the old Bay 



state, devoting his attention to mechanical pur- 
suits, until 1872, when he went to Providence, 
Rhode Island, and entered the employ of 
Brown & Sharpe, manufacturers of fine tools 
and also sewing machines. For many years he 
remained with this concern, having charge of 
the sewing-machine department during the 
major portion of the time and developing to 
the full his fine mechanical talent. 

In 1890 Mr. Leland came to Detroit and es- 
tablished a small factory for the manufacture 
of milhng machinery. Success attended the en- 
terprise from the start and at the end of the 
first year he had in his employ a force of sixty- 
five men. In 189 1 Robert C. Faulconer was 
admitted to partnership in the business, under 
the firm name of Leland & Faulconer, and 
they eventually expanded their enterprise to 
include the manufacture of all kinds of marine 
engines and later of automobile engines. In 
1905 the enterprise was absorbed by the Cadil- 
lac Motor Car Company, in which Mr. Leland 
became a stockholder, and from that time to 
the present he has served with signal efficiency 
as general manager of the fine works of the 
company mentioned. His former business as- 
sociate, Mr. Faulconer, likewise became inter- 
ested in the Cadillac Company, with which he 
was connected until his death, in 1907. 

Mr. Leland is a member of the American 
Mechanical Engineers' Association and the 
National Founders' Association, of which latter 
he was one of the organizers and in which he 
was an active factor for many years. He is 
also identified with the National Metal Trades 
Association. His political proclivities are in- 
dicated by the staunch support which he ac- 
cords to the Republican party and both he and 
his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian 
church. 

In the year 1867, at Millburg, Massachu- 
setts, was solemnized the marriage of Mr Le- 
land to Miss Ellen R. Hull, who was born and 
reared in that state, and they have two chil- 
dren,— Wilfred, who resides in Detroit; and 
Gertrude, who is the wife of Anson C. Wood- 
bridge, of this city. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



493 



THOMAS MAYBURY. 

The life and labors of the late Thomas May- 
bury, one of the honored pioneers of Detroit 
at the time of his death, are well worthy of 
study, for the record pertaining thereto is 
fecund in lesson and incentive. It is but in 
justice due also that in a compilation of the 
province assigned to the one at hand be given 
a review of his career, that the record may 
be perpetuated now that he has passed from 
the scene of life's temporal labors. 

Mr. Maybury was born in Bandon, county 
Cork, Ireland, in the year 1809, and in his 
native town he was reared to maturity, receiv- 
ing good educational advantages in his youth. 
In Bandon was solemnized his marriage to 
Miss Margaret Cotter, in 1832, and in the year 
1834 the young couple severed the ties which 
bound them to their native land, whose fair 
shores they left to emigrate to America, 
where Mr. Maybury's near neighbors had come 
the preceding year, locating in Lockport, New 
York. Thomas Maybury and his wife re- 
mained a few weeks in Lockport and then 
came to Detroit, making the journey by way 
of the Erie canal and the Great Lakes. Prior 
to their coming to the United States one child 
had been born to them, but this child died at 
sea and was buried in a little cemetery near 
the mouth of the St. Lawrence river, — a sad 
event to mark the arrival of the young couple 
in America. Soon after his arrival in Detroit 
Mr. Maybury engaged in the trucking busi- 
ness. He was compelled to initiate operations 
in a most modest way, as his financial re- 
sources were very limited. In the early days 
he received one cent a barrel for hauling flour 
to the docks at the foot of Woodward avenue, 
and this thoroughfare and others were so 
muddy in the spring season that two barrels 
of flour was considered a load for a truck 
and two horses. As Detroit increased in popu- 
lation and acquired more commercial impor- 
tance Mr. Maybury extended the scope of his 
draying and general trucking operations, to 
which he had from the start devoted himself 
with unflagging energy and ambition. He 



continued in this line of enterprise for many 
years and built up a very successful business, 
based upon the implicit confidence and unre- 
served esteem reposed in him. 

Finally he became associated with his two 
brothers in the purchase of tracts of timber 
land near the city of Detroit, and this property 
they reclaimed to cultivation, developing the 
same into three excellent farms. Roads in 
Wayne county at that time were few and of 
the most primitive order, and to make the trip 
from these farms to Detroit three days were 
often consumed. At the present time two 
hours prove adequate to negotiate the same 
distance and traverse essentially the same 
route. The first house occupied by Mr. May- 
bury after his removal to his farm was a log 
cabin of the pioneer type, and roving bands of 
Indians often stopped at the little domicile to 
rest and seek refreshment. The family's first 
Christmas dinner on the embryo farm had as 
its piece de resistance a shoulder of venison, 
though a flock of wild turkeys came into the 
clearing about the house on the morning of 
the Christmas holiday. Mrs. Maybury, fear- 
ing that the turkeys were tame and the prop- 
erty of some neighbor, persuaded her husband 
not to shoot any of the number. Not until 
some hunters put in an appearance and stated 
that the fowls were of the wild variety did 
Mr. Maybury realize that he had permitted a 
good Christmas dinner to literally fly away 
from him. After clearing and otherwise im- 
proving his farm Mr. Maybury returned to 
Detroit, where he engaged in contracting in 
public work, — principally the construction of 
sewers and the improving of streets. He 
eventually became the owner of a large amount 
of real estate in Detroit and vicinity, and 
through the appreciation in the value of the 
same he became a wealthy man. During the 
civil war he was an ardent supporter of the 
Union, and contributed most liberally to the 
maintenance of the soldiers in the field and 
the widows and orphans at home. His son 
Thomas enlisted in Company C, Eighth New 
York Light Artillery, to which he was trans- 



494 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ferred from a Michigan regiment. This son 
participated in the battles of Gettysburg, Mis- 
sionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain and many 
others of the important engagements of the 
great internecine conflict, and he was twice 
wounded in action. He was mustered out with 
the rank of Captain and he met his death by 
drowning, in the state of CaHfornia, a few 
years after the close of the war. 

Of the eight children born to Thomas and 
Margaret (Cotter) Maybury four are now 
living,— Mrs. Catherine Genness, Mrs. J. F. 
Weber, Miss Jane, Henry and William C. 
William C. is one of the representative citi- 
zens of Detroit, of which he served as mayor 
for four terms, and of him individual men- 
tion is made on other pages of this work. 
Thomas Maybury and his wife were devout 
communicants of St. Paul's church, Protestant 
Episcopal, and were active workers in the old 
and historic parish, whose center was for many 
years the beautiful old church edifice on Con- 
gress street west, in the heart of the city,— 
a church whose demolition was viewed with 
regret by church people throughout the city. 
In politics Mr. Maybury was originally aligned 
as a supporter of the Whig party, but upon 
the organization of the Republican party he 
allied himself therewith, voting for the party's 
first presidential candidate, General John C. 
Fremont, and thereafter continuing a stalwart 
advocate of the principles of the party until 
his death, which occurred on the 13th of No- 
vember, 1882. His devoted wife preceded 
him to eternal rest by many years, her death 
having occurred in 185 1. 

During the climacteric period leading up to 
and culminating in the civil war Mr. Maybury 
was in full sympathy with the abolition senti- 
ment, and he assisted materially in aiding the 
colored persons in Detroit, especially those 
who had here sought refuge. He was imbued 
with a deep humanitarian spirit and his acts 
of charity and benevolence were many but in- 
variably unostentatious. He did much for the 
laboring classes and for those "in any way 
afflicted in mind, body or estate," while his 



character was of that sterling order that al- 
ways made it ring true, and that gained to him 
the unqualified confidence and esteem of those 
with whom he came in contact in the various 
relations of life. His name merits an endur- 
ing place in the annals of the state in which 
he took up his abode before it was admitted 
to the Union and to whose upbuilding he con- 
tributed his due quota. 



SIDNEY D. MILLER. 

Sidney Davy Miller was for many years 
numbered among the distinguished members 
of the Detroit bar and through his life and 
services he lent honor and dignity to his chosen 
profession. He was a man of fine attain- 
ments, of profound erudition and practical 
ability as a lawyer, and the success which he 
achieved stood in evidence of his ability and 
likewise served as voucher for intrinsic worth 
of character. He used his intellect to the best 
purpose, directed his energy in legitimate 
channels, and his career as a legist and busi- 
ness man was based upon the assumption that 
nothing save industry, perseverance, study, in- 
tegrity and fidelity to duty can lead to suc- 
cess deserving of the name. The profession 
of law offers nothing except to such deter- 
mined spirits. To the true and earnest devotee 
it offers a sphere of action whose attractions 
are unequalled and whose rewards unstinted. 
Mr. Miller was a native of Michigan and 
was a scion of one of its honored pioneer 
families. His father, Dan Bramble Miller, 
was born in the state of New York and the 
lineage in the agnatic course is of French- 
Huguenot and Holland Dutch extraction, the 
family having been founded in America, as 
were also collateral branches, in the early colo- 
nial epoch. The maiden name of the mother 
of the subject of this memoir was Elizabeth 
Davy, and she was of English descent. Dan 
B. Miller, who became one of the influential 
citizens and leading merchants of Monroe, 
Michigan, and who gained the sobriquet of 
"Honest Dan," through the appreciative esti- 
mate of contemporaries in the early political 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



495 



history of Michigan, was one of the most 
prominent in that colony of New England and 
New York men who settled at Monroe in the 
'20s and bent their energies to making that 
place a formidable rival of Detroit as the 
western terminus for eastern commerce. In 
1827 Dan B. Miller shipped from Monroe two 
hundred barrels of flour, the first export of the 
sort from the territory of Michigan, which 
then extended west of the Mississippi river. 
Apropos of these early days when Monroe 
held a place of marked relative importance, 
the follownig extracts from a history of the 
Bench and Bar of Michigan, published by the 
Century Publishing & Engraving Company, 
are well worthy of further perpetuation: 
"Among these illustrious pioneers one finds 
Conant, Wing, Noble, McClelland, Chris- 
tiancy and others, imbued with the progressive 
spirit and well qualified to be the founders of 
a new colony. Dan Bramble Miller was se- 
lected by his associates and neighbors for 
mayor of the city of Monroe and served in 
that office during the railroad war which 
prevailed at the time of the building of the 
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern and the 
Michigan Central Railroads. It is a matter of 
record that Mayor Miller, as the chief execu- 
tive officer of the ambitious little city, then 
known as the 'Independent State of Monroe,' 
felt it to be his duty to defend at all hazards 
her rights, protect her interests and preserve 
the foundations of her future greatness, al- 
ready so carefully laid. In the course of his 
duty he courageously defied the allied powers 
of the state of Michigan and the Michigan 
Central Railroad Company for some time, 
believing them to be acting without authority 
of law ; and the sequel proved his judgment 
correct. He was a man of unquestioned pro- 
bity and remarkable force of character, cour- 
ageous in the exercise of his official preroga- 
tive when acting from deep convictions. 
Mayor Miller was also receiver of public 
moneys — at that time an important office — at 
Monroe, under President Andrew Jackson." 
Sidney Davy Miller was born at Monroe, 



Michigan, on the 12th of May, 1830, and his 
death occurred in St. Augustine, Florida, on 
the 2d of April, 1904. He was reared to ma- 
turity in his native town and was afforded the 
advantages of the common schools of the day, 
after which he continued his studies in the 
preparatory branch of the University of Mich- 
igan at that time maintained in Monroe. After 
due preliminary work of this character he was 
finally matriculated in the university itself, 
and in this institution he was graduated as a 
member of the class of 1848, when but 
eighteen years of age. He received the de- 
gree of Bachelor of Arts and had shown him- 
self a close and appreciative student, which, 
indeed, he continued to be throughout his life. 
After leaving the university Mr. Miller re- 
turned to Monroe, where he began reading law 
under the preceptorship of the firm of McClel- 
land & Christiancy, one of the strongest law 
firms in the state at that period. In a retro- 
spective way it is interesting to recall that the 
senior member of this firm, Hon. Robert Mc- 
Clelland, later served as governor of the state 
and was Secretary of the Interior under the 
administration of President Pierce, and that 
the junior member, Hon. Isaac P. Christiancy, 
was eventually called to a place on the bench 
of the supreme court of Michigan and still 
later became a member of the United States 
senate. Mr. Miller was still further fortified 
for the work of his chosen profession by hav- 
ing as a later preceptor Alexander D. Eraser, 
one of the most influential members of the 
Detroit bar. His preparatory professional 
advantages were even augmented beyond this 
point, for he finally entered Dane Law School, 
the law department of Harvard University, 
where he was graduated in 1850, with the 
degree of Bachelor of Laws. In January, 
1852, he was admitted to the bar of his native 
state, at Detroit. In this city he forthwith 
established an office and initiated the active 
work of his profession, and here he continued 
to make his home until he was called from 
the scene of life's endeavors, more than half a 
century later. 



496 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Though Mr. Miller gave ample evidence of 
his superior povirers as a trial lawyer, his pref- 
erence was for the work of the counselor, and 
in this branch of his profession he gained a 
specially high reputation, being recognized as 
an authority in most intricate and involved 
questions pertaining to the science of juris- 
prudence and being retained as counsel for 
many leading corporations in Detroit and 
elsewhere, among which may be mentioned 
the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad, the De- 
troit City Railway Company, the Eureka Iron 
Company, the Detroit Savings Bank, and the 
Michigan State Bank. His first official bank- 
ing connection was as a member of the board 
of directors of the Detroit Savings Fund In- 
stitute, and in 1883 he was elected to succeed 
Alexander Adams as president of the Detroit 
Savings Bank, an office of which he remained 
incumbent until the time of his death. After 
assuming this office he gave more of his time 
to the affairs of the bank than to the practice 
of his profession, though he continued as ad- 
visory counsel to several important corpora- 
tions. 

In politics, though never showing any pre- 
dilection or desire for official preferment, Mr. 
Miller was a stalwart advocate of the princi- 
ples and policies of the Democratic 
party, in whose ranks he continued to 
be aligned until his death. He was es- 
sentially liberal and public-spirited as a 
citizen, and in many ways his influence was 
exerted for the advancement of the best in- 
terests of the city which so long was his home. 
For twenty-three years he served as a member 
of the Detroit board of police commissioners, 
and during the major portion of this long 
period he was president of that body. He 
was also a member of the board of education 
for some time and within his incumbency of 
this office was largely instrumental in the es- 
tablishing of the public library. He was also 
numbered among those prominently concerned 
in securing to Detroit its idyllic island park. 
Belle Isle, and likewise in the founding and 
maintenance of the Detroit Museum of Art. 



He was a devout communicant of the Protest- 
ant Episcopal church, and for many years 
was a valued member of the vestry of Christ 
church, as well as a member of the standing 
committee of the diocese. He was liberal in 
his benefactions to the various departments 
of church work and his sympathy and toler- 
ance caused him to ever stand ready to aid 
those ''in any ways afflicted, in mind, body or 
estate," though he showed wise discrimination 
m his charities, which were invariably of the 
most unostentatious order. In the earlier 
years of his residence in Detroit he was presi- 
dent of the Young Men's Society, which was 
then a leading literary organization of the city. 
Mr. Miller was a man of noble character and 
left an impress for good upon all who came 
within the sphere of his influence. He hon- 
ored his profession and the state in which his 
life was passed. 

In the year 1861 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Miller to Mrs. Katherine (Trow- 
bridge) Rodgers, daughter of the Hon. 
Charles C. Trowbridge, one of the most dis- 
tinguished pioneers of Michigan and one 
whose name is written large upon the history 
of Detroit and the state. Mr. and Mrs. Miller 
became the parents of four sons, three of whom 
died in infancy, the only survivor being Sidney 
Trowbridge Miller, now a lawyer in Detroit. 
Mrs. Miller died at Grosse Pointe in July, 
1905. 



WILLIAM C. YAWKEY. 



One of the most important original sources 
of material development and opulent prosper- 
ity in the state of Michigan lay in the great 
pine forests of the state,— in the primitive 
period unexcelled by any in the world. The 
great lumbering industry drew to itself men 
of great capacity and foresight, and through 
its medium were gained magnificent fortunes, 
while there was in connection the important 
incidental influence upon all departments of 
civic and material advancement and cumulative 
prosperity. Among the prominent pioneers of 



DETROIT AND AVAYNE COUNTY 



497 



the timber and lumber industry of Michigan 
stood the subject of this memoir, whose career 
was marked by definite progressiveness, by 
well earned success and by an integrity and 
honor that retained to him the inviolable confi- 
dence and esteem of his fellow men. Detroit 
recognized him as a valued citizen, as a man 
of affairs and as a financier of distinctive acu- 
men. He was a resident of the state of Mich- 
igan for more than half a century and main- 
tained (aside from a short residence in New 
York city) his home in Detroit from 1878 
until the time of his death, which occurred on 
the 23d of November, 1903. 

Concerning his identification with lumber- 
ing interests, the American Lumberman of 
December 5, 1903, from which further quota- 
tion will be made, made the following state- 
ments : "When William C. Yawkey died sud- 
denly, in Detroit, a week or more ago, there 
passed from life a man who was not only a 
pioneer Michigan lumberman and timber ope- 
rator but one who was a lumberman by lineal 
descent. His father, John Hoover Yawkey, 
was one of the very earliest lumbermen in the 
middle west, so the son came naturally into 
the business into which his instinct lead him 
and in which he achieved such distinguished 
success. For over half a century the name of 
Yawkey has been identified with the lumber 
history of the middle west. Its first contribu- 
tion to fame in this regard was John Hoover 
Yawkey, who as early as 1836 operated a saw 
mill at Millport, near Massillon, Ohio. His 
ancestors left Germany in the days of William 
Penn and located at Germantown. now a part 
of Philadelphia. He moved west in 1818, set- 
tling on a farm near Dalton, Wayne county, 
Ohio. For years he followed the occupation 
of a farmer, until 1836, when the name of 
Y'awkey was first connected with the lumber 
business in the west. In that year, in partner- 
ship with a man named Wellman, he began 
the operation of the saw mill at Millport, en- 
gaging in the manufacture of hardwoods. In 
1848 he started a retail lumber yard at Mas- 
sillon, under the name of John H. Yawkey & 



Company, his former partner, Mr. Wellman, 
being the other stockholder. This yard soon 
became one of the largest in Ohio. In 1852 he 
visited Michigan and was so well impressed 
with the possibilities of that state that he 
located three miles up the river from Flint, 
and purchased a mill which had been in ope- 
ration there since 1835. His subsequent ope- 
rations took him to Saginaw and Bay City, 
where he resided until his death, which oc- 
curred in 1889." 

William Clyman Yawkey, to whom this me- 
moir is dedicated, was the second son of John 
H. and Lydia (Clyman) Yawkey, and was 
born at Massillon, Stark county, Ohio, August 
26, 1834. It has already been noted that the 
Yawkey family is of German origin and that 
it was founded in America in the colonial 
days. Representatives of the same were found 
numbered as patriot soldiers in the Continental 
line in the war of the Revolution, and a due 
quota were also enrolled in the war of 18 12 
as well as the civil war, the name having ever 
stood for intense patriotism and loyalty. The 
Clyman family traces its lineage to staunch 
English stock, and the original progenitors in 
America settled in Westmorland county, Vir- 
ginia, from which state representatives later 
removed to Ohio, as pioneers of the Buckeye 
state. Many of them were soldiers in the war 
of the Revolution, as well as that of 1812. and 
the name has been prominently identified with 
the pioneer history of various sections of the 
west. James and John Clyman were among 
the first settlers of Wisconsin and were par- 
ticipants in the Black Hawk war and the vari- 
ous other Indian conflicts incidental to the 
early settlement of the northwest. They were 
also members of the first expedition sent by 
the United States government to the Pacific 
coast. 

"Owing to the exigencies of time and place 
the early educational advantages of William 
C. Yawkey were somewhat meager, as he at- 
tended the schools of the day only until he had 
attained to the age of fourteen years, — and 
this in an irregular way. Through self-dis- 



498 



DETROIT AND AVAYNE COUNTY 



cipline and observation, as well as through ac- 
tive association witli men and affairs, he ef- 
fectually overcame this handicap, however, 
and became a man of culture, broad informa- 
tion and exact knowledge. At the age noted 
he became a clerk in a hardware store, at a 
salary of six dollars a month, but he soon left 
this position to assume a clerkship in his 
father's lumber office in Ohio, where he re- 
mained until 1851, when he removed to Flint, 
Genesee county, Michigan, where his father 
joined him the following year. He became a 
member of his father's firm and was placed in 
charge of the milling operations near Flint, 
though he had not yet attained to his legal 
majority. He had gained a very intimate 
knowledge of the manufacture of lumber and 
became expert in estimating timber lands, and 
this, conjoined to his firm belief in the future 
of the lumber industry, served as the basis of 
his future success and prominence in connec- 
tion with it. 

"He was one of the earliest operators in the 
Saginaw valley. In 1855 he located at Lower 
Saginaw, now known as Bay City, and became 
an inspector and shipper. In 1857 he bought 
an interest in C. Moulthrop & Company and 
he had charge of their main office at East 
Saginaw until 1859. In the last named year 
he entered business for himself and began buy- 
ing logs and lumber for a Chicago firm. This 
new field gave him opportunity to exercise 
those qualities with which he was equipped 
and which were certain to win him success. 
His office became not only well known and 
popular but well patronized, and he was soon 
buying and inspecting lumber not only for Chi- 
cago but also for Albany and the east and for 
numerous markets in the west. This agency 
was operated under his personal name and did 
much to establish the fame of the Yawkey in- 
terests in the west. In 1863, the business hav- 
ing become very large, his father and brother 
Edwin were taken into partnership and the 
active manufacture of logs into lumber was 
begun. In 1865 Samuel Yawkey, another 
brother, was also admitted to partnership. 



"The operations of the firm were steadily 
extending. From the purchase and inspection 
of lumber it came to deal in shingles, lath and 
pine lands also. Mr. Yawkey was a buyer 
not only for himself but for other important 
concerns. He was recognized as an adept in 
the lumber business and one of the best in- 
spectors of lumber and judges of standing tim- 
ber in the west. The volume of business which 
the concern handled each year reached at times 
seventy-five million feet a season, or more than 
the entire business of all the other lumber 
firms in the valley at that time. By the year 
1868 he was alone in business, and his opera- 
tions had become mammoth and from then on 
they extended from Michigan over a much 
larger territory. At the time of his death he 
was owner of vast tracts of timber lands in 
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alabama, 
Florida and other states and interested in many 
mills throughout the country. 

"Lumber and timber did not command all of 
Mr. Yawkey "s attention and energy. He early 
recognized the possibilities of northern Min- 
nesota mines and secured valuable interests in 
the iron lands of the Mesalja range, a district 
which includes the Bessemer, Commodore, Al- 
pena and other mines owned by him at his 
death. He also had large mining interests 
on the Pacific coast and in Canada and large 
investments in coal and timber lands of West 
'Virginia, and was interested in many Michigan 
banks, insurance, trust and manufacturing 
companies. 

"In the death of Mr. Yawkey the lumber 
trade loses one of the great characters who 
have had much to do with its advancement. 
His heart and purse were ever open to the 
needs of those less fortunately situated than 
himself. He was exceptionally considerate of 
the feelings of those with whom he daily came 
in contact. His was a nature that shunned 
ostentatious display, and while contributing 
managed. He possessed the qualities for mak- 
ing the most of his opportunities and leaves 
freely to all charitable enterprises his name 
was never displayed in such connection. With 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



499 



his death the career is ended of a noted kim- 
berman and man of large affairs successfully 
behind him not only a record of successful 
business operations and a strong, sane, gener- 
ous business life, but also the recollection of 
a personal character which retained its sim- 
plicity, charitableness and gentleness through 
all the changes of a long and active life." 

Few men have enjoyed a longer or more 
successful career, and none has better stood 
the test by which an honored name and repu- 
tation are created and perpetuated. 

In the year 1869 Mr. Yawkey was mar- 
ried to Miss Emma Noyes, of Guilford, Ver- 
mont, and her death occurred December 2, 
1892. Her remains were laid to rest at Brat- 
tleboro, Vermont, and by their side repose 
those of her honored husband. Of this union 
were born two children, — Augusta L., who is 
the widow of the late Thomas J. Austin, and 
William Hoover Yawkey, both of whom re- 
side in New York city. 



SIDNEY T. MILLER. 

The legal profession in Michigan has ever 
maintained high prestige and from its ranks 
many have risen to high distinction in national 
affairs. One of the leading members of the 
bar of the state for many years was the late 
Sidney D. Miller, who was long engaged in 
the practice of his profession in Detroit and 
who was the father of the subject of this 
sketch. A memorial review of his life is en- 
tered on other pages of this work and to the 
article in question reference should be made 
for details of family history consistently elim- 
inated in the present sketch. 

Sidney Trowbridge Miller was born in the 
family homestead, on Jefferson avenue, De- 
troit, January 4, 1864, a son of Sidney D. and 
Katherine (Trowbridge) Miller, both repre- 
sentatives of honored pioneer families of the 
Wolverine state. After duly availing himself 
of the advantages of the excellent public 
schools of his native city, Mr. Miller became a 
student in the Brown Acadamy, a private 



institution in Detroit, where he pursued his 
preparatory collegiate work. In 1881 he was 
matriculated in historic old Trinity College, 
Hartford, Connecticut, in which he completed 
the prescribed course in the literary depart- 
ment, being graduated as a member of the 
class of 1885 and receiving the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. In 1888 his alma mater con- 
ferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. 
In 1885-6 he gave his attention to the study 
of law in the office and under the preceptor- 
ship of his father, making excellent progress 
in his accumulation and assimilation of legal 
lore, and he then entered the law department 
of Harvard University, where he continued 
his technical studies for one year. In 1887 he 
was admitted to the bar of Michigan, upon 
examintaion before the supreme court of the 
state, and later he was admitted to practice in 
the federal courts. He initiated the practical 
work of his profession in Detroit, where he 
has since remained and where he has built up 
a large and important business, retaining a 
representative clientele and devoting special at- 
tention to corporation law, in which branch of 
his professional work he has been especially 
successful and gained no uncertain precedence. 
He is known as a strong trial lawyer and as 
a close student of his profession, always for- 
tifying himself thoroughly for the presenta- 
tion of his causes and for the handling of all 
work entrusted to his care. He holds mem- 
bership in the American Bar Association, and 
the International Law Association, as well as 
those of Michigan, Wayne County and De- 
troit, and enjoys the respect and esteem of 
his professional confreres. His political sup- 
port is given to the cause for which the Demo- 
cratic party stands sponsor but he has never 
sought or desired political office. He holds 
membership in the Detroit, Country, Yondo- 
tega. University, Racquet, and Detroit Boat 
Clubs, and is also affiliated with the Delta Psi 
college fraternity. He is a member of the 
directorates of the Detroit Savings Bank, De- 
troit Trust Company, Detroit Fire & Marine 
Insurance Company, and the Wyandotte Sav- 



500 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ings Bank, and he enjoys marked popularity 
in the business and social circles of his native 
city. He is a director of the United States 
Heater Company and the Hecla Cement Com- 
pany, prominent Detroit corporations, is coun- 
sel for both, and holds similar positions for 
other local institutions. He succeeded his 
honored father as president of the Detroit Col- 
lege of Medicine, of which office he is still in- 
cumbent. He is a member of the library and 
gas commissions of Detroit. Mr. Miller is a 
communicant of the Protestant Episcopal 
church, being a vestryman of Christ church, 
Detroit, and a member of the standing com- 
mittee of the diocese of Michigan. 

In 1889 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Miller to Miss Lucy T. Robinson, daugh- 
ter of Hon. Henry C. Robinson, a representa- 
tive citizen of Hartford, Connecticut, and they 
have two children, — Sidney T., Jr., and Eliza- 
beth T. 



FRANK W. EDDY. 

Through his own ability and admirably di- 
rected endeavors Mr. Eddy has risen to a po- 
sition of distinctive prominence in the indus- 
trial and capitalistic circles of Detroit, where he 
has maintained his home since 1875 and where 
his interests are of wide scope and varied order. 
He is one of the city's representative business 
men and has contributed his full quota to the 
upbuilding of the "Greater Detroit." 

Mr. Eddy is a native of the old Empire state 
of the Union, having been born at Warsaw, 
Wyoming county. New York, on the 29th of 
July, 1 85 1, and being a son of Rev. Zachary 
Eddy, D. D., and Malvina (Cochran) Eddy, 
the former of whom was born in Vermont and 
the latter in the state of New York. The 
Eddy family is of staunch Puritan stock and 
was founded in America in the early colonial 
epoch. The original progenitor in the New 
World was William Eddye, as the name was 
then spelled, and he came with his family to 
America in 1630. The family became promi- 
nent in the early settlement of Vermont and 
later in that of Jamestown, New York. The 



father of the subject of this sketch was a dis- 
tinguished clergyman of the Congregational 
church, and in 1873 ^^ took up his residence in 
Detroit, where for ten years he was pastor of 
the First Congregational church. Here his 
memory is held in affectionate regard by those 
who knew the man and his work. 

When Frank W. Eddy was a child his father 
was called to a pastorate in Northampton, 
Massachusetts, and in the Round Hill school of 
that place the son pursued his studies until he 
was fifteen years of age, when the family re- 
moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he at- 
tended the Polytechnic Institute, after which he 
entered Williams College, in which institution 
he remained a student for several years. 

Mr. Eddy initiated his business career by 
taking a position as clerk in a wholesale hard- 
ware house in New York city, where he re- 
mained until 1873, when he went to California 
and located in the city of Sacramento. There 
he was identified with a similar line of enter- 
prise for some time, after which he was en- 
gaged in the newspaper and printing business 
in that city. In 1875 Mr. Eddy became a resi- 
dent of Detroir, where his parents had located 
about two years previously and where he has 
maintained his home during the intervening 
period of more than thirty years. Shortly after 
his arrival in the Michigan metropolis he se- 
cured a position as bookkeeper for James Nail 
& Son, and later in the same year he accepted 
a similar position in the establishment of H. D. 
Edwards & Company, to which concern he was 
admitted a partner in 1876: this connection 
proved the virtual foundation of his signally 
successful career as an independent business 
man. The enterprise conducted under the firm 
name noted dates its inception back to the 
year 1855, when it was founded by the late 
A. G. Edwards, who in that year opened a 
store for the handling of rubber goods. The 
business has been continued without interrup- 
tion during all the long intervening years and 
the house is now one of the largest of its kind 
in the United States, throughout the most di- 
verse sections of which its trade extends, as 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



501 



well as into foreign countries. The business is 
now entirely of a wholesale order, with direct 
manufacturing connections, and marine hard- 
ware and all kinds of mechanical rubber goods 
are handled. George W. Edwards and Frank 
W. Eddy are now the only members of the 
firm. Mr. Eddy is also a stockholder and di- 
rector of the corporation of Nelson, Baker & 
Company, manufacturing chemists. He was 
largely instrumental in securing to Detroit the 
great factory of Morgan & Wright, leading 
manufacturers of mbber vehicle tires in the 
United States, and of this concern also he is a 
director. He is a member of the directorate 
of the Rubber Goods Manufacturing Com- 
pany, of New York; is president of the Na- 
tional Can Company, of Detroit; is a director 
of the Detroit Oak Belting Company ; and is a 
director of each of the Wayne County Savings 
Bank and the Detroit Trust Company, both 
of which institutions are specifically mentioned 
in this publication. He is also treasurer and 
general manager of The H. V. Hartz Com- 
pany, of Cleveland, Ohio. 

Essentially liberal, progressive and public- 
spirited, Mr. Eddy has ever shown a lively 
interest in local afifairs, and in political matters 
his allegiance is given to the Republican party. 
He and his family attend the Congregational 
church, and he is identified with the Detroit 
Club, the Detroit Athletic Club, the Detroit 
Country Club, the Yondotega Club, the De- 
troit Boat Club and other social and civic 
organizations of representative character. He 
is ex-president of both the Detroit Club and 
the Detroit Athletic Club. 

In 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Eddy to Miss Florence Taylor, of Detroit, and 
they have six daughters. 



WILLIAM B. MORAN. 

The honored subject of this memoir was a 
representative of one of the best known and 
most distinguished pioneer families of Detroit 
and was a scion of that fine old French stock 
which so early made its influence felt in the 
annals of the "Citv of the Straits." He him- 



self became a representative member of the bar 
of his native city and state, but finally with- 
drew from the work of his profession to give 
his attention to his large capitalistic interests 
and industrial enterprises. 

William Benjamin Moran was born in De- 
troit on the 24th of May, 1844, being the sec- 
ond of the five children born to the late Judge 
Charles Moran and Justine (McCormack) 
Moran, the former of whom was born in De- 
troit and the latter in Orange county, New 
York. The original French ancestors of the 
Moran family in America were numbered 
among the earliest settlers of the St. Lawrence 
valley in Canada. The progenitor was Pierre 
Moran, who was born at Batiscan, France, in 
1 65 1, and who, in 1678, married Madeline 
Grimard. This worthy couple left many 
descendants in Canada, where the name is still 
well represented, and in the several generations 
have been found men of distinction in the 
learned professions, in business life and in the 
financial world. The original orthography of 
the name was Morand, and thus it appears in 
certain ancient records in Canada. Jean Bap- 
tiste Moran, one of the sons of the original 
Pierre Moran, was married, at Quebec, Can- 
ada, in 1707, to Elizabeth Dubois, and Charles 
Moran, son of this couple, was the founder of 
the Detroit branch of the family. He settled 
here in the year 1734, and since that time the 
name has been indissolubly and prominently 
linked with the annals of the state of Michi- 
gan. This Charles Moran, in 1767, married 
Marguerite Grimard Trembley, wiiose family 
possessed the signeurie de Trembley as early 
as 1 681. She died in 1771, leaving two sons, 
the younger of whom, Charles, was bom 
in 1770. in Detroit. Charles Moran (2d) 
was married, in 1794, to Catherine Vissier 
deLaferte, whose only child was the late and 
distinguished Judge Charles Moran, of Detroit. 
The latter was born in Detroit, on the 21st of 
April, 1797, and here his death occurred in 
1876, in the fulness of years and well earned 
honors. Judge Moran was twice married. In 
1822 was solemnized his union with Julie 



502 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



DeQuindre, and they became the parents of 
five children, of whom the last to survive was 
Mary Josephine, who was the youngest and 
who was the wife of Robert E. Mix, a promi- 
nent citizen of Cleveland, Ohio. After the 
death of his first wife Judge Moran married 
Miss Justine McCormack, who survived him 
by several years, her death occurring in Detroit. 
They became the parents of five children, 
namely : James, who died when a young man, 
unmarried; William B., who is the immediate 
subject of this memoir; John V., who is one 
of the representative citizens of Detroit; 
Catherine, who is the widow of the late Henry 
D. Barnard, of Detroit; and Alfred T., of 
whom specific mention is made on other pages 
of this work. 

Judge Charles Moran became one of the 
most extensive real-estate owners in Detroit 
and left to his children a large fortune. He 
was one of the city's most honored and in- 
fluential citizens, liberal and progressive be- 
yond his time, and an influential factor in pub- 
lic affairs in the state. He served as a member 
of the Michigan legislature at the time when 
Detroit was still the capital of the state, was 
judge of the territorial court for a term of 
years and held other positions of distinctive 
public trust and responsibility. On the roll of 
the revered pioneer citizens of Detroit his name 
must ever occupy a prominent place. For 
many generations the family has been repre- 
sented prominently in the Catholic church, of 
which Judge Aloran was a devout communi- 
cant and one who did much to further the 
work of the church in its various departments 
William B. Moran, to whom this article is 
dedicated, secured his early educational disci- 
plme in the Patterson school, Detroit, and 
later continued his studies in St. John's Col- 
lege, one of the old and noble Catholic insti- 
tutions of Fordham, New York. He was grad- 
uated in this college as a member of the class 
of 1866, was a professor of mathematics two 
years, and soon afterward he began reading 
law under the preceptorship of William Gray, 
who was then one of the leading members of 



the Detroit bar. He made rapid progress in 
the absorption and assimilation of legal lore, 
and was admitted to the bar of the state in 
1870. Mr. Moran built up a large and repre- 
sentative law business and became one of the 
foremost members of his profession in Detroit, 
where he continued in active practice until 
about a decade prior to his death, when he re- 
tired, to give his attention to other interests, 
as has already been stated in this context. The 
records of the municipal, state and federal 
courts bear evidence of the powers and success- 
ful work of Mr. Moran in his profession, which 
he honored and dignified by his labors and 
services. 

Mr. Moran was one of the founders of the 
Peninsular Stove Company and was actively 
identified with its management for many years 
He was the owner of a large landed estate 
including city property and also tracts of land 
at Grosse Pointe. He was one of the original 
stockholders of the American Harrow Com- 
pany and the Detroit Electric Light & Power 
Company, of which latter he was president at 
the time of his demise, and he was a member of 
the directorate of the People's Savings Bank. 
He was a citizen whose public spirit ever 
showed in apotheosis, and his interest in all 
that concerned the welfare of his native city 
and state was of the most insistent and loyal 
type. He was incumbent of the ofi^ce of city 
comptroller during the administration of 
Mayor M. H. Chamberlain, and was a mem- 
ber of the Detroit park commission at the time 
when the present beautiful Belle Isle park prop- 
erty was purchased by the city. His political 
allegiance was given to the Democratic party 
he was identified with various civic and social 
orgamzations. including the principal clubs of 
Detroit, was a communicant of the Jesuit 
Catholic church, and in all the relations of life 
he so ordered his course as to merit and receive 
the unequivocal confidence and esteem of his 
fellow men. His death occurred on the i ith of 
December, 1895, and thus Detroit recognized 
and manifested its appreciation of the loss of 
one of its most honored and valued citizens.— 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



503 



one who worthily upheld the high prestige of 
the name which he bore. 

In 1872 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Moran to Miss Frances A. Desnoyer, who was 
bom and reared in Detroit and who survives 
him, as do also their three children, namely: 
Katherine M., wife of Strathearn Hendrie, of 
Detroit; William R., of Detroit; and Henry D. 



WILLIAM C. MAYBURY. 

Standing representative of the deepest public 
spirit and civic loyalty, Hon. William C. May- 
bury, former mayor of Detroit and ex-member 
of congress from this district, has long been a 
dominating and honored factor in his native 
city, and he is one of the leading members of 
the bar of the state of Michigan. 

Mr. Maybury was born in Detroit, on the 
20th of November, 1849, ^"d is a son of the 
late Thomas Maybury, to whom a memoir is 
accorded on other pages of this volume, so that 
a further review of the family history is not 
demanded at the present juncture. In the pub- 
lic schools of Detroit William C. Maybury 
gained his early educational discipline, and was 
graduated in the old Capitol high school as a 
member of the class of 1866. In 1870 he 
was graduated in the literary department of the 
University of Michigan, which conferred upon 
him the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 
1 87 1 he graduated, with high honors, in the 
law department of the same institution, from 
which he received the degree of Bachelor of 
Laws. In 1880 his alma mater conferred upon 
him also the degree of Master of Arts. After 
completing his course in the law department 
of the University Mr. Maybury returned to 
Detroit, where he entered the law office of 
Hon. George V. N. Lathrop, with whom he 
remained until 1871. the same year when he 
was duly admitted to the bar of his native 
state, — shortly after attaining his legal ma- 
jority. He then formed a professional part- 
nership with Colonel Edwin F. Conely, with 
whom he continued to be associated until the 
latter's death, in 1882. Thereafter he main- 
tained for nearly a decade a professional alli- 



ance with John D. Conely and Alfred Lucking, 
and the firm title was Conely, Maybury & 
Lucking until the retirement of Mr. Conely, 
after which the title of Maybury & Lucking 
obtained until 1892, and now the firm is May- 
bury, Lucking, Emmons & Helfman. 

Mr. Maybury has gained a high reputation as 
a lawyer of fine attainments and has been most 
successful both as a trial lawyer and a coun- 
selor. He has been concerned in much im- 
portant litigation and has been retained as 
counselor by important business corporations 
and representative capitalists. 

As a staunch advocate of the principles and 
policies of the Democratic party, Mr. Maybury 
has done yeoman service in its cause, and early 
in his professional career he was called upon 
to serve in public office. From 1875 ^o 1880 
he was incumbent of the office of city attorney 
of Detroit, and in 1882 he was elected to rep- 
resent the first congressional district of Michi- 
gan in the forty-eighth congress. He was 
chosen as his own successor in 1884 and his 
congressional record was one altogether to his 
credit and to that of the great commonwealth 
of which he was thus the accredited represen- 
tative. He was accorded membership on the 
important judiciary committee and also that on 
ways and means. Within the period of his 
service in congress was purchased the site of 
the present magnificent postoffice building in 
Detroit and the work of erection was insti- 
tuted. It was largely due to his earnest efforts 
that congress passed the bill permitting the 
building of the Belle Isle bridge, connecting 
Detroit with its beautiful island park. This 
bill was drawn and presented by Mr. Maybury. 

Upon the expiration of his second term in 
congress Mr. Maybury returned to Detroit and 
resumed the active practice of his profession. 
On the loth of April, 1897, he was chosen to 
serve the unexpired term of Mayor Hazen S. 
Pingree, who had been elected governor of the 
state. On the 5th of the following November 
he was duly elected mayor of Detroit for the 
full term of two years, and his administration 
was marked by progressiveness, correct busi- 



504 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ness methods and independence. His regime 
in the mayoralty was one that gained unequivo- 
cal popular commendation, and he retired with 
a closely cemented hold upon the respect and 
confidence of all classes of citizens. Mr. May- 
bury is a promment figure in the Masonic fra- 
ternity, in which he has passed every grade in 
both the York and Scottish Rite bodies, in- 
cluding the thirty-third degree. In 1898 he 
served as commander in chief of Michigan Sov- 
ereign Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish 
Rite. He is senior warden of St. Peter's 
church, Protestant Episcopal, and a director 
of the local org:mization of the Brotherhood of 
St. Andrew, an admirable church organiza- 
tion. Mr. Maybury is a bachelor. 



WILLIAM HARSHA. 

William Harsha, editor and publisher, 
founder of the first exclusive job-printing es- 
tablishment in the Territory of Michigan, and 
a citizen of prominence and influence in the 
early years of its statehood, was born in Wash- 
ington, Pennsylvania, on the 31st of December, 
1806, a son of John and Esther (McMillan) 
Harsha. His ancestors, both paternal and 
maternal, were among those who took part in 
the early colonization of America, and num- 
bered among them have been those who 
achieved distinction in the French and Indian 
wars, the war of Independence and who have 
filled many positions of usefulness in the town, 
state and nation. 

The Harsha family was founded in America 
by three brothers, natives of the famous old 
city of Newry, long the capital of the Irish 
kings, in the county of Armagh, Ireland. They 
were soldiers of fortune and joined that gal- 
lant band of adventurers who accompanied 
Captain John Smith to the New World and, 
in 1607, founded with him the colony of Vir- 
ginia. William Harsha, the earliest of the 
family of whom authentic records can be found, 
was born in Pennsylvania, served in the Con- 
tinental line in the war of Independence, and 
married Elizabeth Strain. Another member of 



the family was also in the Continental service 
and attained ,the rank of captain. Elizabeth 
Strain was a member of the well known and 
influential family of that name and a near 
relative of Commodore Strain, United States 
navy, concerning whom the following data 
are secured from Johnson's Encyclopedia: 

"Strain, Isaac G., born at Roxbury, Penn- 
sylvania, in 1 82 1, entered the navy as mid- 
shipman; in 1845, ^^ the head of a small party, 
made explorations in the interior of Brazil, and 
in 1848 in Lower California. In 1849 he 
crossed South America from Valparaiso to 
Buenos Ayres, publishing a narrative of this 
journey, under the title 'The Cordillera and 
the Pompa' (1853). In 1850 he was for a 
short time attached to the Mexican boundary 
commission. He afterward commanded an 
expedition to explore a route for a ship-canal 
across the Isthmus of Panama, the party suf- 
fering extreme hardships and losing several of 
its members ; an account of this expedition, 
compiled from his papers by J. T. Headley, 
appeared in Harper's Magazine in 1856. In 
1856, in the steamer 'Arctic,' he made sound- 
ings which demonstrated the practicability of 
a telegraphic cable between the United States 
and Great Britain. He died at Aspinwall, May 
15, 1857." 

John Harsha, son of William Harsha 
through marriage with Elizabeth Strain, was 
born in Pennsylvania, on the 17th of March, 
1778. He was one of the first settlers of 
Washington county, that state, and a pioneer in 
the transportation of freight from the eastern 
section of the state to the western. The enter- 
prise was attended with many hardships and 
great difficulty, owing to the almost impassable 
mountains and suitable roadways, while the 
Indians were a danger to be constantly reck- 
oned with. He became the owner of a large 
landed estate and was a citizen of prominence 
and influence. He married, on the 26th of 
July, 1805, Miss Esther McMillan, a member 
of an old colonial family. John Harsha died 
on the 15th of June, 1859, and his wife on 
February 3, i860. They were the parents of 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



505 



twelve children, of whom William, our subject, 
was the eldest. 

William Harsha received his rudimentary 
education in the public schools of Washington 
county, Pennsylvania, and later became a stu- 
dent in the Washington & Jefferson College, 
at Cannonsburg, that state. While attending 
the latter institution he was a classmate of the 
late Hon. James G. Blaine, and formed with 
him a close friendship, which remained un- 
broken to the time of Mr. Harsha's death. On 
completion of a term in this college he was ap- 
prenticed to Butler, of Pittsburg, then the most 
famous printer of the west. With him he be- 
came a journeyman printer, subsequently lo- 
cating in Ravenna, Ohio, at that time known 
as the Western Reserve. Here he established 
a printing and binding plant and engaged in 
the publishing of books and newspapers. He 
was successful as a publisher and editor and 
eventually sold the business with profit. In 
search for a new location, he visited Cincinnati 
and Toledo, Ohio. Failing to find conditions 
to his liking in these places, he journeyed on to 
Detroit, where he located. He first engaged in 
establishing printing plants in various towns 
in the territories of Michigan and Wisconsin, 
selling them on time payments, thereby making 
possible the early development of the news- 
paper field, which otherwise would necessarily 
have been a matter of time. His first connec- 
tion with the printing art in Detroit was in 
the capacity of compositor on the Detroit Free 
Press. In 1835 he established the first exclu- 
sive job-printing plant in the territory. The 
first city directory, that of 1837. and also the 
second, that of 1845, were printed by him. In 
1845, ^^ printed and bound in his establish- 
ment the first legal work to be published in the 
state, — "Walker's Chancery Reports." The 
original copy of this work filed for copyright 
with the clerk of the United States court, as 
was necessary at the time, by the publisher, 
Henry N. Walker, at the time one of the own- 
ers and editor of the Detroit Free Press, is 
now in the custody of Walter S. Harsha, son 
of the printer and the present clerk of the 



court. Its cover bears the signature of John 
Winder, then clerk, and the date, May 14, 
1845. 

Mr. Harsha subsequently engaged in the 
publishing of newspapers and was connected 
with several as editor and owner. He was the 
founder of the "Western Farmer," its editor 
and publisher for several years, and later sold 
it to New York parties, who renamed it the 
"Rural New Yorker." He was for a time the 
owner, editor and publisher of the "Detroit 
Daily Advertiser." In disposing of this pub- 
lication one of the conditions of the sale was 
that Mr. Harsha contract to furnish one col- 
umn of editorial matter per day for the term 
of one year. He often remarked in after life 
that this was the most difficult task, to accom- 
plish in a creditable manner, he had ever un- 
dertaken. His entrance in the field of jour- 
nalism in Michigan, at a time when men who 
were proficient in the knowledge of both the 
editorial and mechanical departments of the 
profession were few. offered him an oppor- 
tunity in which to display his versatility, and 
his impress on the press of the time was marked 
with broad and convincing contributions, while 
his business management of the various enter- 
prises with which he was connected was equally 
marked with success. 

Mr. Harsha was an active and influential 
force in the political life of his time and filled 
with credit several positions in the gift of the 
people. In his early life he was an old-line 
Whig. He later became a strong abolitionist 
and was a mernber of the party "under the 
oaks" at Jackson, Michigan, and therefore 
one of the founders of the Republican party. He 
was for a time a supervisor, elected from the 
township of Springwells, in which he resided, 
and his residence, near the comer of Sixth and 
Porter streets, was included in its bounds. He 
also served one term in the office of treasurer 
of Wayne county. He was one of the or- 
ganizers of the Mechanics' Society and held 
numerous offices in the same. This society 
were builders of the Mechanics' block, subse- 
quently purchased by the late Thomas McGraw. 



506 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



who renamed it the McGraw Building, and lo- 
cated at the corner of Griswold street and 
Lafayette avenue. Mr. Harsha was an active 
and influential member of the local Typo- 
graphical Union and served as its president 
for one term. He was also an enthusiastic 
and popular member of the old volunteer fire 
department and was for many years connected 
with Lafayette Company, No. 4, of that 
organization. 

Mr. Harsha married, on the 20th of August, 
1839, Miss Mary Ann Cook, daughter of Dr. 
Robert Cook, of Argyle, Washington county, 
New York. Dr. Cook was a son of Thomas 
Cook, an architect and builder, who was born 
in Cork, Ireland, on the 26th of December, 
1747, and emigrated to America in 1764, ar- 
riving in New York city on the 15th of De- 
cember. He married in that city, on the 31st 
of July, 1769, Miss Mary Ann Mahon, who 
was born in Cork, Ireland, on the 7th of Feb- 
ruary, 1756, and who came to America in 
1763, arriving in New York city on the 15th 
of June. Thomas Cook engaged in his dual 
capacity of architect and builder in and about 
the cities of New York and Albany until the 
24th of August, 1777, when he enlisted for 
three years, as a private in the Fourth Com- 
pany, under Captain Abraham Swarthout, in 
the Third Regiment New York Continental 
Infantry, under Colonel Peter Gansevoort, of 
Albany, New York, and was ordered with his 
regiment to old Fort Stanwix, then known as 
Fort Schuyler, on the Mohawk river (present 
site of Rome, New York). He assisted in re- 
pairing the defenses, which had been allowed 
to become dismantled, and participated in the 
gallant defense of the fort, which lasted unre- 
mittingly from the 2d to the 22d of August, 
1777, when the siege was raised. During the 
battle of Oriskany, on August 6, 1777, a por- 
tion of the besieging force was withdrawn 
to assist in repelling the force of General Her- 
kimer, who was marching to the assistance of 
the garrison, and while so employed a suc- 
cessful sortie was made from the fort by Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Marinus Willett, Third Regi- 



ment Continental Infantry, with a detachment 
of two hundred men, of whom Thomas Cook 
was one, and there were captured from the 
besiegers twenty-one wagon loads of spoils, 
the English commander's (Sir John Johnson) 
baggage and papers and five standards. He 
remained with his regiment at the fort until 
April 17, 1779, when he participated in the 
expedition under Goose Van Schaick, First 
Regiment New York Continental Infantry, 
which destroyed the Onondaga villages, kill- 
ing twelve Indians, capturing thirty-three, and 
returning to the fort in five and one-half days, 
— a journey of one hundred and eighty miles. 
The Continental congress presented its thanks 
to Colonel Van Schaick and the officers and 
men of his command, General Washington 
having previously done so in general orders, 
dated headquarters, Middlebrook, May 8, 
1779. He also served with his regiment in 
Brigadier-General Clinton's brigade. New 
York Continental Infantry, in Major-General 
John Sullivan's expedition against the Six Na- 
tions, and marched June 30, 1779, for Lake 
Otsego. After joining Major-General Sulli- 
van he participated in the battle of New Town, 
near Elmira, New York, on August 25th, in 
which the Indians and their tory allies were 
defeated. The command then marched to tht 
Genesee valley, entered Pennsylvania and made 
its way through the Wyoming valley and 
across the mountains to Easton, then joined 
the main Continental army in New Jersey, and 
on the 7th of December, 1779, began the con- 
struction of winter quarters near Morristown. 
The Third New York remained here during 
the winter of 1779-80, and was in the earlier 
operations of General Washington in New 
Jersey in 1780, terminating in the battle of 
Springfield, in June, and in the following 
month of July the regiment took post in the 
highlands of the Hudson, whence it subse- 
quently proceeded to Fort Edward, in the 
present Washington county, where, on January 
I, 1 78 1, it was incorporated with the First 
Regiment, New York Continental Infantry. 
Mr. Cook's term of enlistment expired on Au- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



507 



gust 24, 1780, when he was honorably dis- 
charged; but he re-enHsted for four months 
longer and served until January i, 1781, when 
he was mustered out. Official records show 
that he was subsequently taken prisoner, in 
1 781; the place of capture, however, is not 
stated, but the probabilities are that it was in 
the Indian incursions into Tryon county in 
July, 1 78 1. On conclusion of his service to his 
country, Mr. Cook located in Owasco, Cayuga 
county. New York, later removing to Cam- 
bridge, that state, where he died on the 19th 
of February, 1789. His wife died on the 2d 
of October, 1807, having survived him eighteen 
years. They were the parents of seven chil- 
dren, of whom Dr. Cook was the fourth. 
Robert Cook was bom in Lensingburgh, 
Rennsalaer county, New York, on the ist of 
September, 1775, and died in Jamestown, 
Chautauqua county, that state, on the 6th of 
October, 1861. He married, in 1806, at 
Argyle, New York, Miss Elizabeth Suther- 
land, who was born in Montreal, Canada, on 
the 3d of April, 1789, and who died at James- 
town, Chautauqua county. New York, on the 
2 1 St of July, 1863. Dr. Cook was a graduated 
physician, a practitioner of successful stand- 
ing and a man of wide acquaintance and in- 
fluence. Dr. and Mrs. Cook were the parents 
of ten children, of whom Mary Ann, the wife 
of William Harsha, was the second. She was 
born in Argyle, New York, on the loth of 
October, 1810, and died in Detroit, Michigan, 
on the 1 8th of June, 1894, surviving her hus- 
band, William Harsha, who died on the 21st 
of September, 1886, aged eighty years. Mr. 
and Mrs. Harsha were the parents of three 
children, two of whom died in childhood. 
They are survived by one son, Walter S. 
Harsha, clerk of the United States circuit 
court for the eastern district of Michigan, a 
review of whose career is given on other pages 
of this publication. 

ROYAL CLARK REMICK. 

It was given the subject of this memoir not 
only to gain precedence as one of the most 



prominent principals in the early development 
of Michigan's lumber industry, but also to 
typify the highest order of citizenship, as he 
was essentially loyal and public-spirited, vigor- 
ous and progressive and animated by an in- 
violable integrity of purpose. He was among 
the first to recognize the great commercial pos- 
sibilities of the timber wealth of the state and 
as early as 1852 he had acquired extensive 
holdings of pine lands in Tuscola county. In 
the cutting and transportation of timber from 
forest to mill, in which he was one of the most 
successful men of his time, in the devising of 
advanced methods of operation and the ac- 
quirement and installation of improved equip- 
ment, he was ever a leader. He was the first 
to employ steam as a motive power in connec- 
tion with the logging industry, building, in 
1877, the first logging railway. He possessed 
executive ability of high order, strong initia- 
tive and marked constructive talent, and the 
methods he originated, together with the poli- 
cies he inaugurated, were of great value to 
the industry in which he was so progressive a 
factor. 

Royal Clark Remick was born in Cornish, 
York county, Maine, on the 27th of March, 
1812, the son of Rev. Timothy and Mary 
(Chadbourne) Remick. The progenitor of 
the Remick family in America, was Christian 
Remich, born in 163 1, probably in Holland 
There is a town named Remich in the Duchy 
of Luxemburg, which was so named at the 
time of the Roman occupation; and probably 
the Remicks came from there. Christian came 
to America when young, as he was living in 
the town of Kittery, Maine, in 1651, and con- 
tinued there until his death, in 17 10. He was 
one of the proprietors of the town, was granted 
land in what are now the towns of Kittery, 
Eliot and South Berwick, about five hundred 
acres, — the most of which remains in posses- 
sion of his descendants bearing the family 
name. His occupation was that of planter and 
surveyor. He was town treasurer, selectman 
(chairman of the board most of the time), 
and representative to the legislature. He mar- 



508 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ried about 1654; his wife's baptismal name 
was Hannah, and by her he had nine children. 
Their children were well educated for the 
times and their descendants have filled many- 
positions of usefulness in the town, state and 
nation. One of the most distinguished was 
the late Morrison Remick Waite, chief justice 
of the United States supreme court. David 
Remick, a great-grandson, was a captain in 
the Massachusetts line at the capture of Ticon- 
deroga and Crown Point, in 1759, and he in 
turn was the great-grandfather of General 
David Remick of the Union army, 1861-5 
Major Timothy Remick, a great-grandson of 
Christian and Hannah, probably served longer 
than any other soldier in the Continental line 
in the war of Independence, — May 8, 1775, to 
November, 1783. Captain Benjamin Remick, 
a great-great-grandson, served in the Massa- 
chusetts and Continental navy in the Revolu- 
tion. He was a celebrated naval constructor 
and shipbuilder in New Hampshire and Maine. 
Among the more celebrated of his vessels was 
the sloop of war "Ranger," built at Kittery, 
Maine. This was the first man of war com- 
manded by Captain John Paul Jones, and 
sailed from Kittery, December 2, 1777; it 
was also the first American-built war ship to 
show the national flag in Europe, where it was 
saluted by the French admiral, February 13, 
1778, in the bay of Quiberon, being the first 
salute in Europe to our national flag by a for- 
eign power. Christian Remick, great-grand- 
son of Christian the emigrant, was likewise a 
sailor, serving in the Massachusetts and Con- 
tinental navies. He was a master mariner and 
pilot and commissioned lieutenant. Prior to 
the war of Independence he was engaged in 
painting and drawing in water colors, also 
making geographical plans of harbors, sea 
coasts, etc. He painted several copies of the 
view of the landing of British troops in Bos- 
ton in 1768. The New England Historic- 
Genealogical Society and the Essex Institute 
each own a copy. He was born April 8, 1726, 
and records show that he served throughout 
the Revolution. Several of his paintings were 



displayed in the art collection of the James- 
town Exposition of 1907. Royal Clark Rem- 
ick traced his descent from Christian, the emi- 
grant, as follows : Joshua, son of Christian 
and Hannah, born July 24, 1672, died in Kit- 
tery in 1738; married Anne Lancaster. Isaac, 
son of Joshua and Anne, born February 14, 
1706, was a soldier in the French and Indian 
wars, serving in 1722, in Colonel John Wheel- 
wright's company of rangers ; he married 
Mary Pettegrew. Timothy, son of Isaac and 
Mary, was born September 9, 1755, in Kittery, 
Maine. He enlisted May 8, 1775, in 
Captain Tobias Fernald's Company of the 
Thirtieth Foot Regiment of North America. 
He was promoted to Corporal soon after, serv- 
ing the year out. On January i, 1776, enlisted 
as sergeant in same company. He was pro- 
moted lieutenant of his company November 
13. '^77^> thus being a commissioned officer at 
the age of twenty-one years. In December, 
1776, he was transferred to the Twelfth Mas- 
sachusetts Regiment. On June 27, 1777, Lieu- 
tenant Remick's company helped to man the 
American fleet on Lake George. He was at 
the battle of Saratoga on October 7th, and 
witnessed the surrender of General Bur- 
goyne's army, on October 17, 1777. His regi- 
ment joined General Washington's army and 
he was with him at Valley Forge. He was 
promoted to captain July 5, 1779, transferred 
to the First Massachusetts Regiment of the 
line, January i, 1781, and was appointed 
major of the First Massachusetts Brigade, 
May 14, 1 78 1. The brigade remained around 
New York until November, 1783, when the 
American army was mustered out of service. 
Major Timothy Remick, after serving his 
country faithfully over eight and one-half 
years in the Continental army, was honorably 
discharged. He had commanded, for short 
times, both the Twelfth and the First Massa- 
chusetts Regiments, and served on the staffs 
of Brigadier-General Paterson, Major-General 
Lincoln and General Washington. He signed 
the oath of allegiance at Valley Forge and was 
an original member of the Society of the Cin- 








c^^. 



^ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



509 



cinnati. He married Mercy Staples, of Kit- 
tery, Maine, July 25, 1775. She was born Oc- 
tober 24, 1757, and died in Cornish, Maine, 
in 1808. They were the parents of three chil- 
dren, — Timothy, born September 30, 1776; 
Simon, born December 26, 1777; and Polly, 
born November 4, 1780. Major Remick's 
health was ruined by his army life, and he 
died, at his home in Kittery, Maine, in Febru- 
ary, 1785, at the early age of twenty-nine 
years, not having lived to enjoy the liberty he 
had done so much to gain for his country. His 
remains are in the old Remick burying ground 
on Eliot Neck, Maine (now owned, 1908, 
by Lieutenant Oliver P. Remick, United 
States Engineers,) with the bones of his 
father, Isaac, grandfather, Joshua, and great- 
grandfather. Christian Remick. A suitable 
monument, erected in 1895 by members of the 
family, marks their resting place. 

Timothy Remick, Jr., son of Major Tim- 
othy and his wife Mercy Staples, and father 
of our immediate subject, was born in Kit- 
tery, Maine, on the 30th of September, 1776. 
He was given such educational advantages as 
were afforded by the schools of the time. He 
became a minister and was ordained as a Bap- 
tist clergyman in 1805. He served as pastor 
of the Baptist church in Cornish, Maine, for 
a period of forty-five years, being incumbent 
of that position at the time of his death, on 
the 29th of November, 1850. He was elected 
a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, to 
succeed his father, but never qualified. He 
married Mary Chadbourne, daughter of Rev. 
Levi Chadbourne, of Parsonfield, Maine, who 
was a soldier in the Continental line in the war 
of Independence. To them were born thirteen 
children. Several of the sons served in the 
war of 1812, and many of his grandsons were 
in the civil war. 

Royal Clark Remick, the immediate subject 
of this review, received his education in the 
public schools of Cornish, and later completed 
a course in Buxton Academy. Subsequently 
he engaged in lumbering operations, of which 
the state of Maine at this time was the chief 



source of supply. He gained an intimate 
knowledge of the details of the logging feature 
of this industry and was successful in the con- 
duct of the various enterprises which he un- 
dertook. In 1852 Mr. Remick visited Detroit 
and a portion of Michigan. His experience in 
the lumbering industry of his native state en- 
abled him to correctly forecast the future pre- 
eminence of Michigan as a lumber-producing 
region. With the late Charles Merrill, an 
uncle of his wife, he purchased an extensive 
tract of pine lands in Tuscola county. The 
following year he removed with his family to 
Detroit, becoming a resident of the city in 
which he remained a citizen until his death. 
With Charles Merrill he formed the firm of 
Merrill & Remick, and engaged in the cutting 
of timber from their own lands and the trans- 
portation of it to the mills. He retired from 
this firm in 1855, and until 1867 operated on 
his individual account. In 1867 he formed 
with the late David Whitney, Jr., the firm of 
Whitney & Remick, in which firm each was 
an equal partner. The operations of this firm, 
among the most prominent and extensive in 
their line of industry in the state, were con- 
fined to the cutting and transportation of tim- 
ber from their own lands, situated in Isabella 
and adjoining counties. The extent of their 
cut equalled if it did not exceed that of any 
firm in the state, totaling thirty million feet of 
logs per annum. Mr. Remick was the first to 
apply steam as a motive power in the trans- 
portation of logs from the forests to market, 
and in 1877 began the construction of the first 
logging railway in the country, traversing their 
lands in Isabella and adjacent counties and 
making connection with the Flint & Pere Mar- 
quette system. 

In the conduct of the business of this firm 
Mr. Remick was from the time of its forma- 
tion until its death in active charge of opera- 
tions. He was one of the organizers of the 
Tittabawasse Boom Company, which engaged 
in the rafting and sorting of logs for the vari- 
ous firms operating in territory tributary to 
the Saginaw river, of which the Tittabawasse 



510 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



was the principal feeder. Practically all of the 
logs cut and driven in the Saginaw valley re- 
gion were rafted and sorted by this company. 
A considerable portion of the lands from 
which Mr. Remick had removed the timber 
was afterward cleared and placed under culti- 
vation by him. In Oakland county he was the 
owner of a large and valuable farm in which 
he took great pride and to which he devoted 
considerable time and attention. On this prop- 
erty he became an interested and extensive 
breeder of both draft and driving horses, as 
well as short-horn cattle. In his farming and 
kindred occupations he found his chief source 
of recreation, aside from the pleasing incent- 
ive of attaining a reputation as a successful 
breeder. His political affiliations were given 
to the Republican party from the time of its 
founding, although he had previously been a 
Democrat. His first vote as a Republican was 
cast for Fremont. Political office never ap- 
pealed to him, though he never neglected his 
civic duties and obligations, and while not an 
active partisan he was an interested and influ- 
ential member of his party. Mr. Remick was 
an active worker in the cause of Christianity, 
was a member of the First Unitarian church 
of Detroit, and for many years one of its 
board of trustees. Associated with him on the 
board were Hon. Thomas W. Palmer, George 
C. Wetherbee and the late Governor Bagley. 
His charities were many and generous, ex- 
tended in an unostentatious manner, and in 
the support of his church he gave liberally of 
his time and means. The old Remick home- 
stead was situated on the southwest corner of 
Shelby street and Lafayette avenue and was 
sold by his son, George B. Remick, to the gov- 
ernment for a portion of the site on which 
was built the present postoffice building. The 
church edifice of the congregation in which he 
was so long a member was on the opposite or 
northwest corner of the same thoroughfares 
Mr. Remick married, in 1835, Miss Mary 
Ann (McKenney) Remick. In this compila- 
ney, an influential and respected citizen of 
Gray, Cumberland county, Maine. Two chil. 



dren were born of this marriage : Henrietta 
Antoinette, wife of Charles T. Cook of De- 
troit, Michigan, and Royal Alphonso Remick, ' 
personal mention of whom is made elsewhere 
in this volume. Mrs. Remick died in Lincoln, 
Maine, in 1840. 

Mr. Remick married on the nth of Octo- 
ber, 1 841, Miss Lucy Merrill, daughter of ' 
Joshua Merrill, of Portland, Maine, and 
granddaughter of General James Merrill, a I 
distinguished officer in the Continental line id 
the war of the Revolution. They were the j 
parents of three children: James Albert and 
George Bradford, who are specifically men- 
tioned on other pages of this work ; and Frank 
Frank Remick graduated from the literary de- 
class of 1871. On the completion of his col- 
lege course he entered the employ of Whitney 
& Remick. Pneumonia, contracted while en- 
gaged in his duties with this firm in the lum- 
ber region near Saginaw, resulted in his death, 
at one of the firm's camps. May 2, 1872. 

Royal Clark Remick was an active and in- 
fluential factor in Michigan's commercial ad- 
vancement for twenty-six years. In that de- 
partment of the University of Michigan in the 
partment of its business life in which his use- 
fulness was employed, his undoubted talents 
found their greatest development. His death 
occurred at a time when the success of inno- 
vations in methods and equipment which he 
had conceived were beginning to prove their 
value. He was completing the first logging 
railway to be constructed in Michigan, when 
he contracted pneumonia, which resulted in his 
gaged in lumbering operations in Tuscola 
oany the son was offered a commission, but ii? 
death, while at one of his camps in Isabella 
county. His last hours were passed in the com- 
pany of his wife and his sons, Royal A., 
James A. and George B., and his death oc- 
curred on the 4th of May, 1878. Mrs. Rem- 
ick was a woman of refinement and culture, 
of practical and generous charity, and was an 
esteemed and active member of the First Uni- 
f<irian church. Her death occurred on the 26th 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



511 



of August, 1891, at the residence of her son, 
George B. Remick, with whom she had re- 
sided after the death of her husband. 



ROYAL ALPHONSO REMICK. 

To have served his country in time of peril, 
to have attained success in the commercial 
world, and to have filled with credit positions 
of public trust and honor ; should, to the aver- 
age man, fill to the full the measure of ambi- 
tion. It was given to Mr. Remick to render 
valiant service as a loyal soldier in the late 
civil war, and that he did well his part in the 
great internecine conflict which determined 
the integrity of the nation, is attested by the 
several promotions in rank which were con- 
ferred upon him. In all the relations of life 
he maintained an inflexible honesty, and his 
genial personality gained to him a wide circle 
of appreciative friends. 

Royal Alphonso Remick was always known 
to his friends and intimates as "Phonse 
Remick," that being a distinctive form of his 
middle name. He was born in Lincoln, 
Penobscot county, Maine, on the 30th of No- 
vember, 1839, a son of Royal Clark and Mary 
Ann McKenney, daughter of Joseph McKen- 
tion is entered a memoir to his father to which 
the reader is referred for information concern- 
ing the family. He received his early educa- 
tion in his native place, where he attended 
the public schools and its local academy. He 
was prepared for college in Bacon's and Dr. 
Solden's private schools in the city of Detroit, 
to which he had removed with his father in 
1853, ^"*^ '" 1858-9 he was a student in the 
literary department of the University of Wis- 
consin. During the summer vacation of 1862 
he joined his father, who was extensively en- 
county, Michigan, and who was actively in- 
terested in equipping a company of infantry, 
recruited largely from among his employes, 
for service in the great conflict then raging 
between the north and south. In this com- 
deference to the wishes of his father, who con- 
sidered him too young and inexperienced for a 



command, he enlisted as a private. The his- 
tory of his regiment, the Twenty-third Michi- 
gan Volunteer Infantry, in which he was a 
member of company D, is the record of his 
service. His first promotion from the ranks 
was to that of orderly sergeant, and successive 
promotions covered the various grades to that 
of first lieutenant, the rank he held at the timp 
of his honorable discharge, in July, 1865, on 
the mustering out of the regiment. 

On the completion of his service in the army 
Mr. Remick was for a short time in the em- 
ploy of his father, subsequently accepting a 
position with the well known lumber firm of 
Avery & Murphy, in the sales department, 
with headquarters in Chicago, where he re- 
sided until 1878. On the death of his father, 
in the year last mentioned, he returned to 
Michigan and was made manager of the farm- 
ing property owned by his estate, establishing 
his residence in Oakland county. On the ex- 
tensive farm, in this county, which his father 
had placed under a high state of cultivation 
and where he had found recreation, pleasure 
and profit in the breeding of horses and cattle, 
Mr. Remick gave proof of his versatility, in 
equaling his father's success as an agricultur- 
alist and breeder. In the politics of the county 
he took active part and as chairman of the 
Republican county committee served with 
credit to himself and to the advantage of his 
party. He was appointed by the late General 
Russell A. Alger, at the time governor, a 
member of the first board of trustees of the 
Michigan Soldiers' Home, at Grand Rapids, 
and served one term. 

Mr. Remick married, in December, 1868, 
Miss Marie Cummings, daughter of Redmond 
Cummings, of Chicago. They were the 
parents of three children: Royal Clark 
Remick, of Wilmington, North Carolina, a 
prominent lumberman of that state ; Jesse Cum- 
mings Remick. of Taft, Louisiana, a principal 
in the Cummings-Moberly Cypress Company, 
lumber manufacturers; and Mary Ethel 
Remick, wife of Irvin McDowell, of Chicago, 
Illinois. 



512 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Mr. Remick died on the 30th of March, 
1888, at the Remick farm in Oakland county. 
He was survived by his widow, now deceased, 
and his three children. 



JAMES ALBERT REMICK. 

The closing years of the nineteenth century 
saw the decline of one of Michigan's most im- 
portant industries, — an industry which in its 
growth and development offered to a large 
number of men a fertile field in which to ex- 
ercise business talents of the highest order. 
In the felling, manufacture and marketing of 
her great pine forests, the conducting of which 
required large capital and commercial methods 
of high efficiency, there was developed a group 
of men who, from the standpoint of construct- 
ive, initiative and executive ability, will pass 
down to posterity as among the most forceful 
in the history of the commercial life of the 
state. Numbered among those who realized a 
large and substantial success in this industry, 
with which he was identified for nearly forty 
years, and who may be justly termed one of 
its most progressive and sagacious captains, 
is he whose name initiates this article. 

James Albert Remick was born in Lincoln, 
Penobscot county, Maine, on the 12th of July, 
1843, a son of Royal Clark and Lucy (Mer- 
rill) Remick. In this compilation is entered 
a memoir to his father, the late Royal Clark 
Remick, to which the reader is referred for 
information concerning the family, whose 
origin in America dates from the early settle- 
ment of Massachusetts colony. In the public 
schools of the city of Detroit, whither he had 
removed with his parents in 1853, Mr. Remick 
acquired his early education, which he later 
supplemented by a course of study in the 
Bacon (private) School. In 1862 he entered 
the employ of his father, who at that time was 
engaged in lumbering operations on a large 
tract of land which he acquired in Tuscola 
county. Under his father's instruction he 
gained an intimate and thorough knowledge 
of the industry with which he was identified 
during his lifetime. In 1870, associated with 



Daniel McCoy, one of the most promi- 
nent and successful business men of Grand 
Rapids, Michigan, and the late John Riggs, of 
Minneapolis, Minnesota, he engaged in lum- 
bering operations on Pine river, Manistee 
county, under the firm name of Remick, Riggs 
& McCoy. In 1873 Mr. Remick withdrew 
from the firm, and during the ensuing five 
years he conducted independent enterprises of 
a like character. On the death of his father, 
in 1878, he was appointed one of the admin- 
istrators of the latter's estate, became manager 
of its interests in the firm of Whitney & 
Remick, conducting one of the largest enter- 
prises in the state, and succeeded his father as 
manager of the logging and transportation 
departments of the concern. He continued in 
this capacity until the liquidation of the af- 
fairs of the firm, in 1895. I" continuing the 
policies and methods which his father had in- 
augurated for the conduct of the business and 
which he amplified with those of his own con- 
ception, in the amplification and perfecting of 
equipment from experimental to practical use, 
and in the control and guiding of the large 
number of employes required in the various 
localities in which the operations of the firm 
obtained, lie attained recognition as one of the 
most progressive, energetic and sagacious lum- 
bermen of the Saginaw valley. On the liquida- 
tion of the business, in 1895, he returned to 
Detroit and to the management of the affairs 
of the R. C. Remick estate, in which he was 
associated with his brother, George B. Remick, 
and to his private interests. He was a stock- 
holder in several lake-marine lines, among 
which was the Whitney Transportation Com- 
pany. He was one of the founders of the 
City Savings Bank of Detroit, and a member 
of its board of directors from the time of its 
incorporation until 1902, when he resigned, on 
account of his dissatisfaction with its manage- 
ment. During his identification with the lum- 
ber interests of the Saginaw valley he served 
as secretary of the Tittabawasse Boom Com- 
pany, of which his father was one of the or- 
ganizers and in which he held large stock in- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



513 



terests. He was always a staunch Republican 
and although often invited to accept nomina- 
tion for office, his business interests made such 
demands upon his time as to make it imprac- 
ticable, had he the inclination. His one ex- 
ception was a term as trustee of the state 
asylum for the insane at Pontiac. While in 
the performance of his official duties at this 
institution he became deeply interested in the 
treatment of mental diseases. His interest in 
the subject resulted in the establishment of a 
sanitarium for their treatment and cure, lo- 
cated at Flint, Michigan, and operated by a 
company whose corporate name is Oak Grove. 
Of this company the late Warren G. Vinton, 
Dr. Palmer and Mr. Remick were the or- 
ganizers. To its successful establishment he 
gave consistent attention and as a member of 
its board of directors was active in the super- 
vision of its afifairs. The institution is the 
owner of sixty acres of land within the city 
limits of Flint, improved with buildings as 
perfect in construction as experience could de- 
vise, and has, under the efficient management 
of its present medical director, Dr. C. B. Burr, 
established a reputation as one of the fore- 
most institutions of its character in America. 
Mr. Remick was a member of the First Uni- 
tarian church, in which for many years his 
father was a trustee. To its support he was 
a generous contributor as well as to its chari- 
table organizations. 

Mr. Remick married Miss Mary Hosmer, 
daughter of the late Hon. Rufus Hosmer, a 
distinguished citizen of Detroit, and they be- 
came the parents of one child, — Jerome Hos- 
mer Remick, president of Jerome H. Remick 
& Company, a review of whose life follows : 

Mr. Remick was a man of broad mentality, 
strong initiative and distinct individuality. 
He left a lasting impression in the field of en- 
terprise with which he was for so long identi- 
fied, but he was also a prominent, though un- 
ostentatious, factor in the commercial, social 
and religious life of the city. His own stand- 
ard of life was high and it was seen in the de- 
velopment of the enterprises with which he 



was connected. He was generous, genial, and 
a general favorite among his acquaintances, 
and his death, which occurred on the 28th of 
December, 1903, was a distinct loss to the city 
in which he had resided for fifty years. He 
died rich in the possession of a well earned 
popularity and in the esteem which comes from 
honorable living. In his business life he was 
the embodiment of honor, as he was in his 
social and domestic life the perfection of love 
and gentleness. 



GEORGE BRADFORD REMICK. 

Capitalist, lawyer, man of affairs and a 
resident of the city of Detroit since 1853, 
George Bradford Remick was born in Lin- 
coln, Penobscot county, Maine, on the 4th of 
August, 1845, and is a son of Royal Clark and 
Lucy (Merrill) Remick, a memoir of whom is 
entered in this compilation. To this article 
the reader is referred for information con- 
cerning the family, whose history in America 
dates from the early settlement of Massachu- 
setts colony. 

George Bradford Remick was prepared for 
college in the public schools of Detroit and 
completed his education in the University of 
Michigan. He graduated from its literary de- 
partment as a member of the class of 1866 and 
from its law department in 1868. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar in June of the year last noted. 
While a student at the university he read 
law in the offices of D. Bethune Duffield and 
Henry M. Duffield and upon his admission to 
the bar he engaged in the practice of his pro- 
fession, having as an office associate General 
Henry M. Duffield. As a lawyer he was suc- 
cessful and continued in active practice until 
1882, when the demands of his private inter- 
ests necessitated his retirement. Upon the 
death of his father, in 1878, he was appointed 
one of the administrators of his estate, and 
with his brother, James A. Remick, managed 
its affairs until the death of the latter, in 1903. 

Mr. Remick is secretary and vice-chairman 



514 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



of the board of directors of the Whitney Com- 
pany, Limited, owners of extensive tracts of 
timber lands in Oregon, Washington and Cah- 
fornia, of which corporation he was one of the 
organizers. He is president of Oak Grove 
at Fh'nt, Michigan, a sanitarium for the treat- 
ment of mental diseases, which was founded by 
his brother, the late James A. Remick. The 
institution has a wide reputation and is rec- 
ognized as one of the foremost of its character 
in America. He is also a stockholder and a 
member of the board of directors of the Union 
Trust Company of Detroit. Mr. Remick has 
stock investments distributed in a number of 
commercial, financial and industrial enter- 
prises and has been of material assistance in 
the development of the commerce of the city 
and state. He has always been a staunch Re- 
publican, and in his early life was an active 
and influential member of his party. In 1881 
he was elected a member of the legislature. 
During his term of service he was a member 
of several important committees and was the 
chairman of that on lumber and salt. 

A member of a family whose origin dates 
from the earliest Colonial period and which 
numbers among its members men who have 
held positions of influence and honor in town, 
state and nation, Mr. Remick has taken a deep 
and active interest in the society of the Sons 
of the American Revolution. He is a member 
of the Michigan Chapter of the organization, 
is a member of the board of managers and has 
been several times a delegate to the national 
congress of the order. With the best social 
life of the city he has been prominently identi- 
fied, and his residence, on Woodward avenue, 
one of the city's most attractive homes, is 
known for its gracious hospitality. He is a 
member of the Detroit, Yondotega and Coun- 
try Clubs, the Old Club, at St. Clair Flats, 
and also of the Detroit Board of Commerce. 
He is a conservative, unostentatious Ameri- 
can, of broad education and culture, diligent 
in business and conscientious in all things. 
Mr. Remick has never married. 



JEROME HOSMER REMICK. 

Capitalist, publisher, man of affairs, and 
one of the most widely known and popular of 
Detroit's native sons; founder of the great 
publishing house of Jerome H. Remick & Com- 
pany, of which he is the president and general 
manager and through whose genius as con- 
structive and administrative executive the busi- 
ness of the company has been expanded until 
they are to-day the largest publishers and re- 
tailers of sheet music in the world, Jerome 
Hosmer Remick was born in Detroit, Michi- 
gan, on the 15th of November, 1868, a son of 
the late James Albert and Mary (Hosmer) 
Remick. In this compilation is entered a mem- 
oir to his grandfather, late Royal Clark 
Remick, to which the reader is referred for 
information concerning the family, whose 
founding in America dates from the early 
Colonial period. 

Jerome Hosmer Remick gained his educa- 
tional training in the public schools of Detroit, 
later attending the old Legget (private) school, 
and was graduated from the Detroit Business 
University in 1887. He acquired his first ex- 
perience in commercial affairs as an employe 
of the Commercial National Bank of Detroit, 
serving in the capacity of messenger. In 1888 
he entered the employ of the firm of Whitney 
& Remick, one of the most important of 
Michigan's lumbering concerns and one of 
which his grandfather was one of the founders 
and his father the manager of the operative 
and transportation departments. During his 
connection with this firm he filled the respec- 
tive positions of scaler, timekeeper, bookkeeper 
and supply-purchasing agent for the firm's 
lumber camps in Isabella and adjoining coun- 
ties. Four years covered his service with this 
industry, and in 1892, in company with his 
father, he made an extended tour of the Old 
World, returning to Detroit in 1893. On the 
2d of Januar}% 1894, he was elected secretary 
of the Home Building & Loan Association of 
Detroit, an office he filled with credit to him- 
self and the institution. In January, 1896, he 
was appointed trustee of the Detroit Chamber 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



515 



of Commerce, and he was actively concerned 
in its affairs in this official capacity for two 
vears. In 1898 Mr. Remick purchased a half 
interest in the Whitney- Warner Publishing 
Company, of Detroit, entering a field in which, 
ten years later, he was to become the largest 
publisher of sheet music in the world. His 
connection with this enterprise, at that time 
one of modest extent and reputation, was that 
of direction and management, and the policies 
he initiated and the methods he inaugurated 
resulted in an immediate expansion of the 
business. In 1900 he became the sole owner 
of the enterprise, and with the exception of a 
small interest which he disposed of and shortly 
afterward repurchased, held by George Engel 
and Emil Voelker, he conducted it, under its 
original title, until 1904. On January i, 1904, 
the business was consolidated with that of a 
New York institution and the joint interests 
were incorporated under the laws of the state 
of New York as Shapiro, Remick & Company, 
with Maurice Shapiro, president, and Mr. 
Remick as secretary, treasurer and general 
manager. Mr. Shapiro's connection with the 
company ceased in December, 1904, and the 
business was reorganized and reincorporated 
as Jerome H. Remick & Company, with an 
authorized capital of two hundred thousand 
dollars, Mr. Remick being elected president 
and general manager. On January 10, 1907, 
he organized the J. H. Remick Printing Com- 
pany, a subsidiary concern, for the purpose of 
printing a portion of the sheet music published 
by the parent institution. The company was 
incorporated with an authorized capital, of 
which Mr. Remick is owner of seventy-five per 
cent, and of which company he is the president. 
An article descriptive of the company and of 
the subsidiary institution is printed elsewhere 
in this work. 

Aside from his publishing interests Mr. 
Remick has valuable holdings in a number of 
financial, industrial and commercial enterprises 
of the city and state. He is a director in Oak 
Grove, at Flint, Michigan, a sanitarium for the 
treatment and cure of mental diseases, of 



which his father was the founder, and which 
is one of the foremost institutions of its char- 
acter in America. He is a large stockholder 
and a director in the Detroit Creamery Com- 
pany, which is the largest enterprise of its na- 
ture in Michigan and which is recognized as 
one of the most admirably conducted estab- 
lishments in the country. A review of its 
growth and development appears on other 
pages of this volume. 

In politics Mr. Remick is aligned as a sup- 
porter of the principles and policies of the Re- 
publican party, in which he is an active and in- 
fluential member. He is an ardent partisan in 
matters of local interest and has been gener- 
ous in the matter of personal service and finan- 
cial support in the campaigns of recent years. 
He is a member of the leading business, social 
and commercial organizations and his mem- 
berships include the Detroit Club, the Coun- 
try Club, the Detroit Automobile Club, the St. 
Clair Fishing & Shooting Club, the Pointe Au 
Barques Association, the Michigan Chapter, 
Sons of the American Revolution, and the De- 
troit Board of Commerce. He is also a mem- 
ber of the celebrated Lamb's Club of New 
York city and he includes among his friends 
and acquaintances the celebrities of the musical 
and theatrical professions of both America 
and Europe. 

Mr. Remick has demonstrated in the de- 
velopment of the great enterprise of which, 
since its establishment, he has been the con- 
trolling spirit, an undeniable right to the title 
of captain of industry, and has displayed proofs 
of the possession of creative and administra- 
tive ability of the highest type. He is a pro- 
gressive, industrious and democratic American, 
a loyal and public-spirited citizen, and holds a 
secure place in the esteem and confidence of 
the community. He has contributed in large 
measure to the material advancement of the 
city in whose still greater commercial and civic 
prestige he is a firm believer. 

Mr. Remick married on the 2Sth of June, 
1895, Miss Adelaide Fenton McCreery. daugh- 
ter of Hon. William B. McCreery, of Flint, 



516 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Michigan. They are the parents of two chil- 
dren, — Katherine, born April 3, 1897, and 
Jerome Hosmer Remick, Jr., born December 
24, 1903- 

JOHN PRIDGEON. 

The late John Pridgeon was long and prom- 
inently identified with navigation interests on 
the Great Lakes and was one of those ster- 
ling citizens and progressive business men to 
whom Detroit has owed much in both mate- 
rial and civic lines. 

Mr. Pridgeon was descended from a long 
line of sturdy English ancestors and was him- 
self born in Lincolnshire, England, the year 
of his nativity having been 1829. When he 
was a child his parents immigrated to Amer- 
>a and first settled in Detroit, whence they 
eventually removed to the province of On- 
tario, where they passed the remainder of 
their lives, the father having been a farmer 
by vocation. They became the parents of a 
large family of children, all of whom are now 
deceased with the exception of one daughter. 

The subject of this sketch secured his rudi- 
mentary education in his native land, having 
been twelve years of age at the time of the 
family removal to America, where he contin- 
ued to attend school for some time. He ini- 
tiated his independent career by securing em- 
ployment on one of the boats plying the 
Great Lakes, and later went to sea as a sailor 
on the sloop of war "Albany," in service dur- 
ing the Mexican war. He was on this vessel 
at the time of "and took part in the capture of 
the city of Vera Cruz, Mexico. He continued 
in the government service for a period of 
three years and then received an honorable 
discharge. He then returned to Detroit and 
resumed his connection with navigation on 
the lakes, in which service he rose to the po- 
sition of captain. Finally he purchased a small 
side-wheel steamer, with which he engaged in 
transporting sand from Fort Wayne to the 
city. This little vessel was named the 
"United," and on the same he and his family 
made their home. Later on Mr. Pridgeon ex- 



tended his scope of operations by purchasing 
the propeller "Napoleon," which was a tug 
and lighter, and thereafter he bought other tug 
boats, including the "Canadian," the "John P 
Ward," the "Hamihon Morton," and the 
"John Martin." His tugs were the first to 
pass through from lake to lake and by enter- 
prise and discriminating management he de- 
veloped in time a large and prosperous busi- 
ness, becoming one of the leading operators 
in his line from the port of Detroit and being 
known throughout the marine circles of the 
entire lake system. In 1865 Captain Pridgeon 
purchased from Captain E. B. Ward the con- 
trolling interest in the Grand Trunk line of 
boats, operated in connection with the Grand 
Trunk Rialroad, and which ran between Port 
Huron and Chicago. When this connection 
was abandoned he placed in operation a line 
of "wild" boats, doing business all along the 
river and Lakes Erie, Huron and Superior. 
He continued in this line of enterprise until 
about 1889, when he retired, passing the re- 
mainder of his life in Detroit, where he died 
December 6, 1894. He was a man of sturdy 
integrity and held the respect and confidence 
of all who knew him. He accumulated a for- 
tune through worthy means, and no blot rests 
upon his record as a citizen or business man. 
He took a loyal interest in all that pertained 
to the welfare of his home city, and while 
never a seeker of public office he served for a 
number of years as a member of the board of 
water commissioners. His political adherence 
was with the Republican party. He became the 
owner of a large amount of valuable realty in 
Detroit and was a stockholder in numerous 
important industrial concerns. 

As a young man Captain Pridgeon was 
united in marriage to Miss Emma Nicholson, 
who, like himself, was born in England, 
whence she came with her parents to America 
when she was a child, having been reared and 
educated in Detroit. She is still living. Cap- 
tain and Mrs. Pridgeon became the parents of 
two children, — John, Jr., of whom individual 
mention is made in this work, and Maria, who 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



517 



is the wife of Harry Milward of Detroit. 
They have one child living, Francis, and one 
son deceased. 

SIGMUND ROTHSCHILD. 

Everywhere in our land are found men who 
have worked their own way from humble be- 
ginnings to leadership in the commerce, the 
great productive industries, the management 
of financial affairs, and the controlling of the 
veins and arteries of the traffic and exchanges 
of the country. It is one of the glories of our 
nation that this is so. It should be the strong 
incentive to the youth of the country that such 
results are possible of accomplishment. 

Prominent among the self-made men who 
have honored Michigan through their labors 
and worthy lives is the subject of this brief 
memoir, whose sudden death occurred in the 
apartments of his son Harry, in the Hotel 
Savoy, New York city, on the 15th of July, 
1907. His had been a busy and eventful 
career, and he was the founder and last of 
the first-generation members of the great De- 
troit leaf-tobacco house of Rothschild & 
Brother. Shortly before his death he had re- 
turned from a sojourn of five months at Am- 
sterdam, Holland, one of the great tobacco 
marts of the European continent and one in 
which his concern had a branch establishment. 
While making an automobile trip in New York 
he was attacked with an acute disease of the 
heart and forthwith consulted a physician. The 
next morning his son found him lying dead in 
his bed, — a summary and deeply lamented 
termination of a life of signal usefulness and 
honor. He was one of the most substantial 
capitalists of Detroit at the time of his demise 
and left a record of splendid business enter- 
prise in two continents, though he prided him- 
self, as well he might, on being essentially and 
emphatically an American citizen. He, in- 
deed, stood as a stalwart type of what our 
republic recognizes as the best and most pro- 
lific in citizenship, and his loyalty to the land 
of his adoption was ever of the most insistent 
and inviolable order. 

Mr. Rothschild was born near the historic 



old city of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, 
likewise the home of the famous European 
family of the same name, as well as of the 
loved poet, Goethe. He was born in 1838, and 
thus he had attained to the psalmist's span of 
three score years and ten at the time when 
he was called from the scene of earthly en- 
deavors. 

Concerning the career of Mr. Rothschild the 
following estimate appeared at the time of his 
death in one of the Detroit daily appers: "In 
early life he was apprenticed to the dry-goods 
trade, and traveled as a salesman for one year. 
In 1854 he emigrated to New York, where 
he spent a year in learning the trade of cigar- 
making. Before the close of the same year 
which marked his arrival in the New World 
he came to Detroit, where he soon assumed 
charge of the cigar stand in the old National 
hotel, later the Russell House. Within a short 
time he gave evidence of his self-reliance and 
initiative power by establishing the wholesale 
tobacco house, taking his brother Feist as 
partner. In 1865 the two were joined by a 
third brother, Kaufman S., who died in 1905. 
The death of Feist Rothschild took place in 
1890. 

"Sigmund Rothschild attended especially to 
the foreign business of the concern, which es- 
tablished a house in Amsterdam and another 
in Havana, Cuba. He was a man of keen in- 
sight and had a judgment of future develop- 
ments that was almost prophetic. He was a 
splendid organizer, and when occasion de- 
manded was a fighter feared by his opponents. 
He established a wide business acquaintance 
in England, Holland, Germany, and Cuba, and 
was one of the largest and most daring buyers 
of leaf tobacco in the world. In this branch 
of the business he conceived the system of buy- 
ing tobacco directly from the farmers in Cuba. 
Several times he stayed in the field when other 
dealers had been driven out by yellow fever, 
and proved a benefactor to the farmers who 
had their products piled up and spoiling. 

"He was a tireless traveler, as much at home 
on the train or steamer as in his own home. 



518 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



He was broad-minded in his business rela- 
tions and was generous to worthy charities. 
He was a member and former officer of Tem- 
ple Beth El, Detroit. His home was at '^'j 
Montcalm street east, and the same has long 
been known as a center of gracious hospi- 
tality." 

Mr. Rothschild's connection with affairs im- 
mediately attendant upon the historic explo- 
sion of the battle-ship "Maine" should not be 
permitted to pass unnoticed in this all too 
brief tribute to his memory, for at the time 
he showed in a most significant way how 
strong was his humanitarian spirit, charity 
and sympathy. Early in 1898 he went to Cuba 
to protect as far as possible his plantation in- 
terests against the event of any possible war. 
Weiler, the notorious Spanish officer, had is- 
sued orders to the effect that no cameras were 
to be taken on to the island, but with charac- 
teristic daring Mr. Rothschild had carried one 
along. He arrived in the port of Havana 
on the night of the 15th of February and 
was sitting on the deck of his steamer looking 
at the battle-ship "Maine," and viewing with 
gratification the Stars and Stripes of his home 
land, when there occurred the great explosion 
whose result was the ultimate wiping off of 
Spanish power on the western hemisphere. 
Mr. Rothschild was one of the first citizens of 
the United States to render aid to the injured 
men of the lost ship, working arduously all 
night in attending those who were brought to 
the vessel on which he was a passenger, sup- 
plying funds to secure necessary facilities and 
comforts for the unfortunate men and even 
donating his own extra clothing to meet the 
requirements of the case. In the morning he 
secured the first photographs taken of the 
wreck, and later he received letters of thanks 
from many of the naval officers and other offi- 
cials who wished to manifest their apprecia- 
tion of his benefactions and tender and sym- 
pathetic ministrations. In his photographs 
he was able to bring home priceless mementoes 
of the wreck. 

Mr. Rothschild was essentially a business 



man, and his strong character was moulded in 
the school of experience and broad association 
with business affairs. The concern of which 
he was the founder and which is still continued 
under the control of the family, is one of the 
largest in the country and therefore one of 
Detroit's valued industries. He was a man of 
afert and powerful mentality, and his person- 
ality was one which gained and retained to 
him inviolable confidence and esteem. His 
local interests were not hedged in by his purely 
personal affairs, business or social, and he was 
ever ready to lend his aid and influence in the 
promotion of enterprises or undertakings pro- 
jected for the general good of the community. 
He was conspicuously identified with the or- 
ganization and upbuilding of the Detroit 
Board of Commerce, in which he was one of 
the original officers, and he gave no little time 
and energy to this body, which has done much 
in advancing the greater industrial Detroit 
His political support was given to the Repub- 
lican party and he ever showed a deep inter- 
est in all that touched the well being of the city 
in which it was his to gain so noteworthy a 
success through his own efforts. He had vari- 
ous capitalistic interests of importance in ad- 
dition to those represented in his tobacco busi- 
ness. He controlled valuable mining prop- 
erties in the Klondike, was a stockholder in 
various corporations, including financial insti- 
tutions, and in the '70s he was concerned with 
the development of Michigan pine lands, hav- 
ing been prominently identified with the lum- 
bering industry for a number of years. He 
was a strong man, a worthy citizen, and he 
filled a large and secure place in the business 
world. 

In i860 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Rothschild to Miss Bertha Leser, who 
survives him, as do also their three sons, — 
Frederick, who has charge of his father's min- 
ing interests in the Klondike ; Louis, who is 
actively identified with the management of the 
Detroit tobacco house of which his father was 
the founder; and Harry S., who represents 
the concern in New York city. 



DETROIT. AND WAYNE COUNTY 



519 



HENRY HARRISON SWAN. 

Among those who have lent dignity and dis- 
tinction to the bench and bar of the common- 
wealth of Michigan is Judge Swan, who is now 
presiding on the bench of the United States 
district court for the eastern distrist of Michi- 
gan, — an office of which he has been incumbent 
for more than seventeen years. 

Judge Swan is a native of Detroit, where 
he has was born October 2, 1840, and is a rep- 
resentative of one of the old and honored 
families of this city. He is a son of Joseph 
G. and Mary C. (Ling) Swan, the fornier of 
whom settled in Detroit in 1835, prior to the 
admission of the state to the Union. Joseph 
G. Swan was born in Onondaga county, New 
York, in 1808, and was a machinist by trade. 
He continued to reside in Detroit until his 
death, which occurred in 1873. He was of 
Scotch-Irish descent and was a son of Nathan 
D. Swan, who was born in New Hampshire, 
and who was one of the pioneer settlers of 
Onondaga county, New York. Nathan D. 
Swan was a vah'ant soldier in the war of 1812, 
as was also one of his brothers ; the latter lost 
his life while in the service, having been 
drowned in Lake Champlin while on an expe- 
dition for the government. Nathan D. Swan 
developed a good farm in Onondaga county, 
which continued to be his home for many 
years. The last years of his life were spent in 
Detroit, where he died at his son's home. 

Mary C. (Ling) Swan, mother of Judge 
Swan, was born in Germany, and was a child 
at the time of her parents' immigration to 
America. She died in Detroit on the 12th of 
April, I goo, at the venerable age of eighty- 
two years, being one of the revered pioneer 
women of the city. Joseph G. and Mary C. 
Swan became the parents of six sons and one 
daughter, and of the number only two are liv- 
ing, — Henry H., the subject of this review, 
and Charles F., also a resident of Detroit. 

Judge Henry H. Swan secured his early 
educational training in the public schools of 
Detroit and in a well known private school 



conducted in this city at tliat time l)y S. L. 
Campbell and Dr. C. F. Soldan ; this school 
was conducted in a building located on the site 
of the persent city hall. In 1858 Judge Swan 
matriculated in the University of Michigan, 
where he continued his studies for three years, 
and became a member of the Delta Psi fra- 
ternity. In 1 86 1 he left the university and 
went to California, where he was associated 
with an uncle in steamboating operations on 
the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers for a 
period of about five years. In the meanwhile 
he there prosecuted the study of law, under 
effective preceptorship, and in 1867 '^^ was 
admitted to the bar of California. In the latter 
part of that year Judge Swan returned to De- 
troit, where he entered the law offices of the 
well known firm of D. B. & H. M. Duffield, 
and in October, 1867, he was admitted to the 
bar of the supreme court of his native state. 

On the 15th of April, 1870, Judge Swan 
was appointed assistant United States district 
attorney, in which office he served seven years. 
At the expiration of this interval, in 1877, he 
formed a professional alliance with the late A. 
B. Maynard, and the firm of Maynard & Swan 
soon controlled a large and important business, 
especially in admiralty practice. This asso- 
ciation continued until January, 1891. on the 
13th of which month Judge Swan was ap- 
pointed judge of the United States District 
Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, 
assuming the duties of the office January 26th. 
He has made a most admirable record on the 
bench, as had he also in the practice of his 
profession, in which he was identified with 
much important litigation. Since 1893 '^^ has 
been a member of the faculty of the law de- 
partment of the University of Michigan, where 
he delivers regular class lectures on admiralty 
law, and m 1902 the university conferred upon 
him the degree of Doctor of Laws. — a most 
fitting recognition of his ability as a legist and 
jurist. In politics the Judge is known as a 
stalwart advocate of the principles and policies 
of the Republican party, He is a valued mem- 
ber of the First Presbyterian church of Detroit, 



520 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ill which he is an elder, taking a deep interest 
in all departments of church work. 

On the 30th of April, 1873, was solemnized 
the marriage of Judge Swan to Miss Jennie 
E. Clark, daughter of Rev. William C. Clark, 
a clergyman of the Presbyterian church, who 
came from the state of Ohio. Judge and Mrs. 
Swan have two children — William M., who is 
engaged in the practice of law in Detroit, and 
Mary C. 



FREDERICK B. SMITH. 

An able exponent of the progressive spirit 
and strong initiative power that have caused 
Detroit to forge so rapidly forward as an in- 
dustrial and commercial center, is Frederick 
B. Smith, who is a native son of the Michigan 
metropolis and who has here attained to a 
position of prominence and influence as a busi- 
ness man and as a loyal and public-spirited 
citizen. He is president and general manager 
of the Wolverine Manufacturing Company and 
also has other interests of important order. 

In both the agnatic and maternal lines Mr. 
Smith is a scion of staunch old colonial stock, 
and he has reason to revert with pride and sat- 
isfaction to his genealogy. The record be- 
tokens strong and noble manhood in those who 
represented the respective lines in the forma- 
tive period of our national history, and mem- 
bers of both families were found arrayed as pa- 
triot soldiers in the Continental line during the 
war of the Revolution, while in the earlier colo- 
nial wars the families were likewise represented. 
From New England have gone forth to divers 
sections of the Union many men and women 
who have well upheld the honors of the names 
which they bore and who have left progeny 
equally loyal and useful in connection with the 
duties and productive activities of life. Thus 
Mr. Smith can look back with satisfaction 
upon the record of worthy lives and worthy 
deeds in his ancestral line, and he is deeply 
appreciative of the record of achievement. 

Frederick B. Smith was born in Detroit, on 
the 13th of December, 1863, and is a son of 



Bradford and Lucia (Weston) Smith, both of 
whom are now deceased. His father was for 
many years a representative citizen and busi- 
ness man of Detroit, where he continued to 
reside until his death and where his name is 
held in lasting honor. A sketch of the life of 
Bradford Smith is given on other pages of 
this volume and offers a brief tribute to one 
whose life counted for good in all its relations. 
The subject of this sketch is indebted to the 
public schools of Detroit for his early educa- 
tional discipline, which included a course in 
the high school, and he gave inception to his 
active career in connection with the practical 
affairs of life by securing a clerkship in the 
accounting department of the Michigan Cen- 
tral Railroad. In this connection he continued 
to be employed until he had attained to his 
legal majority. He thereafter passed one year 
in the employ of a local furniture company, 
and in 1887, when but twenty-four years of 
age, he effected the organization of the Wol- 
verine Manufacturing Company, which was 
incorporated with a capital of ten thousand 
dollars. The enterprise at the start was one 
of modest order, and employment was given 
to a force of only twelve men. Aggressive 
policies, careful management and clear and 
positive executive control caused the business 
to e-xpand rapidly and in a normal and legiti- 
mate way. Its history has been one of con- 
tinuous success, and the splendid industry now 
holds precedence as the most extensive of its 
kind in the United States, while its factory is 
the largest of the specific type in the entire 
world. The establishment is given over spe- 
cially to the manufacturing of parlor and li- 
brary tables of high grade, and other special- 
ties in the furniture line are also turned out. 
The trade of the concern extends into the most 
diverse sections of the Union and its reputa- 
tion is in every respect unassailable. The mod- 
ern and finely equipped plant of the company 
is located at the corner of Twelfth street and 
Stanley avenue and in juxtaposition to the 
tracks of the Grand Trunk Railway, so that 
its shipping facilities are of the best. Employ- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



521 



ment is now given to an average force of six 
hundred persons, the majority of whom are 
skilled artisans, and the operations are based 
on a capital stock of six hundred thousand 
dollars. The value of the output for the first 
year was thirty thousand dollars, and the aver- 
age annual output is now fully one million 
dollars in value,— a splendid record for an in- 
terval of twenty years. The officers of the 
company are as here noted : Frederick B. 
Smith, president and general manager; Joseph 
W. Smith, vice-president and sales manager; 
and William P. Harris, secretary and treasurer. 
In politics Mr. Smith accords allegiance to 
the Republican party, in whose cause he has 
in many ways rendered eiYective service, taking 
a lively interest in public affairs of a local 
order and being essentially progressive and 
appreciative as a citizen. He served from 1894 
to 1898 as a member of the city board of esti- 
mates, and in 1903 he was chairman of the 
Michigan commission of the Louisiana Pur- 
chase Exposition, at St. Louis. He is a val- 
ued and appreciative member of the Detroit 
Board of Commerce and has been an enthu- 
siastic worker in this representative organiza- 
tion of Detroit business men. He was presi- 
dent of the Chamber of Commerce at the time 
of its consolidation with the Board of Com- 
merce, and was a member also of the reorgani- 
zation committee, besides becoming a charter 
member of the present Board of Commerce, on 
whose first board of directors he was a repre- 
sentative. During his regime as president of 
the old Chamber of Commerce he was the 
prime factor in connection with the movement 
to efifect the separation of grade crossings of 
railroads and streets within the city limits. 
Apropos of his efforts in this connection a con- 
ference was held at the office of the Michigan 
Central Railroad on May 2, 1903, at which 
were present Mr. Smith, as president and rep- 
resentative of the Detroit Chamber of Com- 
merce ; George Hargreaves, vice-president of 
the American Car & Foundry Company; 
Messrs. Jerome and Atkinson, representing the 



committee on grade separations of the common 
comicil ; and Henry B. Ledyard, for the Michi- 
gan Central. A proposition was submitted 
by Messrs. Atkinson and Jerome in regard 
to the separation of grades between Milwaukee 
Junction and West Detroit, and a schedule of 
grades for various streets and avenues was 
submitted. It was also agreed by the com- 
mon council committee on grade separations 
that the elevation of tracks of the railroads at 
these designated crossings should carry with 
it the construction of a highway bridge over 
the tracks of the interested companies on the 
line of Junction avenue : the division of the 
cost of the same to be placed on the same basis 
as that which obtains with the separation of 
grades, viz., the city to pay for the damages to 
abutting property owners and to furnish the 
right of way for such overhead bridge, and 
the railroad companies to construct the same; 
the city to maintain thereafter the planking 
or roadway. The memoranda thus presented 
at this conference bore the signatures of Fred- 
erick B. Smith, George Hargreaves, Edwin 
Jerome, Edmund Atkinson and H. B. Led- 
yard. Mr. Smith has much civic loyalty and 
takes an abiding interest in all that tends to 
conserve the advancement and prosperity of 
his native city. Mr. Smith holds membership 
in the Mayflower Society and other colonial 
organizations, is affiliated with the Masonic 
fraternity, including Detroit Commandery, 
No. I, Knights Templars, and the Ancient 
Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine, and he holds membership in the De- 
troit Club, the Country Club, the Old Club 
(Lake St. Clair Fishing & Shooting Club), 
and the famous Lambs' Club of New York 
city. He and his wife are members of the 
Presbyterian church. 

On the nth of November, 1886, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss 
Nanette Sackrider, a daughter of Dr. Charles 
L. Sackrider, of Mason, Michigan, and they 
have three sons, namely: Charles S., Fred- 
erick B., Jr., and Robert W. 



522 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



MICHAEL J. MURPHY. 

At no period in its history has Detroit made 
so rapid and substantial advancement in a pure- 
ly industrial and material way as in the last 
two decades, and among those who have 
largely aided in conserving and augmenting 
the commercial prestige of the city stands the 
subject of this sketch, who is president of the 
Murphy Chair Company, one of the extensive 
and substantial manufacturing concerns of the 
state, and who is also president of the Secu- 
rity Trust Company, of Detroit, of which he 
was one of the founders. He is distinctively 
one of the substantial capitalists and represen- 
tative business men of the Michigan metro- 
polis, and is progressive and public-spirited in 
his attitude at all times. 

Mr. Murphy was born at Sarnia, province 
of Ontario, Canada, on the 22d of February, 
1 85 1, and comes of staunch old Irish lineage. 
He is a son of James and Catherine (Casey) 
Murphy, both of whom were born in county 
Limerick, Ireland. At an early age James 
Murphy immigrated to America. He located 
in Canada, where he remained for varying in- 
tervals for several years, passing the remain- 
der of the time in the United States, where he 
became a naturalized citizen and exercised his 
elective franchise in support of General Jack- 
son when that great patriot became a candi- 
date for the presidency of the nation. He was 
engaged in farming until 1844, when he re- 
moved to Iowa county, Wisconsin, where he 
continued to reside until 1849, when he re- 
turned to Canada, locating near the village 
of Sarnia, where he continued in agricultural 
pursuits and where he passed the residue of 
his life, — a man of alert mentality and inviol- 
able integrity. He died in 1900, at a venerable 
age, and his cherished and devoted wife did 
not long survive him, her death occurring in 
1903. Both were devout communicants of the 
Catholic church, in whose faith they were 
reared. They are survived by two sons and 
three daughters, the latter of whom remain 
residents of Canada. The second son, James 
F., is now a resident of Detroit. 



Michael J. Murphy, the immediate subject j 
of this review, was reared in Sarnia, where he , 
had the advantages of the public schools, in- ' 
eluding the high school, and in 1868 he be- 
came a student in the Goldsmith Business 
College, in Detroit, where he completed a 
thorough course and was graduated in the 
same year. For one year thereafter he was a 
teacher in this institution. Somewhat later 
he secured employment as a bookkeeper in the 
establishment of C. H. Dunks, manufacturer 
of bed springs, in Detroit, and later he as- 
sumed a similar position in the office of the 
Second National Bank, of Detroit, where he 
was employed for one year. 

In 1872 Mr. Murphy purchased the busi- 
ness of his former employer, Mr. Dunks, 
whose factory was at this time located on 
Griswold street. Mr. Murphy infused new 
life into the enterprise, which was stilll rep- 
resented in the manufacturing of bed springs, 
and increasing business finally necessitated the 
securing of larger quarters. The first re- 
moval was to 32 Woodward avenue, where 
the business was continued until 1878, when 
Mr. Murphy leased the property of the De- 
troit Chair Company, which was founded by 
J. M. Wright, of Otsego, New York. The 
quarters thus secured by Mr. Murphy were 
located at the corner of Fourth and Porter 
streets, where he added the manufacture of 
chairs to his business. Thus was formed the 
nucleus of the splendid enterprise of which 
he is now the head. The manufacturing of 
chairs was finally made the exclusive business 
of the corncern, and in 1885 the continued ex- 
pansion of the business made a third removal 
necessary. In making this change of location 
Mr. Murphy and his coadjutors purchased 
fourteen acres of land near Russell street, this 
being the site of the present finely equipped 
and extensive plant, which has a floor space of 
ten acres. The buildings are substantial brick 
structures and are four stories in height. Here 
employment is now given to a corps of work- 
men averaging in number from seven hundred 
to nine hundred, mostly skilled labor, and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



523 



the output of tlie factory is an average of 
tliree thousand chairs a day. The products 
include almost every variety and grade of 
chairs. 

In 1884 the business was incorporated un- 
der the title of M. J. Murphy & Company, 
with a capital stock of seventy-five thousand 
dollars, and Mr. Murphy became the first 
president and treasurer of the new corpora- 
tion, whose upbuilding was due almost en- 
tirely to his well directed efforts. In 1899 the 
business was incorporated again, under the 
name of the Murphy Chair Company, which 
still obtains. The company is capitalized for 
five hundred thousand dollars and Mr. Mur- 
phy remains its president, giving the major 
portion of his time and attention to its affairs. 
The company has a large surplus fund, and 
the plant is one of the three largest in the 
United States, while its products are sold in 
the most diverse sections of the Union. 

As has already been noted, Mr. Murphy 
is president of the Security Trust Company, 
one of the large and substantial financial con- 
cerns of the city, and he is a member of the 
directorate of both the First National Bank 
and the People's State Bank. He was a char- 
ter member of the Detroit Board of Com- 
merce and had the distinction of being its first 
president, in 1904, having also been chairman 
of the board of organization of this body, 
which has done much to promote the welfare 
and advancement of Detroit. He is a Repub- 
lican in his political proclivities, is a communi- 
cant of the Catholic church, and is identified 
with the Detroit Club and the Country Club. 

In 1877 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Murphy to Miss Eliza Gleeson, who was 
born in London, Ontario, Canada, a daughter 
of Timothy Gleeson, who was a resident of 
Sarnia, Ontario, at the time of his daughter's 
marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy have four 
sons and three daughters. 



ELIHU M. PECK. 

The late Captain Elihu Monroe Peck was 
long and prominently identified with naviga- 



tion and transportation interests on the Great 
Lakes, and his prominent connection with 
marine affairs in Detroit, not less than his hieh 
standing as a citizen and business man, well 
entitles him to a place of honor in this publica- 
tion. For many years prior to his death lie 
was president of the Northwestern Transpor- 
tation Company, of this city, a description of 
which will be found in this work. 

Captain Peck was born at Butternuts, 
Oneida county. New York, on the 8th of Sep- 
tember, 1822, and in the old Empire state he 
was reared and educated. There also he early 
became concerned with lake marine interests, 
initiating his connection with the same by 
learning the trade of ship carpenter, to which 
he devoted his attention, more or less directly, 
for a long term of years, having become a 
specially skillful artisan in the line. He finally 
removed from his native state to Cleveland, 
Ohio, where he became prominent and success- 
ful as a designer and builder of lake vessels. 
He designed and constructed more than one 
hundred sailing and steam vessels which are 
still in commission on the Great Lakes, and 
few men were better known in marine circles. 

In 1870 Captain Peck became interested in 
the Northwestern Transportation Company, of 
Detroit, and of his connection with the same, 
of which he was president at the time of his 
death, adequate data is given in the sketch 
pertaining to the company and further infor- 
mation also may be found in the review of the 
career of Lewis C. Waldo, the present secre- 
tary, treasurer and general manager of the 
company. Captain Peck was the first to 
operate boats in the towing of ore vessels from 
Lake Superior ports, initiating operations in 
this line as early as 1870. He made for him- 
self a large place in the province of lake navi- 
gation, attained to distinctive success in his 
various enterprises, and was a man who ever 
commanded unequivocal confidence and esteem. 
He became a resident of Detroit in 1880. and 
this city thereafter continued to be his home 
until his death, which occurred on the 8th of 
May, 1896. His remains were taken to his old 



524 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



home in Cleveland, Ohio, and were interred in 
beautiful Lakeview cemetery. 

Captain Peck was not only a man of affairs 
—a power in his chosen field of endeavor- 
but he was also a loyal and public-spirited 
citizen and broad-gauged business man. He 
made his life count for good in its various 
relations and no shadow rests on any portion 
of his record as a man or citizen. In politics 
he was a supporter of the cause of the Repub- 
lican party, and he was identified with various 
civic and fraternal organizations. 

In 1845 was solemnized the marriage of 
Captain Peck to Miss Susan E. Rogers, of 
Bedford, Ohio, who survived him by four 
years. Of their two children, Egbert M. died 
at the age of eighteen years, and Hattie at the 
age of four years. 



FREDERICK C. STOEPEL. 

Numbered among the veritable captains of 
industry in the city of Detroit, where he has 
varied and important capitalistic interests, is 
Mr. Stoepel, who is president of the leading 
wholesale dry-goods house of Burnham, Stoe- 
pel & Company and who has risen to dis- 
tinctive prominence and influence in the city 
which has represented his home from his boy- 
hood days. 

Mr. Stoepel was born in Heldrungen, Sa.x-, 
ony, Germany, on the 3d of June, 1846, and' 
is a son of William and Katherine (Koehler) 
Stoepel, who came to America in 1851, first 
settling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whence they 
removed to Detroit in the following year. The 
father was a cabinetmaker by trade and he 
followed the same as a vocation for a num- 
ber of years after locating in Detroit, which 
city continued to be his home until his death, 
in 1894: his wife passed to the life eternal in 
1898, both having been numbered among the 
honored pioneer citizens of Detroit at the time 
of their death. They became the parents of 
three sons and one daughter, all of whom are 
living. 

Frederick C. Stoepel was about si.x years 
of age at the time of the family removal to 



Detroit, to whose public schools he is indebted 
for his eariy educational discipline, which, 
though limited, proved adequate basis upon 
which to build up the fine superstructure of 
culture and intellectuality which now indicate 
the man, denoting how well he has profited 
from the lessons gained under the direction 
of the wisest of all head-masters, Experience 
At the early age of thirteen years Mr. Stoepel 
secured employment as parcel boy in the em- 
ploy of Campbell, Linn & Company, then one 
of the leading dry-goods houses in the city 
He remained with this firm for eleven years' 
withm which period he manifested his ambi- 
tion and self-reliance in no uncertain way the 
while making himself familiar with all' pos- 
sible details of the business. From 1872 to 
1875 he was an employe of the wholesale 
dry-goods house of Allan Shelden & Com- 
pany, and in the latter year, in company with 
James K. Burnham and Albert H. Munger 
he organized the firm of J. K. Burnham & 
Company, wholesale dealers in dry goods 
Twelve years later the interested principals 
in this concern purchased the stock and busi- 
ness of the wholesale dry-goods house of 
Tootle, Hanna & Company, of Kansas City 
Missouri, in which city the firm of Burnham' 
Hanna, Munger & Company was then found- 
ed, Mr. Stoepel being a general partner in this 
new concern and thus continuing to the pres- 
ent time. In the same year the title of the 
Detroit firm was changed to Burnham, Stoe- 
pel & Company. At this time Joseph J 
Crowley and James Wilson were admitted to 
partnership. 

In 1902 Mr. Crowley retired from the firm 
and on the ist of January of that year the 
business was incorporated, by the forming of 
a stock company whose operations were based 
on a capital stock of one million dollars, with 
official corps as follows: Frederick C Stoe- 
pel, president and treasurer; James Wilson 
vice-president; and George A. Corwin, secre- 
tary. In addition to these officials the other 
members of the directorate of the company 
are: William B. Campbell and Albert H 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



525 



Hunger. The business of the concern for the 
first year amounted to two hundred and fifty- 
six thousand dollars, and the magnificent 
growth of the enterprise may be measurably 
appreciated when it is stated that the annual 
business of the lineal successor, Burnham, 
Stoepel & Company, in 1906, aggregated four 
and one-half million dollars. The trade of the 
company extends throughout Michigan and 
into Indiana and northern Ohio, and the house 
is represented by an average corps of about 
fifty traveling salesmen. Mr. Stoepel is a di- 
rector of the Old Detroit National Bank, was 
the founder of the National Cutlery Company, 
and has other extensive and important capital- 
istic interests. He is a member of the Wayne 
county jury commission and is known and 
honored as one of Detroit's representative citi- 
zens and business men. 

In his political allegiance Mr. Stoepel is ar- 
rayed as a staunch supporter of the principles 
and policies of the Republican party, and both 
he and his wife are zealous members of the 
First Conregational church, of whose board 
of trustees he has been a member for twenty 
years, while for three years he served as pres- 
ident of the board. He holds membership 
in the Detroit Club and the Detroit Country 
Club, besides being identified with other social 
and fraternal organizations. 

On the 13th of July, 1881, Mr. Stoepel was 
united in marriage to Miss Anna R. Sutton, 
a daughter of Nehemiah M. Sutton, of Te- 
cumseh, Michigan, and they have two sons — 
Frederick S. and Ralph N. 



BYRON WHITAKER. 

The honored subject of this memoir was 
long and prominently identified with marine 
interests in Detroit and was a citizen and bus- 
iness man of prominence, commanding the 
confidence and esteem of those with whom he 
was brought in contact in the various relations 
of life. He came to Detroit at a sufficiently 
early date to entitle him to enrollment as one 
of the city's pioneers. 



Mr. Whitaker was born on a farm at Ham- 
burg, near the city of Buffalo, New York, on 
the loth of February, 183 1, and died at his 
home in Detroit on the 12th of May, 1907. 
He was a son of Alanson and Betsey Whit- 
aker and was a child at the time of his father's 
death. His mother subsequently became the 
wife of Usual Sheppard and she continued to 
reside in the state of New York until her 
death. Byron Whitaker was reared to the 
sturdy discipline of the farm and received such 
educational advantages as were offered in the 
common schools of the locality and period. He 
remained in the old Empire state until 1848, 
when, at the age of eighteen years, he came to 
Detroit, which was then but a small city. 
though one of no inconsiderable commercial 
importance in a relative way. Soon after his 
arrival he became a member of the firm of 
Whitaker & Robb, dealers in ice, and his part- 
ner died soon afterward, at the time of the 
cholera scourge, to which he fell a victim. Mr. 
Whitaker continued in the ice business for 
some time and from the initiation of his inde- 
pendent career showed himself in all things 
straightforward, honorable and reliable. From 
1855 to 1858 he was engaged in operating a 
tug on the Detroit river, and from this begin- 
ning he developed his ultimately extended in- 
terests in connection with the lake-marine 
transportation business. He also became asso- 
ciated with T. J. Hulbert in the ice and boat 
business, under the title of Hulbert & Whit- 
aker, and this firm continued operations until 
after the close of the civil war. Mr. Whitaker 
then purchased the brig "Concord" and the 
schooners "Courtland" and "Live Yankee," 
which he placed in commission in connection 
with the freighting business on the lake sys- 
tem, eventually becoming the owner of a fleet 
of twelve vessels, both steam and sailing, and 
building up a remunerative business. Several 
years prior to his death he sold his various 
business interests to his son Charles, who had 
long been associated with him, retaining only 
the vessel which bore his name, and of which 
mention will be made in this article. He was 



526 



also successful as a ship broker and lumber 
dealer, and from 1872 until 1890 he found 
further demands upon his time and attention 
through his having built up a large fire and 
manne msurance business, in which connection 
he had a large clientage of a representative 
character. In this enterprise, as well as that 
connected with his navigation interests, his son 
Charles was his able coadjutor, eventually be- 
commg his successor. Within about \iine 
hours after the death of Captain Whitaker. as 
he was commonly known in Detroit the 
steamer which had for seventeen years borne 
his name over all the lake system and which 
was the only one of which he retained posses- 
sion, sank in the Detroit river, between Am- 
herstburg and Bois Blanc island. Thou<xh this 
was the result of a collision, the coincidence 
of the loss was one that caused much comment 
in Detroit and general marine circles in which 
Captain Whitaker had been known. It is 
worthy of note that in the sinking of the ves- 
sel no lives were lost. 

In the year 185 1 Captain Whitaker was 
united m marriage to Miss Felia Moore a 
daughter of William S. Moore, who was a 
millwright by trade and who also did a suc- 
cessful market-gardening business in Detroit 
for a number of years. Mrs. Whitaker was 
summoned to the life eternal in 189. and is 
survived by four children: Charles W who 
IS a member of the firm of Whitaker Brothers 
& Penny, leading insurance agents of Detroit 
where he also still has large marine interests' 
Carrie, who is the wife of Albert W Allen 
of Detroit; Ida, who is the wife of Geor-e d' 
Mason, of this city; and William H., who is 
now manager of the magnificent Hotel Nether- 
lands, in New York city. In 1898 Captain 
Whitaker contracted a second marriage, beinc. 
then united to Mrs. Anna S. Page, who surt 
vives him and still resides in Detroit. 

The subject of this brief memoir was a man 
of impregnable integrity, sound judgment and 
liberal views, and his name merits an endur- 
mg place on the roll of those who have con- 
tributed to the upbuilding of the fair "City 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



of the Straits.-' He was a Republican in poli- 
tics and was identified with a number of social 
and business organizations in the city which 
so long represented his home. 



HENRY M. STARKEY. 

No small place was that filled by the late 
Henry M. Starkey in the civic and business 
hte of Detroit, where he was known and hon- 
ored as a man of distinctive ability and of im- 
pregnable integrity. He held various offices 
of public trust and ever maintained a high ap- 
preciation of his stewardship. It was his to 
render valiant service as a soldier in the Mexi- 
can war, and he also bore arms in defense of 
the Union in the civil war. It is most con- 
sonant that in this publication be entered a 
brief tribute to his memory. 

A son of Dr. Lewis F. Starkev, of whom 
individual mention is made in this work, Henry 
M. Starkey was born at Binghamton. New 
York, May u. 1828. In 1836, when he was 
eight years of age, his parents removed to 
Michigan and located in Detroit, where his 
father was engaged in the practice of medicine 
until 1842, when he removed to Kalamazoo, 
where he passed the remainder of his life. The 
subject of this sketch secured his rudimentary 
education in the common schools of his native 
state, and after coming to Michigan attended 
school in Detroit and Kalamazoo and also took 
a partial preparatory course in the University 
of Michigan. He withdrew from this institu- 
tion to enter the office of the Kalamazoo Ga- 
zette, in which he mastered the printer's trade, 
with which he was identified, more or less di- 
rectly, for a number of years, having the typical 
loyalty of the true craftsman for the "art pre- 
servative of all arts." 

At the outbreak of the war with Mexico Mr 
Starkey enlisted in a company of mounted 
riflemen, in the regular army of the United 
States, and he participated in the numerous bat- 
tles and minor engagements in which his com- 
mand was involved, continuing in the service 
until peace was declared. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



527 



At the close of the war Mr. Starkey came 
to Detroit and secured employment in the office 
of the Free Press, which was then conducted 
by that eccentric genius, the late Wilbur F. 
Story, who later founded the Chicago Times. 
While an employe of the Free Press Mr. 
Starkey organized the Detroit Typographical 
Union, No. i8, the first in the state, and in 
1854 he represented this local body at the na- 
tional convention of the union in the city of 
Buffalo. He continued with the Free Press 
until the establishment of the first recorder's 
court in Detroit, when he was honored with 
appointment to the position of clerk of the 
same, being thus the first incumbent of this 
office. To the duties of this position he was 
giving his attention at the time when the dark 
cloud of civil war spread its grewsome pall 
over the national horizon, and his instinctive 
and insistent loyalty forthwith prompted him 
to once more go forth in the military service 
of his country. 

Mr. Starkey enlisted in Company H, Fifth 
Michigan Cavalry, in which he was made first 
lieutenant upon the formal organization of his 
company. He proceeded to the front with his 
command, whose history is one of exceptional 
gallantry, and continued with the regiment, 
taking part in all its engagements, until the 
battle of Gettysburg, where he was so severely 
injured by a fall from his horse as to incapaci- 
tate him for farther field service. He accord- 
ingly resigned his commission, and received 
his honorable discharge. 

After the close of his service in defense of 
the Union Mr. Starkey returned to Detroit, 
and soon afterward, as candidate on the Demo- 
cratic ticket, he was elected to the office of 
city clerk. Later he was appointed secretary 
of the board of water commissioners, and he 
remained in tenure of this office during the 
residue of his life, his death occurring on the 
28th of October, 1888. Mr. Starkey continued 
his allegiance to the Democratic party through- 
out his life and was an able advocate of its 
principles. His religious faith was that of the 
Protestant Episcopal church and he was a 



valued and honored comrade in both the Grand 
Army of the Republic and the Military Order 
of the Loyal Legion of the United States. 

At the time of the death of Mr. Starkey. 
General Henry M. Duffield, of Detroit, gave 
a most appreciative estimate of his life and 
character and closed with the following beauti- 
ful sentiments: "Henry Starkey was honest 
in every relation of life. He was honest in 
every conviction of principle or of duty. His 
soul was true and noble,— small thoughts or 
selfish meanness found no shelter in it." The 
brave soldier, the sterling citizen, the honor- 
able, upright man, Mr. Starkey made his life 
count for good in all its relations, and his 
memory is properly honored in a work of the 
province assigned to the one at hand. 



ALEXANDER H. SIBLEY. 

Bearing the full patronymic of his honored 
father, who was a son of Solomon Sibley, one 
of the early pioneers and influential citizens 
of Michigan and Detroit, the subject of this 
ber of the bar of the state with whose history 
sketch to-day stands as a representative mem- 
the family name has so long been identified, 
being prominent alike in professional, business 
and social affairs in the metropolis of the Wol- 
verine state. Adequate data relative to the 
family history may be found in the sketch 
of the life of his uncle, the late Frederick B. 
Sibley, appearing in this compilation. 

Alexander Hamilton Sibley, whose name 
initiates this article, was born in the city of 
New York, on the 4th of October, 1871, and 
is a son of Alexander Hamilton Sibley. Sr.. 
and Marie Louise (Miller) Sibley, the fornier 
of whom was born and reared in Detroit, and 
the latter of whom was bom in Monroe, Michi- 
cran. The respective families were here 
founded in the territorial days of the state. 
The father was one of the first to begin the 
practical development of copper and iron mines 
in the Lake Superior region, and was also one 
of the argonauts of the gold fields of California 
in the memorable years 1849 and 1850. 
Through inheritance and personal effort he 



528 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



became seized of a large estate, and he was 
long known as a representative citizen of De- 
troit. His capitalistic interests were wide and 
varied and he occupied a large place in the civic 
and industrial circles of Detroit, where he con- 
tinued to make his home until his death, which 
occurred on the loth of July, 1877, in New 
York city. His wife is still living in Detroit. 
When the subject of this review was about 
six years of age his parents returned to De- 
troit. His preliminary educational discipline 
was secured under the direction of private 
tutors, with whom he continued his studies 
until he was ten years of age. From 1881 
until 1884 he was a student in foreign schools 
—principally in Germany; and in the latter 
year he returned to Detroit, where he com- 
pleted his college preparatory course under the 
tutorship of Thomas H. Pitkin, a well known 
and exceptionally talented educator. In 1888 
Mr. Sibley was matriculated in historic old 
Trinity College, at Hartford, Connecticut, in 
which he was graduated as a member of the 
class of 1892, receiving the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts. He then passed a year abroad, where 
he did effective post-graduate work of an aca- 
demic nature, and in 1894 he entered the law 
school of Harvard University, in which he was 
graduated in the spring of 1897, with the de- 
gree of Bachelor of Laws. At the same time 
he was granted the degree of Master of Arts. 
After his graduation Mr. Sibley returned to 
Detroit, where he became associated in prac- 
tice with the well known law firm of Russel & 
Campbell, with which he remained until Sep- 
tember, 1900, since which time he has con- 
ducted an individual professional business, hav- 
ing won indubitable prestige in his chosen pro- 
fession. He is a valued member of the Michi- 
gan State Bar Association and also that of 
Detroit, and that of his alma mater. Harvard 
University. He is a director of the Wyandotte 
Savings Bank, a stockholder in the Detroit 
Savings Bank, president of the Sibley Machine 
Company, and is largely interested in mining 
enterprises in Michigan, Montana and British 
Columbia, developing gold, silver and copper 



properties, as well as cobalt, of which last he 
figures as a pioneer developer. Mr. Sibley is 
identified with the Masonic fraternity, and also 
holds membership in the Detroit Country Club, 
the Detroit Boat Club, the St. Clair Shooting 
Club, and the Harmonic Society. 



MICHAEL W. O'BRIEN. 

In ofifering a resume of the careers of those 
who have exerted a potent and beneficent in- 
fluence in the directing of financial affairs in 
the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan, 
there is imperative consistency in accordino- 
special recognition to Mr. O'Brien, who is 
vice-president and chairman of the board of 
directors of the People's State Bank, repre- 
senting the consolidation of the People's Sav- 
ings Bank and the State Savings Bank, of 
which former institution he was president at 
the time of the amalgamation of interests, in 
January, 1907. 

Mr. O'Brien comes of staunch Irish ancestry 
and is himself a native of the fair Emerald 
Isle, having been born at Flynfield, county 
Kerry, in September, 1834, and being a son of 
William O'Brien, who was a man of influence 
in his community, where he followed the voca- 
tion of farmer. The subject of this review 
secured his preliminary educational training 
under the direction of a private tutor employed 
in his own home, and supplemented this disci- 
pline by a course of study in an excellent 
academy at Killarney. In 1852, at the age of 
eighteen years, the young man severed the 
home ties and set forth to seek his fortunes in 
America. He proceeded to the state of Illi- 
nois, where his first employment was in con- 
nection with civil-engineering work on the 
Chicago & Rock Island Railroad. He later 
identified himself with the lumbering business 
in the city of Chicago, which then gave slight 
evidence of becoming a great metropolitan 
center, and there he became a member of the 
firm of Cone & O'Brien, which later was suc- 
ceeded by Cone, O'Brien & Company, with 
the amplification of its business and the expan- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



529 



sion of its interests. Shortly after the close of 
the civil war Mr. O'Brien disposed of his busi- 
ness interests in Chicago and removed to Bay 
City, Michigan, where he continued in lum- 
bering operations, with distinctive success. He 
finally took up his residence in Detroit, and 
here, in January. 1870, he became one of the 
prime factors in the organization of the Peo- 
ple's Savings Bank, which was incorporated 
with a capital stock" of thirty thousand dollars 
and of which he was elected cashier : the late 
Francis Palms was the first president of the 
institution, which was the second savings bank 
to be established in Detroit. Before the close 
of the first year, so marked had been the suc- 
cess of the venture, it was found expedient to 
increase the capital stock to sixty thousand 
dollars. The expansion of the business of the 
bank was substantial and rapid, and at the 
time of its consolidation with the State Sav- 
ings Bank its capital stock was five hundred 
thousand dollars and its surplus fund five hun- 
dred thousand dollars. Upon the death of 
Mr. Palms, in 1886, Mr. O'Brien was elected 
to succeed him in the presidency of the insti- 
tution, and his administrative policy, fortified 
by mature judgment and ample experience, 
caused the bank to forge to the front as one 
of the largest and most solid financial institu- 
tions in the state. His genial personality and 
authoritative knowledge of banking details 
have made him a dominating figure in local 
financial circles, and his impregnable integrity 
of purpose has gained and retained to him the 
confidence and esteem not only of Detroit's 
most influential bankers but also of the general 
public. He was one of the principal promoters 
of the Detroit Clearing House Association, in 
whose organization he took a prominent part. 
He was one of the promoters and the second 
president of the Michigan State Bankers' As- 
sociation and has long been influential in its 
work and deliberations. He is one of the trus- 
tees of the Palms estate, one of the largest in 
Michigan; is president of the Michigan Fire & 
Marine Insurance Company, and treasurer 
since its organization of the Standard Life & 



Accident Company. Mr. O'Brien was one of 
those instrumental in securing the introduction 
of natural gas in Detroit, and was treasurer 
and a director of the Detroit Natural Gas Com- 
pany during the period of its existence, which 
terminated with the failure of the gas supply. 
He is treasurer of its successor, The Detroit 
City Gas Company. He has broad views in 
matters of public polity and is essentially loyal 
and public-spirited in his attitude. In politics 
he gives his allegiance to the Democratic party, 
and seems now to be a Mugwump, and he and 
his family are communicants of the Catholic 
church. For many years he has served as 
treasurer of the Detroit Association of Chari- 
ties, and he takes a deep and active interest in 
the work and support of this noble institution. 
At the time of the national encampment of the 
Grand Army of the Republic in Detroit, in 
1892, Mr. O'Brien was chosen custodian of the 
funds raised by the citizens to provide proper 
entertainment, and he was treasurer and a 
member of the executive committee of the 
Catholic congress held in Baltimore in 1889, 
and the Catholic Columbian congress, held at 
the world's fair in Chicago in 1893. On other 
pages of this work appears a review of the 
history of the People's Savings Bank, in con- 
nection with the sketch devoted to the People's 
State Bank, of which Mr. O'Brien is the vice- 
president and in whose administrative affairs 
he is one of the most potential and valued 

factors. 

In the year 1874 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. O'Brien to Miss Martha F. Wat- 
son, daughter of the late James Watson, of 
Bay City, and they became the parents of three 
sons and one daughter. The eldest son. Will- 
iam J., enlisted for service at the time of the 
Spanish-American war and became a sergeant 
in the Torry Rough Riders. He died in the re- 
serve camp at Jacksonville, Florida, from an 
attack of typhoid fever. Mrs. O'Brien was 
summoned to the life eternal on the 15th of 
June, 1894, and on the 20th of July. 1898, Mr. 
O'Brien was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
I. Flattery, who was born and reared in De- 



II 



530 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



troit and who is prominent in the social activi- 
ties of her native cit)'. 

In concluding this sketch it is beheved to be 
but a matter of considerate tribute and appre- 
ciation and one of historic interest, to enter the 
follownig extracts from an article pubHshed in 
the Cyclopedia of Michigan issued in 1900: 

During the memorable currency famine and 
hnancial troubles of 1893, when so many banks 
throughout the country went to the wall, while 
the wave of intense excitement swept eastward 
from Chicago, and the most extravagant and 
unfounded rumors were freely circulated, the 
gravest apprehensions felt on every side.' and 
runs started upon even the best institutions 
the People's Savings Bank was the first one at- 
tacked in Detroit. Several banks of the same 
name having previously suspended in other 
cities, the rumors resulting from this similarity 
of name precipitated a run upon it from some 
of Its more ignorant and thoughtless depositors 
and this immediatelv extended to all of the 
other savings banks in the city. It was deemed 
fortunate that one of the strongest of their 
number, under able and experienced mana^^e- 
nient. had to bear the brunt of the shock The 
People's Savings Bank met it in such a manner 
that Its example was followed by all the other 
savings banks until the excitement subsided and 
the business of all the banks, with the aid of 
the committees of the clearing house, became 
gradually restored to its normal condition 
without a single bank failure. This was a time 
that tested to the utmost the skill and good 
judgment of bank officers, and it is a matter of 
pride to the city of Detroit to know that the 
head and the subordinate officers of this o-reat 
bank were equal to the occasion ; for theil^ ac- 
tion, governed by the wisest and best judgment 
averted what might easily have become a 
calamity of great magnitude, not only to De- 
troit but also to the entire state. The banks 
of Detroit, by great wisdom, united to uphold 
each other, and Mr. O'Brien was called upon 
as chairman of the clearing house committee 
and as a member of the credit committee of the 
clearing house, to participate in the discussions 
and also in the decisions. Through the com- 
bined wisdom of these two committees of the 
Detroit clearing house every bank in Detroit 
was saved; not one went down.— and this at a 
time when a single mistake would have been 
fatal and have brought ruin to thousands. 



FRED T. MORAN. 

On other pages of this publication mav be 
found a memoir dedicated to the late William 
B. Moran, elder brother of the subject of this 
sketch, and in the article mentioned is given 
an incidental review of the family history, on 
which score it is unnecessar)- to repeat the 
data in the present connection. It is sufficient 
to say that the Moran family is one of the old 
and prominent ones of Detroit, with whose so- 
cial and business annals the name has been 
long and prominently identified. The subject 
of this sketch is one to whom mav be ascribed 
a large measure of credit in connection with 
the development of the "Greater Detroit," for 
Ills energy, ability and capitalistic support 
have been potent factors in the upbuilding of 
important industrial and financial enterprises 
not the least of which is that represented by 
the Peninsular Stove Company, which is one 
of the largest concerns of the sort in the world 
and of which he is president. 

Fred T. Moran is a native of Detroit, where 
he was born on the 4th of March, 1855. a son 
of Judge Charles Moran and Justine (McCor- 
niack) Moran, the former of whom was born 
in Detroit and the latter in Orange county 
New York. More definite mention of the ex- 
alted life and labors of Judge Charles Moran 
appears m the previously mentioned sketch of 
the life of William B. Moran. Fred T. was 
afforded the advantages of the public schools 
of Detroit, after which he entered St. John's 
College. Fordham. New York, which finely 
ordered institution conferred upon him the de- 
gree of Master of Arts. Mr. Moran initiated 
his business career by assuming a position as 
clerk in the office of his brother, William B. 
Moran, who was then one of the leading mem- 
bers of the Detroit bar, and who also had im- 
portant business investments. Fred T. Moran 
was admitted to the bar of his native state in 
1878. upon examination before the circuit 
court. He has. however, never been engaged 
in the active practice of his profession. Al- 
though, as a matter of course, his technical 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



531 



knowledge of the law has been of inestimable 
valne to him in his business career. 

In 1880 he became associated with William 
B. Moran, James Dwyer and other representa- 
tive citizens of Detroit in the organization and 
incorporation of the Peninsular Stove Com- 
pany, of which an adequate specific description 
appears in this work, and he became a member 
of the directorate of the company, which po- 
sition he has since retained. Upon the death 
of his brother, William B. Moran, in 1895, he 
was elected to succeed the latter in the office of 
president, of which he is still incumbent, hav- 
ing shown great discrimination and initiative 
in directing the affairs of the great corpora- 
tion of which he is the executive head. He 
was also one of the founders of the American 
Harrow Company, in which he is still a stock- 
holder, and he is a member of the board of 
directors of the People's State Bank. Into 
other industrial channels has he directed his 
individual and financial forces, and he is now 
president of the Michigan Copper & Brass 
Company, which was organized and incorpo- 
rated in January, 1906; is vice-president of 
the Gabriel Reinforcement Concrete Company; 
is a director of the Welch Automobile Com- 
pany and the Security Trust Company: and 
vice-president of the H^ome Telephone Com- 
pany, one of the magnificent public-utility in- 
stitutions of Detroit. Mr. Moran is not a 
mere stockholder in these various corporations. 
Ijut takes an active part in. their management, 
bringing to bear his progressive ideas and ever 
manifesting a lively concern in all that tends 
to advance the material and civic prosperity 
of his native city. While never a seeker of 
public office Mr. Moran has served since 1890 
as a member of the board of fire commissioners 
of Detroit, and he is independent in political 
affairs. He is a member of all the representa- 
tive clubs of Detroit, is identified with the 
Board of Commerce and enjoys unreserved 
popularity in both business and social circles. 

In the year 1877 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Moran to Miss Satilla Butterfield, 
who was born and reared in Pontiac, Michi- 



gan, and they are the parents of five children, 
namely: Viola A. (Mrs. E. T. Hammond), 
Satilla G., Francis C, Mary M., and Alfred T. 
The only son is now assistant to the secretary 
of the Peninsular Stove Company, having pre- 
viously learned the trade of stove moulder and 
pattern-maker, so that he has literally grown 
up in the business of the concern with which 
he is now identified in an official capacity. 



ALMON B. ATWATER. 

One of the well known civil engineers of the 
middle west is Mr. Atwater, who has been 
identified with railroading interests for nearly 
half a century, within which he has discharged 
most important professional functions, and 
who is now assistant to the president of the 
Chicago & Grand Trunk Railroad, with of- 
ficial headquarters in the city of Detroit. 

Mr. Atwater claims the old Buckeye state as 
the place of his nativity, having been born at 
Sheffield, Ashtabula county, Ohio, November 

19, 1845, ^""^ l^^^"? ^ ^°" °^ J°^" ^"^ ^^^' 
tilda (Hill) Atwater, the former of whom 
was born in Connecticut and the latter in Ver- 
mont, both families having been founded in 
New England in the colonial epoch of our 
national history. The father, whose active 
life was devoted principally to agricultural 
pursuits, died early in 1861, his wife having 
passed away in 1859 The subject of this re- 
view was afforded the advantages of Kings- 
ville Academy and Austinburg Institute, both 
in Ohio, and after the preliminary discipline 
thus gained he began the work of preparing 
himself for the profession in which he has at- 
tained to so much of eminence. He studied 
civil engineering under most favorable aus- 
pices and early developed marked ability in the 
line. His connection with railroad affairs 
dates its inception back to the year 1864. when 
lie became a telegraph operator in the employ 
of the Cleveland & Erie Railroad. In 1867 he 
entered the engineering department of the same 
system, on the Jamestown & Franklin division, 
and in 1870 he removed to the Dominion of 
Canada, where he assumed the position of as- 



532 



DETKOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



sistant engineer on construction work on the 
Canada Southern Railroad, having had charge 
of such work at various points,— principally 
from Hagersville to Fort Erie,— and remain- 
ing thus engaged until the track was laid. 
Thereafter he was for two years assistant en- 
gineer on the Port Dover & Lake Huron Rail- 
road, after which he was chief engineer of the 
system until 1877. From that time forward 
to 1882 he held the office of general superin- 
tendent of the road, and under his supervision 
was constructed the line to Georgian Bay. 

In 1882 Mr. At water became chief engineer 
of the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railroad, and 
m 1885 lie was advanced to the office of su- 
perintendent of all lines of this system east of 
the Detroit river. Within his regime he had 
charge of the rebuilding of the entire line be- 
tween Detroit and Chicago. In 1898 Mr. At- 
water entered the employ of the Michigan Cen- 
tral Railroad, with which he remained as as- 
sistant general superintendent until 1902 when 
he returned to the Grand Trunk as assistant to 
the president, with jurisdiction on all lines 
west of the Detroit river. This office he has 
smce retamed, being one of the honored and 
trusted officials of the road, to whose upbuild- 
ing he has contributed in no small measure. 
He is a member of the directorate of the Scot- 
ten-Dillon Company, one of the prosperous 
manufacturing concerns of Detroit, and is also 
a director of the Board of Commerce. He is 
a valued member of the American Society of 
Civil Engineers and is recognized as an au- 
thority in his profession. He is a communicant 
of St. John's church, Protestant Episcopal and 
IS affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, includ- 
ing the Knights Templars. 

In the year 1872 Mr. Atwater was united 
in marriage to Miss Jane Thompson, who was 
born and reared in the province of Ontario, 
Canada, and they have no children. 



CHARLES A. WARREN. 

A prominent figure in the banking circles of 
the state of Michigan is Charles A. Warren, 
Who is incumbent of the office of cashier of 



the Dime Savings Bank, which is specifically 
mentioned in this publication. He has long I 
maintained his home in Detroit and is one of' ' 
the well known, popular and public-spirited! 
business men of the metropolis of Michigan. )' 
Mr. Warren is a native of the old Bay state ' ' 
and is a representative of a family founded in 
New England in the colonial epoch of our ' I 
national history. He was born at Stow, Mid- ' 
dlesex county. Massachusetts, April 26, 1846. | 
and is a son of Francis W. and Lucy A. (For- 
bush) Warren, both of whom were native of 
Massachusetts, where they passed their early 
lives, the father's vocation during the major 
portion of his active career having been that ' 
of farming. He came to Michigan in 1846. i 
was in the employ of the Michigan Central 
Railroad Company and later with the Ward 
Line of lake steamers. The subject of this \ 
review was reared and educated in Massachu- 
setts, where he grew to maturity under the ' 
sturdy and invigorating discipline of the home ' 
farm— a training through which have come 
forth many of the strongest and most promi- 
nent business men of the country. He con- 
tinued to be identified with agricultural pur- 
suits in his native state until 1865, when, at 
the age of eighteen years, he came to Detroit, 
which city has been his place of abode during 
the long intervening years. Soon after his art -. 
rival Mr. Warren secured a clerical position 
m the office of the superintendent of the Michi- 
gan Central Railroad, and he remained with 
this company for the long period of twenty- 
seven years, during twenty-four of which he 
was passenger and ticket agent of the city 
office in Detroit. In 1891 he resigned this 
office to assume that of cashier of the Dime 
Savings Bank, of whose original directorate 
he was a member, and he has since continued 
to seiwe in this important office, in which he 
has done much to fonvard the upbuilding of 
the popular and substantial institution. 

In politics Mr. Warren is aligned as a loyal 
supporter of the cause of the Republican party, 
and he is identified with various fraternal, 
business and social organizations, and is spe- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



533 



cially prominent in the time-honored Masonic 
fraternity, being at the present time (1907) 
o-rand commander of the grand commandery of 
Knights Templars of Michigan, to which ex- 
alted office he was elected in June, 1907, at 
the annual conclave of the grand commandery 
held in the city of Saginaw. Mr. Warren 
was knighted in Detroit Commandery, No. i, 
on the 28th of December, 1869, and served 
in the marching ranks until 1873, when he was 
elected sword bearer. He served in this po- 
sition until 1890, when he was elected gener- 
alissimo, with William Livingstone, president 
of the bank of which he is cashier, as eminent 
commander. In 1892 Mr. Warren was ele- 
vated to the office of eminent commander of 
Detroit Commandery, and in 1894 he became 
a member of the grand commandery of the 
state, in which he was elected grand treasurer 
at the annual conclave of that year. He re- 
mained incumbent of this office until 1900, and 
from that time on he advanced through the 
various grades of official promotion until the 
culminating honor was attained in his election 
to the highest office in the gift of the York 
Rite Masons of the state. 

Mr. Warren was married June 19, 1869, to 
Mary E. Whitney, of Middlesex county, Mas- 
sachusetts. They have no children. 



RALPH STONE. 

On other pages of this work is entered a 
brief record concerning the Detroit Trust 
Company, of which the subject of this review 
is the efficient secretary, holding a secure po- 
sition as one of the practical financiers and rep- 
resentative business men of the younger gen- 
eration in Detroit. 

Mr. Stone was born at Wilmington, New 
Castle county, Delaware, on the 20th of No- 
vember, 1868, and is a son of Rev. George W. 
and Catherine G. (Graupner) Stone, the for- 
mer of whom was born in the state of New 
York and the latter in the city of Boston. 
The father became a successful merchant in 
Delaware, where he continued to be engaged in 



active business for many years. He and his 
wife now reside in the state of California, 
where he is a Unitarian minister. 

The subject of this sketch was reared to 
maturity in Delaware and after completing the 
curriculum of the public schools he was ma- 
triculated in Swarthmore College, at Phila- 
delphia, where he completed a thorough acad- 
emic course and was graduated as a member 
of the class of 1889, receiving the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. After leaving college he 
began the study of law, and in order to thor- 
oughly fortify himself for the work of the 
profession he finally entered the law depart- 
ment of the University of Michigan, in which 
he was graduated in 1892, with the degree of 
Bachelor of Laws. 

Soon after his graduation in the law school 
Mr. Stone went to Grand Rapids, this state, 
where he initiated the active practice of his 
profession, being there associated in the law 
business for one year with General Byron M. 
Cutcheon, one of the representative members 
of the Michigan bar. In the summer of 1893 
he was elected to the position of trust officer 
of the Michigan Trust Company, at Grand 
Rapids, retaining this office until 1898 and 
developing marked ability in the handling of 
the affairs of this order of financial institutions, 
with all details of whose functions and opera- 
tions he thoroughly familiarized himself. In 
the year last mentioned . Mr. Stone was ap- 
pointed private secretary to Governor Pin- 
gree. a position for which he was specially 
eligible, and he continued with the governor in 
this confidential relation until the termination 
of the latter's administration as chief executive 
of the state. In January, 1901, Mr. Stone was 
given still further precedence and recognition, 
through his appointment to the exacting office 
of state bank examiner, of which office he re- 
mained incumbent until May ist of the same 
year, when he resigned the same to join the 
Detroit Trust Company, of which he was made 
assistant secretary at that time. On January 
15. 1903, he was elected to his present office 
of secretary of the company. He is also sec- 



534 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



retary and treasurer of the Artcraft Litho- 
graphing Company of Detroit. 

In his poHtical adherency Mr. Stone is 
identified with the Republican party, and both 
lie and his wife hold membership in the Uni- 
tarian church, in which he is a trustee. He is 
a member of the Sons of the American Revo- 
lution, the Detroit Club, the University Club, 
the Detroit Boat and Golf Clubs, an honorary 
member of the New York State Bar Associ- 
ation, and governor of the Michigan Society 
of Mayflower Descendants. 

On the I St of January, 1895, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Stone to Miss Mary G. 
Jeffords, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the 
two children of this union are Ralph, Jr and 
Ruth. 



S. OLIN JOHNSON. 

Ours is a nation that is restless, vigorous, 
dominating,— a composite aggregate that will 
scarce admit any majestic conception of the 
mind as possible of literal and practical reah- 
zation; a nation that has cognizance of no ob- 
stacle as insuperable along the course where 
moves tlie column of advancement. As pos- 
sessing in due quota these elements in the 
personnel of our great national commonwealth, 
Detroit has gained a conspicuous position and 
her escutcheon is emblazoned with the well 
earned motto of progress. History is made 
rapidly in these latter days, representing cease- 
less toil and endeavor, the proudest achieve- 
ments and the most electrical progress in all 
normal lines, and what more gratifying than 
to mark the records of those whose influence 
has impressed itself along the various chan- 
nels through which the swelling tide of accom- 
plishment forces its way? As a representative 
of that class of men who have given an en- 
during character to the industrial and civic 
makeup of the city of Detroit the subject of 
this sketch is well worthy of consideration. 
He has shown both the power of initiative and 
that of concentration, and has made for him- 
self a secure place as one of the leaders in 
local industrial circles, being the executive 



head and essentially the controlling factor of 
the Penberthy Injector Company, which is the 
most extensive concern of the sort in the world 
and of which specific mention is made in an- 
other department of this publication. 

Stephen Olin Johnson is a native of the old 
Bay state, in which was cradled so much of our 
national history. He was born at Westfield, 
Hampden county, Massachusetts, on the 15th 
of June, 1847, and is a son of Philo and Eliza 
(English) Johnson, both of whom were like- 
wise natives of that commonwealth, and both 
of whom died in Brooklyn, New York. The 
father was a merchant and manufacturer. The 
Imeage of the subject of this review is of dis- 
tinctively patrician and interesting order, and 
honors rest upon the name both in England 
and in connection with the history of the great 
American republic from the early colonial 
epoch to the present time. Samuel Johnson, 
great-grandfather of him whose name intro- 
duces this article, was a native of Massachu- 
setts and was a valiant soldier in the Conti- 
nental line during the war of the Revolution, 
m which he serv'ed until the colonies had 
hurled oppression back and gained the boon of 
liberty. His son William was born iii New 
York city and there married Pamelia Dudley, 
a descendant of Sir Thomas Dudley, who 
came to Massachusetts as its first deputy gov- 
ernor, in 1630, and who was second governor 
of the colony,— 1634-5. His prominence and 
influence continued undiminished for many 
years, as is indicated in records extant, which 
show that he was again governor of the Mas- 
sachusetts colony from 1640 to 1646, and in 
1650 and 1 65 1. He was a member of the il- 
lustrious and ancient Dudley family of Eng- 
land, whose most notable representatives in Tn 
historical sense were Robert Dudley, earl of 
Leicester, and Lord Guilford Dudley, who 
wedded the Lady Jane Grey,— an unfortunate 
and pathetic figure in English history Will- 
iam and Pemilia (Dudley) Johnson, grand- 
parents of the subject of this sketch, continued 
to reside in the state of New York until their 
death. \Vere the limits of this article not 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



535 



necessarily circumscribed it would be interest- 
ing to enter iurther data concerning the 
genealogy of Mr. Johnson. 

S. Olin Johnson was afforded the advan- 
tages of the public schools of his native city, 
and New York city, and at the age of eighteen 
years he initiated his practical business ca- 
reer, by entering the employ of William P. Kit- 
tridge & Company, tobacco manufacturers, of 
that city. With this concern he continued to 
be identified until 1871, when, at the age of 
twenty-four years, he resigned his position, 
which was then one of responsible and confi- 
dential character, to accept more remunerative 
employment with E. I. Horsman, an extensive 
manufacturer of toys. As most significant 
voucher for his business ability and his fidelity 
is offered the statement that in 1873 he was 
given a fifth interest in the concern, to whose 
afifairs he continued to give his attention until 
1877, when his health became so impaired as to 
necessitate for him a radical change of cli- 
matic conditions. Accordingly he went to 
Colorado, where he remained two years, main- 
taining his residence in the city of Denver and 
laying aside for the interim all business cares. 
At the expiration of the period noted he en- 
o-ased in the business of toys, games and home 
amusements in Denver, where he built up a 
prosperous enterprise. He remained in that 
city until 1884, when he came to Michigan and 
accepted the position of manager of the Detroit 
Knitting & Corset Works. In the connection 
he was called upon to face exigencies which 
would have feazed a man of less confidence, en- 
ergy and administrative ability, since there de- 
volved upon him the work of attempting to 
upbuild and place on a substantial basis a busi- 
ness which in the six years of its existence had 
shown but negative results, having to its rec- 
ord a loss of about sixty thousand dollars. 
That his interposition inured to the benefit of 
the enterprise in an emphatic way is evidenced 
in the fact that under his management a net 
profit of nine thousand dollars was shown at 
the end of the first year. His connection with 
this company continued until 1887, when he 



effected the sale of the equipment and business 
to the Schilling Corset Company, with a sub- . 
stantial profit to the interested principals. In 
the preceding year he had, in company with 
Homer Pennock and William Penberthy, or- 
ganized and incorporated the Penberthy In- 
jector Company, of which he became secretary 
and treasurer. From that time to the present 
he has been the directing spirit in this company, 
and the upbuilding of its magnificent business 
represents the results of his indefatigable and 
well directed efforts. He is now president and 
treasurer of the company and of its stock he 
controls fully eighty per cent. The article, on 
other pages, descriptive of the company af- 
fords adequate information of a supplemental 
order, and to the same the reader is referred. 
Strong, broad-minded and positive as a factor 
in the business world, Mr. Johnson has clearly 
demonstrated his title to leadership and to a 
place in the ranks of America's true captains of 
industry. His course has been marked by im- 
pregnable integrity of purpose, and his reputa- 
tion as a reliable and progressive business man 
and substantial and public-spirited citizen is 
unassailable. He is also president of the Inter- 
national Specialty Company, of Detroit, man- 
ufacturers of specialties, and of the Penberthy 
Company, Limited, of Windsor, Ontario, rep- 
resenting the Canadian auxiliary of the Pen- 
berthy Injector Company. He is a member of 
the Michigan Manufacturers' Association ; the 
American Supply & Machinery Manufacturers' 
Association, of New York; the Central Sup- 
ply Association, of Chicago; the Southern Ma- 
chinery Dealers' Association, of Knoxville, 
Tennessee; the Detroit Employers' Associa- 
tion, in the brass division of which he was the 
first'president: the Associated Employers' Cor- 
poration of Detroit, of which he was elected 
the first vice-president, as well as director ; the 
Detroit Trades School, of whose executive 
committee he has been a member since 1902; 
the National Association of Stationery Engin- 
eers, of which he is an associate member; and 
the Detroit Board of Commerce, in whose 
work he shows a vital and helpful interest. His 



536 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



political allegiance is given to the Republican 
party, but he is essentially a business man and 
has never manifested any desire to enter the 
field of practical politics. He and his wife are 
members of the Unitarian church, and he is 
identified with the Detroit Club, the Country 
Club, the Old Club at St. Clair Flats, the Au 
Sable Fishing Club, the North Channel Club, 
and the Masonic fraternity, in which he has 
attained to the thirty-second degree of the 
Scottish Rite, being also affiliated with the 
adjunct body, the Ancient Arabic Order of the 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. 

The fine city home of Mr. Johnson is located 
at 56 Rowena street, in one of the most attrac- 
tive residence sections of the city, and is the 
center of a brilliant and representative society 
circle ; its cordial hospitality, dominated by the 
gracious presence of Mrs. Johnson, makes it 
one of the favored resorts of his many friends. 
Mr. Johnson also has a most beautiful summer 
home at Amherstburg, Ontario, with a front- 
age of three hundred feet on the Detroit river, 
and here is shown one of the finest specimens of 
landscape gardening to be found in the vicinity 
of Detroit, — a section widely known for its 
many picturesque summer homes. Mr. John- 
son has not hedged himself in with the affairs 
of business, but is a man of broad informa- 
tion and definite culture. His strength as a 
. man of affairs is not greater than is his popu- 
larity in social life, and his character is sym- 
metrical and well rounded, showing his powers 
of assimilation, absorption and appreciation. 

On the 5th of June, 1873, Mr. Johnson was 
united in marriage to Miss Lilla Louise Sturte- 
vant, daughter of George and Sarah (Bissell) 
Sturtevant. of New York. Mrs. Johnson is a 
niece of the late George H. Bissell, who was 
the discoverer of petroleum and who gave to 
Dartmouth College the gymnasium which bears 
his name. Concerning the children of Mr. and 
Mrs. Johnson the following brief data are en- 
tered : Homer S., secretary and general man- 
ager of the Penberthy Injector Company, is 
individually mentioned in this volume; Alice 
G. is a graduate of the Bristol School, Wash- 



ington, D. C. and remains at the parental 
home; Claire Olin is a student in the VVyke- 
ham Rise School, at Washington, Connecticut ; 
and Charles B. is attending St. John's Military 
Academy, at Manlius, New York. 

Mrs. Johnson is a woman of gracious pres- 
mce and gentle refinement, being prominent in 
the best social life of Detroit and being speci- 
ally prominent in musical and club circles. She 
is at this date president of the Fine Arts So- 
ciety, of Detroit, as well as its founder and 
also president of the "Tuesday Musicale." one 
of the oldest musical organizations in the city. 
She is also a composer of considerable talent, 
several of her compositions being sung by 
noted artists. 



OZIAS WILLIAMS SHIPMAN. 

Amidst all the changes and chances of this 
mortal life Ozias W. Shipman showed himself 
possessed of a strong, true and noble spirit, a 
full appreciation of his stewardship and an 
abiding sympathy and charity for "all sorts and 
conditions of men." He achieved material suc- 
cess of high order and through worthy means, 
was leal and loyal as a citizen, and so ordered 
his life as to retain the confidence and esteem 
of all with whom he came in contact. Naught 
of vacillation entered into his nature, whtch 
was one of sincere and positive order, and in- 
tegrity was the dominating attribute of his 
long and signally useful career. His influence 
permeated largely the business activities of the 
city of Detroit and it is fitting that in this pub- 
lication be accorded at least a brief tribute to 
his memory. 

Ozias Williams Shipman was bom at Piers- 
town, Otsego county. New York, on the 29th 
of January, 1834, and his death occurred at 
his home in the city of Detroit, 439 Cass ave- 
nue, on the 28th of January, 1898. He was a 
son of Horace and Abigail Anne (Williams) 
Shipman, both representatives of families 
founded in America in the early colonial epoch 
of our national history and both of staunch 
English ancestry. Soon after his birth his 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



537 



parents removed to Norwich, Chenango 
county. New York, where his fatlier was for 
several years engaged in the milhng business 
and the manufacturing of lead pipe, and the 
family then removed to Fort Plain, Montgom- 
ery county, that state, where the subject of 
this memoir supplemented his rudimentary 
education by attending for some time the Fort 
Plain Seminary, a well ordered institution and 
one of whose advantages he showed himself 
duly appreciative. The family resided in Fort 
Plain for a period of four years, at the expira- 
tion of which removal was made to a large 
farm in the township of Union, Broome county, 
New York. About a year later the father of 
our subject purchased a grist mill, plaster mill 
and farm at Athens, Bradford county, Penn- 
sylvania, to which place the family then re- 
moved, with the exception of Ozias W. and 
his elder brother, who remained to supervise 
the operation of the farm at Union. The two 
young men put forth their best efforts in this 
connection, and through their "ceaseless toil 
and endeavor" met with unequivocal success. 
At the expiration of two years they rejoined 
the family, at Athens, Pennsylvania, where the 
subject of this review remained until shortly 
before attaining to his legal majority. At this 
time he practically initiated his independent 
business career, which was to eventuate in the 
achieving of noteworthy success in the future 
years, and he was then, as ever, animated by 
courage, persistence, self-confidence and im- 
pregnable honesty of purpose,— fortuitous 
equipment with which to face the battle of life. 
In company with another young man Mr. 
Shipman opened a grocery store at Waverly, 
Tioga county. New York, a little village not 
far distant from the parental home, and soon 
afterward he purchased his partner's interest 
in the enterprise, which, through untiring ap- 
plication and good management, he developed 
into a most extensive and profitable business, — 
in the comparative sense implied in the natu- 
rally circumscribed field of operations. It must 
not be understood, however, that the business 
was one of slight magnitude, for its extent was 



greater than that of many similar enterprises 
in metropolitan centers to-day. He was lo- 
cated in a most favored section of the old Em- 
pire state, financial affairs in general were in 
excellent condition, and he personally held the 
unqualified esteem of the people throughout 
the territory extending for miles in various 
directions. The extent of his business opera- 
tions may be understood when it is stated that 
for several years his annual transactions repre- 
sented the notable aggregate of more than one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. 

In these years Mr. Shipman had gained a 
high local reputation as a careful and discrimi- 
nating business man and one possessed of 
marked executive ability, the result being that 
he was called upon to lend his services along 
lines aside from his regular vocation at the 
time. Upon the occasion of the protracted 
strike of the employes of the Erie Railroad in 
1870, the company secured the aid of Mr. 
Shipman in operating the line in opposition to 
the strikers. Of his connection with this work 
another sketch of his career, published in the 
late Silas Farmer's excellent history of Detroit 
and Michigan, speaks as follows: "His efforts 
in this direction were particularly valuable to 
the company, but he aroused the ill will of the 
former railroad employes, and some of the 
more lawless, in retaliation, set fire to his busi- 
ness block, and it was completely destroyed. 
He immediately rebuilt, on a more extensive 
plan, one of the largest and finest business 
houses in Waverly, but in 1872 he sold out 
his business and went to New York city, and, 
in the interest of New York capitalists, visited 
Utah, to inspect a silver mine, in which, on a 
favorable report being received, they proposed 
to invest a large sum of money. Mr. Shipman 
being convinced that the mine was absolutely 
worthless, so advised them and thus saved 
them from heavy losses." His efforts in this 
direction brought him into further prominence 
in capitalistic circles in the national metropolis, 
and as a number of those in whose behalf he 
had made the trip to Utah were at the time 
engaged in building a railroad from Newark, 



538 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Ohio, to the Shawnee coal fields, Mr. Shipman 
became personally identified with the enter- 
prise. He purchased a quarter interest in the 
stock of the Shawnee Coal Company, and after 
the completion of the railroad mentioned he 
had charge of the coal fields and of the ship- 
ping of the product at Shawnee, Ohio. He 
continued to be actively identified with the en- 
terprise until 1880, and within his regime 
brought the productive capacity of the mines 
up to the notable aggregate of one hundred 
carloads per day. 

As early as the year 1874 Mr. Shipman had 
established a coal agency in Detroit, but the 
same proved unsuccessful, through the inef- 
fective management of the local representative. 
In the following year, therefore, he personally 
came to Detroit, where he assumed charge of 
the business noted and where he continued 
thereafter to make his home until he was 
called from the scene of life's endeavors. His 
intimate relations with the operating coal com- 
pany and the exceptional shipping facilities 
which he was enabled to control through his 
interest in the Newark & Shawnee Railroad, 
made it possible for him to develop eventually 
the largest coal business in the state of Michi- 
gan, his annual sales attaining to an aggregate 
of more than one and one-half million of dol- 
lars, — which implied the handling of an aver- 
age of fully six hundred thousand tons of coal 
each year. He supplied several railroads and 
his trade ramified throughout Michigan and 
several western states, as well as into various 
sections of Canada. He gave strict attention 
to business and developed his enterprise to a 
point which won to him therefrom a substan- 
tial fortune. He continued the coal business in 
Detroit until his death and for several years 
prior thereto was the owner and operator of a 
coal mine in Athens county, Ohio. He had 
other capitalistic and industrial interests of an 
important order and was known as one of 
Detroit's most progressive, loyal and public- 
spirited business men. At the time of his de- 
mise he was president of the Frontier Iron & 
Brass Company, of this city, was a stockholder 



of the Fire Proof Paint Company, of Chicago, 
and also held stock in the Commercial Na- 
tional and American National Banks of 
Detroit. 

As a man among men, knowing the well- 
springs of human motive and action, he was 
affable, courteous and tolerant, and his sym- 
pathy was manifested in innumerable and prac- 
tical ways, with naught of ostentation. He 
remembered those in affliction and his kindli- 
ness was best shown in his quiet and timely 
acts of charity, his benefices being usually un- 
known to other than himself and the recipients. 
Instances of this order have since transpired, 
but to here enter record concerning the same 
would be inconsonant with the modest atti- 
tude which he himself ever held in such con- 
nections. Faithfulness and helpfulness re- 
mained with him as permanent guests, and to 
those who best knew the man is given the 
fullest appreciation of the true nobility and 
strength of his character. Though never a 
seeker of public office. Mr. Shipman accorded 
a staunch allegiance to the Republican party 
and always did all in his power to further good 
government and general prosperity and prog- 
ress. He attained to the thirty-third and last 
degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite 
of Freemasonry and was active for man\- 
years in the affairs of this time-honored fra- 
ternity. The home members of the supreme 
council passed appreciative resolutions of 
honor and regret at the time of his death, and 
these were signed by all members in Michigan 
at that time. In connection with tlie exquisite 
floral tribute tendered were expressed the fol- 
lowing sentiments : "We, the surviving friends 
and fraters of Sovereign Grand Inspector O. 
W. Shipman, 7,^^°. unite in this expression of 
our admiration for him, in presenting on the 
occasion of his decease this floral tribute, — fit 
emblem of a beautiful life, fragrant with 
memories of real benevolence that fell upon 
the objects of his regard, as pure and silent as 
the beams of the morning upon an awakening 
world." Mr. Shipman was a communicant 
and devout member of the Protestant Epis- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



539 



copal church, having long been one of the 
valued members of St. John's parish, of which 
he was a vestryman for several years, — until 
the time of his death. 

On the 5th of June, 1856, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Shipman to Miss Emily 
L. Comstock, of Newark Valley, New York. 
She was born in Newark Valley and her death 
occurred in the city of Chicago, Illinois, on 
the 9th of March, 1895. She was a daughter 
of Sanford and Mary Elizabeth (Fuller) Com- 
stock. Mr. and Mrs. Shipman became the 
parents of three children, of whom two are 
living: Arthur William Shipman, the only 
son, died in infancy; Anne Evans is the wife 
of Frederic Beckwith Stevens, of Detroit; 
and Marietta Celia is the wife of Henry 
Southard Lewis, of Circleville, Ohio. 



HENRY H. SANGER. 

The efficient and popular cashier of the Na- 
tional Bank of Commerce of Detroit, of which 
mention is made in this work, is Henry H. 
Sanger, who was the chief promoter of the 
organization of tlie institution, which. received 
its charter on the 24th of April, 1907, and 
opened for business on the ist of the follow- 
ing June. He is a native son of Detroit and 
here has had ample experience in financial af- 
fairs, through Iiis connection with which he 
has advanced to liis present responsible execu- 
tive position. 

Mr. Sanger was born in Detroit on the 21st 
of September, 1866, and is a son of Henry P. 
and Frances H. (Hurlburt) Sanger, the for- 
mer of whom was born in tlie state of New 
York and the latter in the historic old city 
of St. Augustine, Florida. Henry P. Sanger 
was born at Utica, New York, in 1832, being 
a son of Henry K. Sanger, who came to De- 
troit in 1838, as cashier of the Bank of Michi- 
gan, one of the first of importance established 
after the admission of the state to the Union. 
Later he became incumbent of a similar office 
in the Michigan Insurance Bank, which was a 
United States government depository. He 



continued to be identified with banking inter- 
ests in Detroit until his death, which occurred 
in 1863, and his name merits a place on the 
roll of the honored pioneers of Detroit and 
the state. His son Henry P., father of the 
subject of this sketch, was for some time pay- 
ing teller in the bank of which his father was 
cashier, and he is still a resident of Detroit, 
with whose history his name has been promi- 
nently and intimately identified. 

After duly completing the curriculum of the 
public schools of Detroit Henry H. Sanger, 
whose name introduces this article, was matri- 
culated in Cornell University, New York, in 
which institution he was graduated as a mem- 
ber of the class of 1891, receiving the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts. He then returned to De- 
troit and in January of the following year he 
assumed a clerical position in the First Nation- 
al Bank, a lineal successor of that of which his 
grandfather was originally cashier, and in this 
institution he rose through various grades of 
promotion to a position of executive responsi- 
bility. He resigned his position in 1900 to 
accept that of auditor of the Commercial Na- 
tional Bank of Detroit, of which office he was 
incumbent one year, at the expiration of which 
he was made second assistant cashier, from 
which position he was advanced to that of first 
assistant cashier. In this capacity he served 
until March 11, 1907, when he resigned, for 
the purpose of devoting his attention to the 
organization of the National Bank of Com- 
merce, of which he is cashier. Of the success 
of his work in this connection adequate infor- 
mation is given in the review of the history of 
the bank, on other pages of this work. He 
is also a director of the Hayes Manufacturing 
Company, representing one of the successful 
industrial concerns of Detroit. He is treas- 
urer and a director of the Detroit Club and 
holds membership in the Detroit Country Club, 
the Detroit Boat Club, the University Club and 
the local bankers' club, besides being identified 
with various fraternal organizations. His po- 
litical views are indicated in the allegiance 
which he accords to tlie Republican party and 



540 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



his religious views are in harmony with the 
tenets of the Protestant Episcopal church, in 
whose faith he was reared. He is one of the 
progressive and popular business men of that 
younger generation in Detroit which has done 
so much to further the advancement of the city 
and to upbuild the "Greater Detroit." 



HENRY STEPHENS, JR. 

Mr. Stephens is known as one of the repre- 
sentative business men of Detroit and from 
his youth to the present time has been identi- 
hed with industrial and business enterprises 
which have had bearing upon the progress and 
prosperity of the state of Michigan, with whose 
annals the family name has been linked in no 
insignificant way for a period of more than 
sixty years. On other pages of this publica- 
tion appears a memoir of Henry Stephens, Sr., 
father of the subject of this review, and ref- 
erence should be made to the same for family 
data and for information pertinent to the busi- 
ness career of him whose name initiates this 
article. 

Henry Stephens, Jr., was born in the vil- 
lage of Romeo, Macomb county, Michigan, 
on the 20th of September, 1854, and there he 
was reared to maturity, being afiforded the 
advantages of the public schools and early be- 
ginning to assist in his father's general store 
and later in his varied and extensive lumbering 
operations, in Lapeer and Roscommon comt 
ties, Michigan. The father was the founder 
of the village of St. Helens, in the latter 
county, where he established a large plant for 
the manufacturing of lumber, and in that sec- 
tion he built up a lumbering business which 
was one of the most important in the state. 
In 1882 a stock company was organized, under 
the title of Henry Stephens & Company, and 
of this corporation Henry Stephens, Jr.,' and 
his brother Albert became interested princi- 
pals. Soon after the death of the honored 
father, in 1886, this concern was succeeded by 
the Stephens Lumber Company, and under this 
title the business has since been continued under 



the control and practical ownership of the sub- 
ject of this sketch. Mr. Stephens has gained 
recognition as one of the representative lum- 
ber operators of his native state and the busi- 
ness with which he is now identified in this 
line IS of wide scope and importance. In the 
connection, as indicative of the extent of op- 
erations, reference should be made to the pre- 
viously mentioned sketch of the life of his 
father. The family home has been in Detroit 
smce 1888, and here Mr. Stephens centers his 
varied capitalistic and industrial interests. He 
is a member of the directorate of the Old De- 
troit National Bank and also that of the De- 
troit United Bank, is vice-president of the 
Scotten-Dillon Company, the extensive manu- 
facturers of tobacco, in Detroit, and his prin- 
cipal lumbering operations at this time are in 
Otsego county, where he has valuable prop- 
erties. He is vice-president and half owner 
of the Detroit Journal. 

In politics Mr. Stephens gives his allegiance 
to the Republican party, and he is identified 
with the Detroit Club, the Detroit Boat Club 
and the Detroit Athletic Club. He and his 
wife move in the leading social circles of the 
city and their attractive home is a center of 
generous and gracious hospitality. 

In the year 1876 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Stephens to Miss Sarah Millen, 
who was born and reared at Romeo, this state' 
being a daughter of the late Harvey Millen' 
Mr. and Mrs. Stephens have one son and two 
daughters, namely: Henry, Gail, Jacqueline. 



HENRY A. HAI6H. 

It has been the lot of the subject of this re- 
view to attain to distinction in the profession 
of law, to achieve priority and leadership in 
the political affairs of his native state, and to 
become a forceful figure in connection with the 
construction and operation of both steam and 
electric railways. Thus he is distinctively a 
man of affairs and he is known as one of the 
representative business men of Detroit, where 
he resides, though he passes a portion of his 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



541 



time in the village of Dearborn, Wayne county, 
in which attractive suburb of the Michigan 
metropolis he vi^as born and reared. Not less 
by reason of his own worthy achievement than 
on the score of being a representative of one of 
the old and honored families of Wayne county 
is he particularly entitled to recognition in this 
publication, and it is a source of gratification 
to the publishers to here enter a succinct review 
of his career, and also to offer, on other pages, 
a memoir to his honored father, the late Rich- 
ard Haigh, who was a resident of Wayne 
county for more than half a century and who 
passed to his reward in the fulness of years and 
in the maturity of a strong and useful char- 
acter. 

Henry Allyn Haigh was born in the old fam- 
ily homestead in Dearborn, Wayne county, 
Michigan, on the 13th of March, 1854, and is 
the youngest of the five children of Richard 
and Lucy B. (Allyn) Haigh. For detailed rec- 
ord concerning the family history reference 
should be made to the sketch of the life of the 
late Richard Haigh. Henry A. was accorded 
the advantages of the public schools of his na- 
tive village, and later continued his studies in 
Waterloo, New York. In 1871 he was 
matriculated in the Michigan State Agricul- 
tural College, at Lansing, and in this institution 
he was graduated as a member of the class of 
1874, duly receiving the degree of Bachelor of 
Science. In 1876 Mr. Haigh entered the law 
department of the University of Michigan, and 
he was graduated in 1878, with the degree of 
Bachelor of Laws. Prior to this, in the winter 
of 1874-5 he had taught one term of school, 
in his home county, and in March of the lat- 
ter year he was appointed to a clerkship in the 
office of the Michigan state board of health, 
serving in this capacity, at Lansing, until Sep- 
tember of the following year. Shortly after 
his graduation in the law school he was ad- 
mitted to the bar of his native state, and he 
then set forth to seek a location for practice 
in some one of the western states. He finally 
decided, however, that Michigan ofifered super- 
ior attractions and he returned to Detroit, 



where he initiated the active work of the pro- 
fession in which he attained to so much of pre- 
cedence and success. It is scarcely necessary to 
state that he has never regretted the impulse or 
judgment which led him to remain in Detroit 
instead of identifying himself with some west- 
ern community. In Detroit he became an of- 
fice associate of his former classmate in the 
university, Hon. William L. Carpenter, since 
chief justice of Michigan, and they soon gained 
marked prestige as able and reliable trial law- 
yers and counselors. In 1889 he and Mr. Car- 
penter associated themselves with the late Col- 
onel John Atkinson and Flavins L. Brooke in 
forming the law firm of Atkinson, Carpenter, 
Brooke & Haigh, which gained recognition as 
one of the strongest firms in the state, and 
which controlled a large and important prac- 
tice and had a representative clientage. In 
1893 Judge Carpenter withdrew from the firm, 
to assume his position on the Wayne circuit 
bench, to which he had been elected in the fall 
of the preceding year. In 1892-3 Mr. Haigh 
was deeply concerned in and occupied with the 
affairs of the Michigan Republican Club, of 
which he was one of the founders and of which 
he was chosen the first secretary. In the fall 
of 1893 he became junior member of the firm of 
Atkinson & Haigh, and he continued to be as- 
sociated with Colonel Atkinson until 1896, 
after which he was engaged in an individual, 
and particularly successful, practice until 1899, 
since which time the exactions of his manifold 
and important business interests have en- 
grossed practically his entire time and atten- 
tion. 

Reverting to his connection with active polit- 
ical work, it may be said that Mr. Haigh served 
as secretary of the Michigan Republican Club, 
of which he continued secretary from the time 
of its organization, in 1884, until the close of 
the year 1886. He was one of the chief pro- 
moters of this organization, which so long 
• wielded a powerful influence in Michigan poli- 
tics, and in 1892 he was again elected secretary, 
in which office he continued to serve until 1894. 
He remained a director of the club during the 



542 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



entire period of its existence, and was presi- 
dent of the club in 1896. In 1887 Mr. Haigli 
was prominently concerned in the organization 
of the National Republican League. In 189^-3 
he was the Michigan member of the executive 
committee. In 1896 he was elected president 
of the McKinley Club of Detroit, which did ef- 
fective service in the campaign of that year 
In the campaign of 1892 Mr. Haigh not 'only 
served as secretary of the Michigan RepubH- 
can Club but was also elected presidential elec- 
tor from his state and was chosen by his col- 
leagues to bear the vote of Michigan to the 
national capital. He was an active factor in 
manosuvering forces in the spirited presiden- 
tial campaign of 1896, and was alternate dele- 
gate-at-large from Michigan to the Republican 
national convention of that year, in St. Louis. 
He was also the first secretary of the Michigan 
State Republican League, which was organized 
in 1888. 

Apropos of and incidental to Mr. Haigh's 
professional work, it should be noted that in 
1884 he published "Haigh's Manual of Law," 
a compilation of the laws applicable to farm 
life and rural districts. This work has had a 
large sale and is in general use by justices of 
the peace throughout the country. In 1888 he 
compiled and published a work entitled the 
"Labor Laws of America," and this also is an 
authoritative publication. He has also been 
an occasional contributor to newspapers and 
magazines —chiefly on topics incidental to po- 
litical affairs, matters of public policv and pub- 
lic health. 

In 1898 Mr. Haigh assisted Messrs. Samuel 
F. Angus and James D. Hawks in securing the 
right of way necessary to the completion of the 
Detroit, Ypsilanti & Ann Arbor Railway, an 
electric line. His success in this enterprise led 
to his further association with Mr. Angus, in 
the promotion of the Toledo, Fremont & Nor- 
walk Railway, in Ohio. Of the company 
formed for the carrying through of the project 
he was chosen treasurer and general counsel, 
and he was also very active in connection with' 
the construction of the line, having effected the 



organization of the Comstock-Haigh-Walker 
Company, in which the interested principals 
were Andrew W., William B. and William A 
Comstock. of Alpena, Michigan; Frederick W 
Walker, of New York, and himself. As the 
contractors for the work, this company com- 
pleted the line, and Mr. Haigh was treasurer 
of the company. The road thus completed six- 
ty-five miles in length, was finally sold to the 
Everett syndicate, of Cleveland, and now forms 
an integral part of the Lake Shore Electric 
Railway. 

In 1902 the Comstock-Haigh-Walker Com- 
pany began the construction of the Rochester 
& Eastern Railway, a high-grade electric sys- 
tem, connecting Rochester, Canandaigua and 
Geneva, New York. This road was completed 
and placed on a paying basis, and in 1905 the 
property was sold to the New York Central 
Railroad Company. The next venture of the 
company was the construction of the Milwau- 
kee Northern Railway, and this system, when 
completed, will connect {\ye of the most pros- 
perous and important agricultural and manu- 
facturing counties in Wisconsin. The first di- 
vision, traversing a distance of fifty-six miles, 
between Milwaukee and Sheboygan, is now 
completed and is of the best type of electric 
railway construction. The second division, ex- 
tending to Fond du Lac, a distance of forty-two 
miles, will be completed before the close of the 
year 1909. Upon the death of William B. Com- 
stock. in 1906, Mr. Haigh succeeded him as 
president of the Comstock-Haigh-Walker Com- 
pany, and of this chief executive office he has 
since remained in tenure. He is also treasurer 
of the Milwaukee Northern Railway Company. 
In 1905 Mr. Haigh became vice-president and 
director of the Detroit, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor 
& Jackson Railway, with which he was actively 
connected up to the time of its sale to the De- 
troit United Railway Companv, in 1908. Up- 
on the death of Andrew w'. Comstock in 
April, 1908, Mr. Haigh was elected president 
and director of the Cincinnati, Georgetown & 
Portsmouth Railroad, a steam and electric rail- 
way running easterly from Cincinnati and com- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



543 



prising some seventy miles of track ; also of the 
Felicity & Bethel Railroad, an electric line in 
southern Ohio, in the supervision of both of 
which properties he is actively engaged. He 
is also director in the Alpena Power Company 
and is interested in various other industrial en- 
terprises. He was a member of the Michigan 
state board of health from 190 1 to 1906, a mem- 
ber of the American Public Health Association, 
and was and still is a member of the Michigan 
Pioneer and Historical Society, and in 1906 
was on its executive committee. The forego- 
ing data clearly indicate how wide and impor- 
tant have been the activities in which Mr. 
Haigh has been and is prominently concerned. 

Mr. Haigh was one of the original sub- 
scribers to the stock of the Peninsular Savings 
Bank of Detroit, has served as a member of its 
board of directors since 1906 and at present is 
a member of the executive committee of that 
bank. He was also one of the organizers of 
the Continental Casualty Company, of Chi- 
cago, for a number of years was a member of 
its^directorate, and is now its general counsel 
for Michigan. He is a member of the Detroit 
Board of Commerce, and in every respect is to 
lie regarded as a loyal and public-spirited citi- 
zen. He is identified with the Detroit Club, 
the Country Club at Grosse Pointe, and Orien- 
tal Lodge, No. 240, Free and Accepted Masons. 
He and his wife are members of St. John's 
Protestant Episcopal church, Detroit, and he 
is a member of the vestry of Christ church, in 
Dearborn. 

On the 1 6th of January, 1895, was solem- 
nized the marriage of Mr. Haigh to Miss Caro- 
line Comstock, daughter of the late Andrew W. 
Comstock, formerly lumberman and vessel 
owner of Alpena, and the children of this union 
are Andrew Comstock Haigh, and Richard Al- 
lyn Haigh. 

ABRAHAM P. SHERRILL. 

One who has attained to success and prom- 
inence in the commercial world through his 
consecutive application along well defined lines 
of enterprise is Mr. Sherrill, one of the in- 



terested principals in the great wholesale dry- 
goods house of Edson, Moore & Company, 
with which he has been identified from his 
youth. 

It is a cause of no little satisfaction to Mr. 
Sherrill to refer to the old Empire state of 
the Union as the place of his nativity. He 
was born in Wyoming county, New York, on 
the 19th of January, 1850, and is a son of 
Abraham and Elizabeth (Saxton) Sherrill, 
both of whom were born in East Hampton, 
Long Island, where the respective families 
were early founded. The Sherrill family is 
of sterling English extraction and is to-day 
represented in many of the states of the Union. 
Dr. E. S. Sherrill, one of the prominent physi- 
cians and surgeons of Detroit, is a brother of 
the subject of this review, and they are the 
only members of the immediate family in 
Michigan. The father became a successful 
merchant of Pike, New York, and was a citi- 
zen of prominence and influence in his com- 
munity. He was active in political affairs, 
having originally been an old-line Whig and 
having identified himself with the Republican 
party at the time of its organization. He 
served as township supervisor and in other 
local offices of trust, and was postmaster of 
his town under the administration of President 
Lincoln. Both he and his wife died in Wyo- 
ming county. New York, honored by all who 
knew them. 

The subject of this review was reared to 
maturitv in his native state, to whose public 
schools he is indebted for his early educational 
discipline. In 1868, at the age of eighteen 
years, Mr. Sherrill came to Michigan and lo- 
cated in Pontiac, where he secured a clerical 
position in the Second National Bank, in 
which he was advanced to the position of tell- 
er. He remained with this institution for a 
period of five years, at the expiration of which; 
in 1873. he came to Detroit, where, through 
the influence of Stephen Baldwin, who was 
then one of the principal stockholders in the 
concern, he secured the position of bookkeeper 
in the establishment of Edson, Moore & Com- 



544 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



pany. Through faithful and effective service 
he made for himself a secure place in the co:ih- 
dence and esteem of the members of the firm 
and from time to time he was advanced to 
positions of higher trust and responsibility. 
Upon the re-organization of the concern in 
1892 he was admitted to partnership and he 
has since continued to do .his part in upholding 
the high prestige of this old and popular 
house, an outline of whose history appears in 
the memoir of its founder, Mr.' Edson, on 
other pages of this work. Mr. Sherrill is rec- 
ognized as one of the representative business 
men and loyal citizens of Detroit, though he 
has never sought or desired to come into the 
"great white light" of publicity, being essen- 
tially conservative in his attitude. He is a 
Republican in politics, a member of the Fort 
Street Presbyterian church, and is identified 
with the Detroit Club, the Detroit Boat Club 
and other local organizations. Mr. Sherrill is 
a bachelor. 



JOHN PRIDGEON, JR. 

Concerning the family history of this well 
known and popular citizen and business man 
of Detroit pertinent data appear in the memoir 
of his honored father, the late John Pridgeon, 
Sr., on other pages of this work, so that a re- 
capitulation of the same is not here required. 
The subject of this review has been concerned 
with the lake marine business from his youth 
to the present time and has valuable interests 
in this important department of industrial en- 
terprise. 

Mr. Pridgeon has the distinction of being a 
native son of Detroit, where he was born "on 
the 1st of August, 1852, and in whose public 
schools and Professor Bacon's private school 
he secured his early educational discipline. 
About the year 1 871 he assumed the position 
of clerk on one of his father's boats, and he 
contmued to serve in that capacity until 1874. 
From 1876 to 1879 he was agent at Port 
Huron for the Chicago & Grand Trunk line of 
steamers, running between Chicago and Port 
Edward, his father having been the owner of 



the controlling interest in this line of vessels. 
When the line was discontinued Mr. Pridgeon 
returned to Detroit, where he became intimate- 
ly associated with his father in their extensive 
business of buying, selling and operating tugs, 
sailing vessels and propellers. They owned and 
operated the Detroit & Windsor Ferry line for 
years. He has since continued his opera- 
tions in this line and has had full control of 
the enterprise since the death of his father. 
He is the largest stockholder in the White Star 
Line of steamers and is treasurer of the com- 
pany, and he is a large stockholder in the Dime 
Savings Bank, of whose directorate he is a 
member. He has other capitalistic interests of 
an important order and is one of the city's 
substantial and representative business men. 

Mr. Pridgeon has ever accorded a staunch 
allegiance to the Democratic party and though 
he has manifested no office-seeking proclivities 
he has willingly done his part in connection 
with the adminstration of municipal affairs, 
having been a member of the board of police 
commissioners until the same was abolished 
and having also served for some time as a 
member of the board of park commissioners. 
To the former office he was appointed by the 
late Governor Begole. He is prominently 
identified with the time-honored Masonic fra- 
ternity, in which he has attained to the thirty- 
second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scot- 
tish Rite, and he also holds membership in the 
Detroit Club and other social and civic organ- 
izations. In 1885 he was elected to a seat in 
the city council, where he proved a loyal and 
valuable working member, and in the autumn 
of 1887 the voters of his native city honored 
him by electing him to the mayoralty. He gave 
a most progressive and businesslike adminis- 
tration, and his record as chief executive of 
the municipal government is one which reflects 
credit both upon himself and the city. 

In December. 1874, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Pridgeon to Miss Cora Edgar, 
who was born in the city of Pittsburg, Penn- 
sylvania, and of this union were born two 
sons, both of whom died in childhood. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



545 



ALBERT L. STEPHENS. 

The subject of this review is one of the rep- 
resentative business men of Detroit and has 
maintained his home in this city since 1887. He 
was long concerned with kimbering operations 
in the state, liaving been associated with his 
father, the late Henry Stephens, a memoir of 
whom appears in this work. 

Albert L. Stephens was born at Romeo, 
Macomb county, Michigan, November 11, 
1857, and he was reared to maturity at Almont 
and Romeo, this state. He was afforded the 
advantages of tlie public schools, and as a 
young man became identified with his father's 
extensive lumbering operations. Record con- 
cerning this lumbering enterprise appears in 
the sketch of the life of his father, so that 
a recapitulation is not demanded in this con- 
nection. After the death of his father Mr. 
Stephens continued to be associated with his 
brother, Henry, in the lumber business until 
1896, when he withdrew. Mr. Stephens has 
large and important capitalistic interests in 
Detroit and elsewhere. He is one of tlie larg- 
est stockholders of the O. & W. Thum Com- 
pany, manufacturers of the celebrated "Tan- 
glefoot" sealed sticky fly-paper, and is presi- 
dent of the company, whose manufacturing 
and executive headquarters are in the city of 
Grand Rapids. Pie is also president of the 
Wabash Cement Company, of Stroh, Indiana, 
and is a member of the directorate of each the 
Wayne County Savings Bank and the Union 
Trust Company, two of Detroit's largest and 
most substantial financial institutions. He is 
also a stockholder in the Commercial National 
Bank and in the Detroit Fire & Marine Insur- 
ance Company. Mr. Stephens was appointed 
special commissioner to close up the affairs of 
the Preston National Bank at the time of its 
failure and showed marked discrimination in 
the handling of his exacting and responsible 
duties in the connection. The political allegi- 
ance of Mr. Stephens is given to the Republi- 
can party, in the promotion of whose cause he 
takes a loyal interest, though never an aspirant 
for official preferment. 



In 1883 Mr. Stephens was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Frances Harvey, daughter of 
Dr. James Harvey, Romeo, Michigan, and 
they have one child, Marjorie. 



THOMAS NEAL. 

On other pages of this work appears an 
outline of the history of one of Detroit's most 
gigantic and important industrial enterprises, 
that conducted under the title of the Acme 
White Lead & Color Works. One of the two 
founders of this magnificent institution is. 
Thomas Neal, who is secretary and general 
manager of the company. Of his labors in 
upbuilding the industry the article in question 
gives detailed information, so that further 
reference to the same need not be made in the 
present article. He is known as one of the 
veritable "captains of industry" in Detroit and 
few have done more to further the progress 
and industrial prosperity of the city in recent 
years. 

Mr. Neal was born in Corunna, Ontario, 
Canada, September rj, 1858, and is a son of 
Henry and Mary (Proctor) Neal, both of 
whom are natives of England. The father 
came to America as a young man and was for 
many years actively identified with marine in- 
terests on the Great Lakes. In this service he 
was known as an able navigator and executive 
and he served for a long period as captain on 
various vessels. He eventually became the own- 
er of a line of boats and was successful in the 
operation of the same. He is now retired 
from active business and lie and his wife main- 
tain their home in Port Austin, Michigan. 

In 1866, when the subject of this review 
was a lad of eight years, his parents took up 
their residence in Detroit, where he was reared 
to maturity and where he duly availed himself 
of the advantages of the public schools, after 
which he completed a course in a local busi- 
ness college. His first employment was as 
messenger boy for the National Pin Company, 
and he remained with this concern four years, 
within which period he had risen to a position 



546 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



in full charge of the office of the concern. 
Thereafter he held a confidential position with 
the Imperial Life Insurance Company and was 
also engaged in the real-estate business. At 
the age of twenty-six years he was one of the 
founders of the present Acme White Lead & 
Color Works, with which his career has since 
been inseparably identified, and to the article 
descriptive of that institution reference should 
be made for the record of his business life 
since the year 1884. He is a member of the 
directorate of each the First National Bank 
and the Michigan Savings Bank, and is a 
stockholder of the Security Trust Company, 
all of which are leading financial institutions 
of Detroit, and is also a director of the Kemi- 
weld Can Company. 

Mr. Neal is a Republican in his political al- 
legiance, is a member of Detroit Commandery, 
No. I, Knight Templar, and holds member- 
ship in the Detroit Club, the Detroit Boat Club 
and Fellowcraft Club. He and his wife are 
communicants of the Protestant Episcopal 
church, and he is a member of the vestry of 
tlie parish of St. Paul's church. 

In 1884, about the time of the initiation of 
what has been a most extraordinarily success- 
ful business career, Mr. Neal assumed marital 
responsibilities. On the 14th of May of that 
year he was united in marriage to Miss Eliza- 
beth May Davies, a sister of William L. 
Davies, who is president of the Acme com- 
pany and who has been his intimate friend 
since youth and his co-adjutor in building up 
the great business of the concern mentioned. 
Mr. and Mrs. Neal have one son, Kirke Al- 
bert. 

The Detroit Free Press of Sunday, August 
4) 1907, gives the following appreciative esti- 
mate of Mr. Neal : "Thomas Neal, secretary 
and general manager of the Acme White Lead 
& Color Works, is another whose name will 
go down in the industrial history of Detroit 
as one of the most active factors in its splen- 
did development. Besides bringing the Acme 
White Lead Works to such a state of perfec- 
tion that the product of the factory has gone 



hand in hand with stoves and seeds in making 
Detroit famous in the industrial world, Mr. 
Neal was one of the most active organizers of 
the Board of Commerce. Wide-awake, public- 
spirited and progressive, he has at all times 
been found arrayed on the side of Greater De- 
troit, in the broadest sense of the term." 



A. JAMES SINGELYN. 

He whose name forms the caption of this 
article is vice-president and treasurer of the 
Tivoli Brewing Company, whose finely 
equipped establishment is one of the leading 
concerns of the sort in Detroit and one whose 
reputation is indicated by its large and appre- 
ciative patronage. Mr. Singelyn is actively 
identified with the management of the busi- 
ness and is a careful and able administrative 
officer and enterprising business man. In ad- 
dition to having the supervision of the finan- 
cial afYairs of the company he also has charge 
of the sales department, in which connection 
he has done much to further tlie upbuilding of 
the business. 

A. James Singelyn is a native of Detroit, in 
which city he was born on the 19th of March, 
1874, being a son of Charles and Clementine 
(Posselius) Singelyn. The ancestry in the 
agnatic line is traced back to pure French 
origin and the maternal ancestry is of Flemish 
extraction. Charles Singelyn was born at 
Antwerp, Belgium, on the 12th of August, 
1840, and he died on the loth of August, 
1904. He is survived by three sons and four 
daughters. Clementine (Posselius) Singelyn 
was a daughter of the late Adolph Posselius, 
a pioneer furniture manufacturer in Detroit 
and one who held rank as a prominent and 
influential citizen. 

The subject of this sketch completed the 
curriculum of tlie Detroit public schools and 
thereafter contniued his studies in Assump- 
tion College, a well conducted Catholic insti- 
tution in Sandwich, Ontario. After complet- 
ing his more purely academic education he 
took a commercial course in the Detroit Busi- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



547 



ness University, where he well qualified him- 
self for practical business life. In 1890, short- 
ly before his sixteenth birthday, Mr. Singelyn 
entered upon an apprenticeship to the trade 
or art of wood-carving, in the furniture man- 
ufactory of A. Posselius & Brothers, of which 
firm his maternal grandfather was the head. 
He later passed through the various grades of 
promotion in this factory, familiarizing him- 
self with the work of each department, and 
finally, in 1892, being made assistant superin- 
tendent of the plant. While incumbent of this 
position he secured a contract for the manu- 
facturing of a patented dining-room table, the 
vested rights in the patent being controlled by 
Charles W. Munz and associates. This table 
Mr. Singelyn introduced on the market with 
signal success. In 1894, upon the death of 
John C. Posselius, he was promoted to the of- 
fice of general superintendent of the plant, 
and when the business was incorporated, un- 
der title of the Posselius Brothers' Furniture 
Manufacturing Company, he became one of 
its stockholders and continued in the position 
of superintendent until 1899, when he dis- 
posed of his stock and retired from all con- 
nection with the enterprise. The action was 
taken by him that he might become a stock- 
holder in the Tivoli Brewing Company, of 
which he was elected treasurer at that time. 
For some time also, during the illness of the 
manager, Louis W. Schimmel, he also as- 
sumed the general supervision of the business, 
ably fulfilling the duties that under normal 
conditions devolved upon Mr. Schimmel. In 
1903 Mr. Singelyn was also elected vice-presi- 
dent of the company, and he has since re- 
mained incumbent of this office, as well as that 
of treasurer. Fie is specially versatile and 
able as an accountant and the financial inter- 
ests of the .company are most carefully and 
successfully managed by him, as are also the 
interests of the sales department, — the center 
of the productive agencies of the enterprise. 
He is associated in the ownership of the Burns 
hotel, one of the popular hostelries of Detroit. 
In 1904 Mr. Singelyn was appointed under- 



sheriff of Wayne county, by James Burns, 
sheriff of the county, and he has since con- 
tinued in tenure of this oftice, in which he has 
done most effective work. Fie is a member of 
the United Slates Brewers' Association and 
also of the Michigan Brewers' Association 
and the Detroit Brewers' Association. The 
brewery in which he is interested as a stock- 
holder and officer is made the subject of a spe- 
cial sketch in the industrial department of this 
publication. Mr. Singelyn is a member of 
Detroit Lodge, No. 34, Benevolent & Pro- 
tective Order of Elks; Olympic Lodge, No. i, 
Knights of Pythias; and the Detroit Athletic 
Club, and he enjoys unqualified popularity in 
the business and social circles of his native 
city. 

On the 6th of August, 1896, Mr. Singelyn 
was united in marriage to Miss Johanna 
Wiehm, daughter of August Wiehm, of De- 
troit, and she was summoned to the life eter- 
nal on the 15th day of jNIarch, 1907, being 
survived by two children, — ^James A., who 
was born April 11, 1898, and August, who 
was born September i, 1899. On the 7th of 
October, 1908, Mr. Singelyn married Miss 
Edith Fisher, of Detroit, the ceremony being 
performed at the church of Our Lady of Sor- 
rows. 

GRIFFITH 0. ELLIS. 

The subject of this sketch is a lawyer by 
profession and has been successful in the gen- 
eral practice of law, though he is now giving 
the major portion of his time and attention to 
the executive duties devolving upon him as 
vice-president of the Sprague Correspondence 
School of Law and as president of the Sprague 
Publishing Company, both of which are more 
specifically described in the sketch of the ca- 
reer of their founder, William C. Sprague, on 
other pages of this volume. 

Griffith Ogden Ellis was born in the city 
of Urbana, Ohio, on the 19th of November, 
1869, and is a son of Griffith and Jane H. 
(Woods) Ellis, the former of whom was bom 
in Wales and the latter in Ohio, in which state 



548 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



they still maintain their home. Griffith Ellis 
was eleven years of age at the time of his par- 
ents' immigration to America and was reared 
and educated in the old Buckeye state. He 
became one of the representative merchants of 
Urbana, where he was for many years en- 
gaged in the dry-goods business, and he has 
long been a prominent and influential figure in 
the political and public affairs of Ohio. He 
represented his district in the state senate and 
was twice a candidate for congress, but met 
defeat with the remainder of the party ticket. 
He also served in the offices of clerk and treas- 
urer of Champaign county, as a member of 
the board of governors of the state peniten- 
tiary, in Columbus, and as the financial offi- 
cer of the Ohio state hospital for the insane, 
at Dayton. 

The subject of this sketch is indebted to the 
public schools of his native city for his early 
educational training, and he was graduated in 
the high school as a member of the class of 
1888, after which he pursued the higher 
academic studies for two years in Urbana Uni- 
versity. While yet a student he was for six 
months identified with the Urbana Eveninp- 
Herald, — first in the capacity of city editor and 
finally in that of managing editor. In August, 
1890, Mr. Ellis went to Washington, D. C, 
where he received appointment as expert sta- 
tistician in the agricultural department of the- 
United States census bureau. While in the 
national capital he also attended the law school 
of Columbian University, the name of which 
has since been changed to George Washing- 
ton University, and there he made excellent 
progress in the assimilation of the minutije 
of the science of jurisprudence. In 1891 Mr. 
Ellis came to Detroit, where he became man- 
aging clerk in the law offices of the firm of 
Lodge, Sprague & Ashley, and in the mean- 
while he continued the study of law under ef- 
fective preceptorship. In the autumn of 1892 
he was matriculated in the law department of 
the University of Michigan, in which he was 
graduated as a member of the class of 1893, 
duly receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws.' 



He then returned to Detroit and here was 
forthwith admitted to the bar of the state. He 
has done effective work in his profession and 
has shown himself to be a counsellor well for- 
tified in the technical learning of the law and 
m familiarity with precedents. 

The connection of Mr. Ellis with the 
Sprague Correspondence School of Law has 
been of most intimate order and he has done 
much to further the success of the institution 
both as an executive officer and as an instruc- 
tor. He Identified himself with the school in 
1 89 1, m which year he accepted the position of 
correspondence clerk, and in 1893 he was 
made chief examiner of the examination pa- 
pers sent in by the students of the institution 
He continued in active service in this depart- 
ment until 1897, when he was made general 
superintendent of the school and head of the 
mstruction department. In 1894 he became 
one of the stockholders of the corporation 
owning and conducting the school, and he has 
served as vice-president since that vear He 
IS also one of the chief stockholders of the 
Sprague Publishing Company, of which he is 
president, and he is one of the active adminis- 
trative officers of the company, which controls 
a flourishing and substantial business 

In politics Mr. Ellis is a stalwart supporter 
of the principles of the Republican party and 
he was an active worker in its cause while re- 
siding in his native state. He is a life mem- 
ber of the Fellowcraft Club and is also iden- 
tified with tlie Detroit Boat Club and the Ohio 
Society of this city, being popular in the busi- 
ness and social circles of Detroit as well as in 
the local ranks of his profession. 

On the 2ist of April, 1897, Mr. Ellis was 
united m marriage to Miss Ellen Winifred 
Scripps, daughter of William A. Scripps, one 
of the representative citizens of Detroit. They 
have no children. 



ABNER E. LARNED. 

As president of the Earned & Carter Com- 
pany, manufacturers of overalls, Mr. Earned 
has been a distinct factor in promoting the in- 



I 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



549 



dustrial growth of Detroit and has exemph- 
fied the force and initiative which have made 
the younger generation of business men in 
Michigan's metropohs so potent factors in its 
advancement within the last decade. 

Mr. Larned is a native of the Wolverine 
state, having been born in the village of Fen- 
ton, Genesee county, Michigan, on the 31st of 
January, 1871, and being a son of Horace J. 
and Flora (Roberts) Larned. The Larned 
family was founded in America in the early 
colonial epoch, and the name was prominently 
identified with the early annals of New Eng- 
land. Elisha Larned, grandfather of the sub- 
ject of this review, was a native of Massa- 
chusetts, whence he eventually removed to the 
state of New York. From the old Empire 
commonwealth he came to the wilds of Michi- 
gan and became one of the pioneers of Genesee 
county,— in fact, having been the second white 
settler in what is now Fenton township, that 
county. He lived up to the full tension of the 
pioneer days, having secured from the gov- 
ernment a tract of wild land, and having de- 
veloped from the same, by herculean labor, a 
productive farm. He continued to reside in 
Fenton until his death, and the old homestead 
which he first secured from the government is 
still held in the possession of the family. 
Flora (Roberts) Larned, mother of him 
whose name initiates this article, was a daugh- 
ter of Abner Roberts, who likewise removed 
from New York state to Michigan and be- 
came one of the very early settlers of Genesee 
county. He built in the village of Fenton a 
hotel,' the Fenton House, which is still stand- 
ing, in an excellent state of preservation, and 
which is one of the landmarks of that section 
of the state. Mr. Roberts was a man of prom- 
inence and influence and remained a resident 
of Genesee county until his death. Horace J. 
and Flora (Roberts) Larned resided in Fen- 
ton, where for many years Mr. Larned was 
engaged in the agricultural-implement busi- 
ness, retiring in 1890. Mrs. Larned died in 

1894. 

Abner E. Larned was afforded the advan- 



tages of the public schools of Fenton, in whose 
high school he was graduated as a member of 
the class of 1889. After leaving school he en- 
tered the employ of the wholesale dry-goods 
firm of Strong, Lee & Company, of Detroit, 
which concern he represented in the capacity of 
traveling salesman for a period of three years, 
at the expiration of which, in 1893, he resigned, 
to accept the position of manager of the de- 
partment of domestic goods in the wholesale 
dry-goods house of Edson, Moore & Company, 
of Detroit, resigning this position in 1896 to 
associate with David S. Carter in the founding 
of the firm of Larned, Carter & Company, 
manufacturers of overalls, and he has been 
president of the company from its inception. 
The industry represented has grown to be one 
of wide scope and much commercial impor- 
tance, and data concerning its upbuilding ap- 
pear in the sketch of the career of Mr. Car- 
ter, the secretary and treasurer, on other pages 
of this work. Mr. Larned assumed the per- 
sonal supervision of the sales, shipping and buy- 
ing departments of the business, and the up- 
building of the fine enterprise has been largely 
due to his able efforts as its sales representa- 
tive. In introducing the goods of the concern 
he has visited every state and territory in the 
Union, and in the meanwhile Mr. Carter had 
charge of the factory and office details of the 
business. A most significant fact in connection 
with the business is that practically all of the 
original customers gained by the company still 
remain its patrons, and the list is constantly 
increasing in numerical and appreciative 
strength. Mr. Larned is amply justified in his 
claim to knowing in a personal way fully 
ninety per cent, of the patrons of his concern, 
and this means much when recognition is had 
of the large and far-reaching trade controlled. 
In his political allegiance Mr. Larned is a 
Republican, taking a loyal interest in the party 
cause but never having been an active political 
worker. For many years he has been identi- 
fied in an active way with the Young Men's 
Christian Association, and he has done eflfec- 
tive service in the promotion of the interests 



550 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



of the Detroit organization of this noble body. 
He was made chairman of a committee dele- 
gated by the Detroit Young Men's Christian 
Association to raise the funds necessary for 
the erection of the new association building, 
which is now in course of completion (1908),' 
and the committee of which he was chairman 
succeeded in raising a larger amount— some 
twenty-five thousand dollars— for the purpose 
designated than did any other committee of 
solicitors. The total amount thus placed to 
the credit of his committee was thirty-five 
thousand dollars. Mr. Larned is a member of 
the Board of Commerce and the Detroit Club. 
In the Board of Commerce he is a member 
of the board of directors and also of the exec- 
utive committee. He was chairman of the 
fifth-anniversary committee of this splendid 
Detroit institution, and the committee men- 
tioned had charge of the outing of the body 
on the magnificent new steamer "City of Cleve- 
land," June 4-7, 1908,— the most successful 
and interesting gathering of Detroit business 
men ever brought together. The occasion also 
practically represented the dedicatory voyage 
of the steamer mentioned. 

Mr. Larned was married, in 1893, to Miss 
Minnie K. Kellogg, daughter of Rev. Fred- 
erick A. Kellogg, a clergyman of the Congre- 
gational church and at that time incumbent of 
a pastoral charge at Adrian, Michigan. Mr. 
and Mrs. Lamed have two children,— Brad- 
ford York, and Cortland Kellogg. 



WILLIAM L. DAVIES. 

One of the splendid industrial enterprises 
which has had important bearing in the de- 
velopment of the "Greater Detroit" is that con- 
ducted under the corporate title of the Acme 
White Lead & Color Works, and of this mag- 
nificent manufacturing concern the subject of 
this sketch is the president. He is essentially a 
man of initiative power and progressive ideas, 
and his confidence in the claims of Detroit as 
a manufacturing and distributing center has 
been shown in no unmistakable way, even aside 
from the connection here noted. 



Mr. Davies comes of sturdy and worthy 
Welsh lineage and is himself a native of the 
south of Wales, having been born at Aber- 
dare, on the 14th of February, 1858, and be- 
ing a son of Daniel and Catherine (Davies) 
Davies, representatives of old and honored 
families of Wales. The father, who was a 
tailor by trade and vocation, immigrated to 
America with his family in 1861, and he took 
up his residence in Wisconsin, where he joined 
two brothers of his wife. He engaged in busi- 
ness at Oconto, that state, where he remained 
until his death, which occurred in 1875. His 
widow later removed with her children to De- 
troit and here she still maintains her home, be- 
ing now venerable in years. 

William L. Davies, the immediate subject 
of this review, was afforded the advantages of 
the public schools of Wisconsin, where he was 
prepared for college. However, he decided to 
turn his attention to active business rather 
than to continue his higher academic studies 
as he was offered a good position in Detroit to 
which city he came in 1872. Here he entered 
the employ of the wholesale drug house of 
Farrand, Williams & Company, in a clerical 
capacity, and he remained with this old and 
well known firm until 1886, with the exception 
of one year, during which he was in the em- 
ploy of James E. Davis. He became familiar 
with the work of the various departments of 
the business and while still connected with 
this house, in 1884, he assisted in effecting the 
organization of the Acme White Lead & Color 
Works, instituting operations on a very mod- 
est scale. The company was incorporated with 
a capital stock of five thousand dollars and Mr 
Davies became president. A small factory wa.s 
opened at the corner of Fourth street and 
Grand River avenue, and the concern here be- 
gan manufacturing paint, making the policy 
of the business to turn out a product of su- 
perior excellence. This policy, as fortified 
with the aggressive attitude of the interested 
principals, is what has brought about the de- 
velopment of the present splendid business 
controlled by the Acme White Lead & Color 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



551 



Works, of which a detailed description is given 
on other pages of this work. 

On the ist of Januajy, 1886, Mr. Davies 
found it expedient to resign his position with 
Farrand, Wilhams & Company, in order that 
he might give his undivided attention to the 
rapidly expanding business of the paint works, 
whose trade at that time was confined almost 
entirely to Michigan. What the growth of 
the institution has been is measurably shown 
in the fact that the corporation now operates 
upon a capital stock of two millions of dol- 
lars and that its trade extends throughout all 
sections of the Union and into foreign lands. 
Mr. Davies has assisted in directing the affairs 
of this company with consummate skill and 
discrimination and through his labors has done 
much to further the commercial and industrial 
prestige of Detroit. He is a member of the 
directorate of the National Bank of Com- 
merce, and is a stockholder in the Kemiweld 
Can Company and other Detroit corporations, 
though he still devotes his personal attention 
almost exclusively to the great manufacturing 
industry at whose head he has been from the 

start. 

Mr. Davies gives allegiance politically to 
the Republican party, and he is a thirty-second- 
degree Mason and a member of the Detroit 
Club and Detroit Boat Club. Both he and his 
wife are zealous communicants of St. Paul's 
church, Protestant Episcopal, and he is now 
junior warden of its vestry. 

On the 4th of January, 1888, was solem- 
nized the marriage of Mr. Davies to Miss Su- 
san V. Dougell, of Windsor, Ontario, a mem- 
ber of one of the old and prominent families 
of the dominion. They have two children, — 
Llewellyn R. and Marjorie. 

EDWARD J. RONEY. 

One of the native sons of Detroit who has 
here attained to a position of prominence in 
industrial and general business circles is Mr. 
Roney, who is vice-president of the Sterhng 
& Skinner Manufacturing Company, president 
of the Detroit Motor Castings Company, and 



vice-president of the Manufacturers' Power 
Building Company, each of which concerns is 
made the subject of specific mention on other 
pages of this volume. 

Mr. Roney was born in Detroit, on the 28th 
of February, 1863, and is a son of John and 
Rose (Hawkins) Roney, both of whom were 
natives of the city of Belfast, Ireland. The 
father was born in 1830 and was reared and 
educated in his native land, whence he immi- 
grated to America as a youth, about the year 
1850. He soon afterward took up his resi- 
dence in Detroit, where he passed the remain- 
der of his Hfe, his death occurring in 1882. 
His first occupation after locating in this city 
was that of driving on an omnibus for the old 
Biddle House, which was then the leading 
hotel of the city. Later he became the owner 
of a transfer and draying line, building up a 
successful enterprise and continuing to be iden- 
tified with the same until his death. His wife 
survived him by a decade, being summoned to 
the life eternal in 1894. They are survived by 
six children, concerning whom the following 
brief record is consistently entered in this con- 
nection : Edward J., the third eldest of the 
family, is the immediate subject of this sketch ; 
Daniel W. is a locomotive engineer by voca- 
tion and resides in Detroit; John J. is super- 
intendent of and a stockholder in the Detroit 
Motor Castings Company ; Miss Rose A. main- 
tains her home in Detroit; Mary E. is the wife 
of Otto Beyer, of this city; and Katherine is 
the wife of Adelbert Allen, engineer at the 
shops of the Detroit Motor Castings Company. 
The subject of this sketch was afforded the 
advantages of the parochial and public schools 
of his native city and at the age of seventeen 
years he entered upon an apprenticeship at the 
brass moulder's trade, becoming an expert arti- 
san and beginning his work as a journeyman 
at his trade in 1884, when he entered the em- 
ploy of Henry C. Plart. manufacturer of hard- 
ware specialties, railway-car trimmings, etc. 
He was finally advanced to the position of su- 
perintendent of the foundry and he continued 
in the emplov of Mr. Hart until 1890, when he 



552 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



accepted the position of superintendent of the 
Detroit Electrical Works, with which concern 
he was thus identified until 1893. He then be- 
came superintendent of the foundry of the 
McRae & Roberts Company, retaining this po- 
sition until 1902, in which year he became as- 
sociated with Ruluff R. Sterling, F. G. Skin- 
ner and J. C. Danziger in organizing the Ster- 
ling & Skinner Manufacturing Company, of 
which he has since been vice-president. In 
1906 the same gentlemen, together with John 
J. Roney, organized the Detroit Motor Cast- 
ings Company, of which the subject of this 
sketch has been president from the beginning. 
He is vice-president of the Detroit Power 
Building Company, which was organized in the 
same year, and is a stockholder in the Clark 
Wireless Telegraph & Telephone Company and 
the American Smelting & Refining Company, 
both of which are Detroit concerns of impor- 
tant order. 

In politics Mr. Roney is a staunch adherent 
of the Democratic party and he is a communi- 
cant of the Catholic church, being a member 
of St. Anthony's parish. He is affiliated with 
the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association and 
the Knights of Equity. 

On the 3d of May, 1893, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Roney to Miss Isabel S. 
Singelyn, daughter of Charles and Clementine 
(Posselius) Singelyn. Her father was a mem- 
ber of the firm of Posselius Brothers, of De- 
troit, and was known as one of the city's rep- 
resentative business men. He is now deceased. 
Mr. and Mrs. Roney have five children, whose 
names, with respective years of birth, are here 
noted: Edward C, 1895; Celestine M., 1899; 
John J., 1901 ; Isabel C, 1905 ; and Charles W.,' 
1908. 



WALDO A. AVERY. 

A prominent and dominating figure in the 
mdustrial and financial afifairs of the state of 
Michigan is this well known citizen of Detroit, 
where his interests are of varied and important 
order and where he is recognized as a progres- 
sive and public-spirited citizen. 



Waldo A. Avery was born at Bradley, 
Mame, on the 14th of May, 1850, and 
is a son of Sewell and Eliza H. (Eddy) 
Avery, both representative of staunch colo- 
nial stock in New England, where the re- 
spective families were early . founded. When 
the subject of this review was but four 
years of age his parents removed to Michigan 
and located in Port Huron, which was then a 
small and obscure village, and there he re- 
mained until he was about fourteen years of 
age. His father followed the vocation of lum- 
berman and both of his parents continued to 
reside in Michigan until their death. The com- 
mon schools of Port Huron and Saginaw af- 
forded Mr. Avery his early educational advan- 
tages, but his broader education has been se- 
cured in the practical school of experience, by 
personal application and by active association 
with men and afifairs. As a boy in Port Huron 
Mr. Avery secured employment at intervals 
m connection with the lumbering industry, in 
which he was later destined to attain to suc- 
cess and prominence. In 1865 he removed 
from Port Huron to Saginaw, where he con- 
tmued his identification with the lumber busi- 
ness and laid the foundation for a career of 
marked success and usefulness as one of the 
world's sturdy army of workers. He soon be- 
gan lumbering operations on his own account 
and his success in this field is due to his inti- 
mate knowledge of all details of the industry, 
m which he has long been a recognized author- 
ity. In 1876, when but twenty-six years of 
age, Mr. Avery became interested in the own- 
ership and operation of a number of tugs and 
lumber vessels, the same being in commission 
for the handhng of logs and lumber on the 
Sagmaw river. These interests he retained 
and successfully administered until 1883, when 
he expanded the scope of his operations by se- 
curmg an interest in several large lake vessels, 
and these were operated under the title of the 
Hawood & Avery Transit Company, with 
headquarters in the city of Cleveland, Ohio 
This company is still in existence and has a 
fine fleet of vessels, used in general freight 



I 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



553 



transportation on the Great Lakes and han- 
dling a large tonnage during the navigation 
season each year. He is also a member of the 
firm of Richardson & Avery, of Dnluth, Min- 
nesota, which has had very extensive dealings 
in pine lands and the manufacturing of lumber. 
The business has wide ramifications and the 
products find sale throughout a wide territory 
in the western and middle states. He was for- 
merly president of the Alabaster Company, of 
Detroit, Alabaster and Chicago, and when the 
interests of this concern were merged into the 
United States Gypsum Company he continued 
as a stockholder of the latter corporation, of 
which he is now a director. The fine gypsum 
mines of the original company are located at 
Alabaster, Iosco county, Michigan. This com- 
pany furnished the plaster of Paris for the 
staf? utilized in the construction of the beauti- 
ful buildings of the World's Columbian Expo- 
sition, held in Chicago in 1893. 

Mr. Avery has maintained his home at 
Grosse Pointe Farms since 1902, and from 1887 
to 1902, on Woodward avenue, Detroit. He 
has wielded much influence in forwarding the 
march of progress which has brought the city 
to the fore-front as an industrial and commer- 
cial center. He has been president of the 
American Exchange National Bank of Detroit 
since 1899, is a director of the Second Na- 
tional Bank of Saginaw, Michigan, and is one 
of the principal stockholders and a director in 
the Detroit United Bank. He has other impor- 
tant capitalistic investments, one of the most 
noteworthy of which is in connection with the 
magnificent Majestic building, on the Campus 
Martius, Detroit, — one of the most imposing 
and attractive business blocks to be found in 
the entire Union. Of this building he is half- 
owner. 

Fully appreciative of the attractions and 
broadening influences of travel, he has found 
great satisfaction in indulgence along this line, 
and has made extensive foreign tours in com- 
pany with his family, besides having visited 
the most diverse sections of the United States. 
In his political allegiance Mr. Avery is found 



arrayed as a staunch supporter of tiie princi- 
ples of the Republican party, but he has in- 
variably refused to permit the use of his name 
in connection with candidacy for public office. 
As a citizen he is intrinsically loyal and pro- 
gressive, and he manifests a specially lively 
interest in all that pertains to the welfare of the 
city in which he maintains his home. Mr. 
Avery has two children, — Sewell L., who is 
now president of the United States Gypsum 
Company, of Chicago, and Waldo A., Jr., who 
resides at Portland, Oregon, and is engaged 
in the timber-land business. 



JOHN C. SPRATT. 

Within the pages of this work will be found 
a description of the magnificent enterprise 
conducted by Parke, Davis & Company,— an 
enterprise that probably has done more to bring 
the name of Detroit into commercial apothe- 
osis than has that of any other single concern, 
— and it is certainly consistent that in this con- 
nection be given mention of those men who 
have fostered the upbuilding of the business 
and those who are at the present time identi- 
fied with the management of its affairs. One 
of the number thus distinctively worthy of 
consideration is Mr. Spratt, who is the man- 
ager of the sales department of this greatest of 
all concerns of the sort in the world. 

Mr. Spratt was born in the city of Pough- 
keepsie. New York, on the 31st of March, 
1856, and is a son of William and Mary A. 
(McDermott) Spratt. The lineage of the 
spratt family is traced back to staunch Irisli 
origin, and of the immediate line the grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch was John 
Spratt, who was born in county Down, Ire- 
land, whence he immigrated to America and 
finally removed to Poughkeepsie, New York, 
in which vicinity he successfully followed the 
vocation of market gardening. His son Will- 
iam, father of iiim whose name initiates this 
article, was reared and educated in the Emer- 
ald Isle, where he learned the trade of wagon- 
maker, to which he there devoted his attention 
until 1845, when he joined his parents in 



554 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Poughkeepsie, New York, where he secured 
employment at his trade. Later he entered 
the employ of Brewster & Company, the fa- 
mous carriage makers, on Broome street, New 
York city, remaining with the same until 1887, 
when he permanently retired from active busi- 
ness. 

John C. Spratt was afforded the advantages 
of the public schools of his native city, being 
graduated in the Poughkeepsie high school as 
a member of the class of 1870. In 1872 he 
entered the employ of Peter M. Howard, a 
retail druggist, and in due time he thoroughly 
informed himself in the technicalities of the 
business, finally passing an examination and 
receiving a certificate as a pharmacist, from 
the state pharmacy board, in 1880. He be- 
came chief prescription clerk in Mr. Howard's 
establishment and later was made manager of 
the business. In 1888 Mr. Spratt made an ex- 
tended trip through the west and while en 
route home he stopped in Detroit and made a 
tour of inspection through the great plant of 
Parke. Davis & Company. Incidentally he 
formed the acquaintance of one of the officers 
of the company and was offered a position, 
which he accepted, becoming chief clerk in the 
order department, where he soon made his 
value known. In 1897 he was placed in charge 
of the department of traveling service, and 
when, in 1900, this department and that of 
the general sales business were merged into 
what is designated as the sales department, he 
became head of the same, an incumbency which 
he has since retained and one in which he has 
shown marked executive ability and distinctive 
capacity for the facile handling of multifarious 
details. 

Under the supervision of this department 
are directed the labors of three hundred and 
forty-five salaried traveling representatives, 
and the growth of the business is indicated by 
comparing this efficient corps in a numerical 
way with that of 1897, when Mr. Spratt as- 
sumed the management. At that time only 
forty traveling men were emi^loyed. The rep- 
resentatives of Parke, Davis & Company now 



cover all parts of the civilized world, and on 
the force are those capable of speaking the 
various modern languages, while twenty-five 
per cent, of the number are graduate physi- 
cians, whose work is chiefly among the mem- 
bers of their profession, in the introducing 
and exploiting of the innumerable and stand- 
ard preparations of the company. The outside 
emissaries are thoroughly trained by work in 
the laboratories of the company, three classes 
being held each year, — two in mid-summer 
and one during the Christmas holidays. Care- 
ful instruction is given in technical and scien- 
tific principles and work, and knowledge con- 
cerning all details of preparation of goods is 
imparted, so that the salesmen are thoroughly 
fortified for giving the most lucid explanations 
to the trade and to put forth the claims of their 
concern as being unexcelled by any other in 
the world. It has long been recognized that 
the products of the laboratories of Parke, Davis 
& Company designate the ultimate standard of 
excellence, and the reputation of the concern 
for reliability and fair and honorable busi- 
ness methods has never been assailable from 
any source. The traveling representatives are 
men of fine intellectuality, upright in charac- 
ter and thoroughly en rapport with their work, 
while all take pride in representing so great 
and far famed a concern. 

In the division of the work of the sales de- 
partment the branch in London, England, cov- 
ers China and Japan ; Spanish America and 
the Philippines are covered from the export 
department, in New York city; Australia and 
New Zealand, from the branch at Sidney, Aus- 
tralia ; and the Canadian provinces from the 
branch at Walkerville, Ontario. Mr. Spratt 
has shown rare discrimination in the selection 
and training of the salesmen and representa- 
tives whose efforts are directed through his 
department, and has been particularly success- 
ful in handling his men, retaining their confi- 
dence and respect, and has proven a distinctive 
force in the administrative affairs of the mag- 
nificent concern with which he is identified in 
so prominent and responsible a capacity. He 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



555 



enjoys marked popularity in the business cir- 
cles of Detroit, is liberal and public-spirited in 
his attitude as a citizen, and is one of the fore- 
most workers in the Detroit Board of Com- 
merce, through which the industrial and com- 
mercial advancement of the city has been so 
notably promoted. He is a stockholder in the 
corporation of Parke, Davis & Company. He 
and his family are communicants of the Catho- 
lic church, being members of St. Charles' par- 
ish. He is a member of the Detroit Club and 
the Detroit Boat Club, and is a valued mem- 
ber of the Municipal Art Commission of De- 
troit, to which office he was first appointed in 
1906, by Mayor Codd. The family residence 
is at 253 Field avenue. 

In 1881 Mr. Spratt was united in marriage 
to Miss Mary E. Shanahan, daughter of Mich- 
ael Shanahan, of Poughkeepsie, New York, 
and they have two daughters. May E. and 
Marjorie K. 



JOHN F. ANTISDEL. 

A man of sterling character and one who 
left a definite impress upon the civic and busi- 
ness annals of the city of Detroit was the late 
John F. Antisdel, who was for many years 
one of the best known and most highly es- 
teemed hotel men in the northwest and whose 
name and personality are held in grateful 
memory by all who knew him and had appre- 
ciation of his worthy life and worthy deeds. 

John F. Antisdel was born in Paris, Oneida 
county, New York, on the 13th of June, 1829, 
and was a scion of a family founded in Ameri- 
ca in the colonial epoch of our national history. 
The original progenitors in our great republic 
came hither from England, where the name 
was originally spelled Antisdale, and in the 
many generations have been found men who 
have stood exponent of the best citizenship in 
the land with whose history the name has so 
long been identified. The father of the sub- 
ject of this memoir was a farmer by vocation 
and came to Michigan with his family in the 
territorial days, having settled near Brooklyn, 



'" 1835- — about two years prior to the admis- 
sion of the state to the Union. 

John F. Antisdel was about six years 
of age at the time of the family removal 
to Michigan, and his early educational ad- 
vantages were those afforded in the common 
schools of the locality and period. Before he 
had attained to years of maturity his father 
died, and as he was the eldest son in the fam- 
ily he became the main support of his mother 
and his several brothers and sisters. 

In 1850, shortly before attaining to his legal 
majority, Mr. Antisdel came to Detroit, as 
his younger brothers had by this time become 
old enough to assume the management of the 
home farm. In the Michigan metropolis he 
found employment as clerk in a hotel. His en- 
ergy and gracious personality soon gained him 
many friends and aided materially in his start- 
ing of a peculiarly successful hotel career, 

In Detroit, on the 6th of June, 1855, Mr. 
Antisdel was united in marriage to Miss Sarah 
J. Parshall, a beautiful and noble daughter of 
Joseph Parshall, who was a well-to-do farmer 
of Drayton Plains, Oakland county, Michigan. 
This marriage was the direct sequel of verita- 
ble "love at first sight," and the beautiful ro- 
mance continued throughout the life of Mr. 
Antisdel, than whom few men have found 
greater happiness than did he in his family re- 
lations. 

In 1857 Mr. Antisdel and his brother-in- 
law, James Parshall, became proprietors of 
the Finney hotel, which stood where the Kern 
store is now located, at the southeast corner 
of Gratiot and Woodward avenues. They 
were successful from the start and about one 
year after the initiation of their hotel enter- 
prise Mr. Antisdel became proprietor of the 
Railroad hotel, which was located on the pres- 
ent site of the Detroit Opera House and which 
was long a landrnark of the city. Prosperity 
attended this venture likewise, and within a 
few years Mr. Antisdel purchased the hotel 
property. He conducted this popular hostelry 
for many years, and in the meanwhile accumu- 
lated all the property running through from 



556 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the hotel to Gratiot avenue. Finally he was 
offered fifty thousand dollars for the prop- 
erty, and although he was at the time in ex- 
cellent financial circumstances and found no 
necessity for disposing of the property, the 
price offered was considered so phenomenal as 
touching Detroit real-estate values that he ac- 
cepted the offer made. He then bought the 
Blindberry hotel, on the corner of Michigan 
and Washington avenues, where the Cadillac 
hotel now stands, and this building he remod- 
eled, giving it the name of the Antisdel House. 
From this location he finally removed to the 
old Biddle House, which is still standing, on 
Jefferson avenue. He leased the Biddle House 
and conducted the same successfully for sev- 
eral years. This was at the time one of the 
largest hotels in the west and was known all 
over the country. It reached the zenith of its 
fame and popularity while under his man- 
agement and control. 

_ Being wealthy at this time, Mr. Antisdel re- 
tired from business and entered a life of leis- 
ure, in his attractive home on Jefferson avenue. 
But being in the prime of life and endowed 
with dominating ambition, he decided to re- 
enter active business. He accordingly removed 
to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he became 
proprietor of the Newhall House, which was 
then the finest hotel in the Badger state. Here 
he lost a large part of his fortune in the years 
following the panic of 1874. 

In 1884 Mr. Antisdel returned to Michigan 
and leased the Fraser House in Bay City, 
where he remained until 1894. In that year 
he returned to Detroit, and he then effected a 
lease of the celebrated summer resort, the Met- 
tewas, at Kingsville, Ontario, Canada. Here 
he was successful, and he continued to be the 
lessee of the hotel up to the time of his death, 
which occurred on the 15th of May, 1900. 

Mr.^ Antisdel was a devout and consistent 
Christian and was a member of the First Bap- 
tist church of Detroit for nearly a half century. 
For many years he was a trustee of this church 
and also superintendent of its Sunday school. 
He was a very liberal donor to all charities, al- 



tliough his benefactions were invariably of 
the most unostentatious order. Kalamazoo 
College, a Baptist institution, was the recipient 
of many valuable gifts from him, and he was 
a member of its board of trustees for a long 
period. He was very domestic in his tastes 
and habits, having no inclination for public 
hfe, notwithstanding the semi-public nature of 
his vocation, and the only public office he ever 
held was that of fish commissioner of Wiscon- 
sin, an appointment conferred by Governor 
Smith and one of which he continued in ten- 
ure up to the time of his departure from the 
state. His business constantly brought him 
m contact with all classes of people, and his 
genial nature and generous disposition won 
him loyal and enduring friendships, while the 
essential nobility of the man gained to him 
unequivocal confidence and esteem. Mr. An- 
tisdel is survived by his widow, Sarah J An- 
tisdel, and by four children,— James F., who 
IS engaged in newspaper advertising business 
in New York City; John P., who is engaged 
m the practice of law in Detroit; and Ella M 
and Minnie Blanche, who, with their mother 
reside in Detroit. 



JOHN M. FRANCIS. 

When it is stated that the subject of this 
review is incumbent of the office of chief chem- 
ist of the laboratories of Parke, Davis & Com- 
pany, the largest manufacturing chemists in 
the world, an idea is at once conveyed of his 
technical importance in the affairs of the com- 
pany, whose employes number fully five thou- 
sand. In addition to the position noted, how- 
ever, Mr. Francis is also an executive officer of 
the corporation, being division superintendent 
in charge of the control department of the 
great industry, and is a stockholder of the com- 
pany. He is an authority in the domain of 
the science of pharmaceutical chemistry, and 
his researches have been wide and varied, while 
in the practical field he has produced results 
which have contributed to the benefit and up- 
building of the business with which he is so 
conspicuously identified. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



557 



John Miller Francis was born in Jackson- 
ville, Alabama, on the 25th of October, 1S67, 
and is a son of Dr. Miller W. and Julia (Clark) 
Francis, both representatives of sterling old 
southern families of English origin. The 
founder of the Francis family in America was 
Joseph Francis, who came from England about 
the year 1753 and took up his abode in Henry 
county, Virginia. The next in descent was 
Joseph 2d, who moved to what was subse- 
quently known as Knox county, and settled 
about four miles from the little town of Knox- 
ville, Tennessee. Miller Francis, the youngest 
of Joseph's four sons, married Hannah Henry, 
of Rhea county, Tennessee. He served in the 
Creek Indian war, being a lieutenant of infan- 
try. He was also sheriff of Rhea county for 
sixteen years and, like most of the pioneers, 
was blessed with a large family, having twelve 
sons and daughters. James C, his eldest son, 
studied medicine and betook himself on horse- 
back to the wilds of Benton (afterwards Cal- 
houn) county, Alabama, at that time occupied 
largely by the Cherokee Indians. Here he in 
due time married Miss Amy Ingraham and es- 
tablished himself in the village county-seat of 
Jacksonville, where he remained in the prac- 
tice of his profession for nearly fifty years. 
His eldest son. Miller, wished to follow in his 
father's footsteps and in regular course took 
his degree from the Medical College of Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, in 1853; as there were no 
railroads at that time in the interior of the 
southern states he was forced to journey on 
horseback. Miller became associated with his 
father in the practice of medicine at Jackson- 
ville, and shortly after married Miss Julia 
Clark, of Georgia. Of this union four chil- 
dren were born, three of whom are living at 
the present time, the youngest being the subject 
of this biography. 

At the beginning of the war of the Rebellion 
Dr. Miller Francis tendered his services to the 
Confederate government and was enlisted as 
surgeon. He was commissioned senior sur- 
geon of the Sixth Alabama Infantry on May 
19, 1861, resigned in May, 1862, and was re- 



commissioned January 18, 1863, senior sur- 
geon of Morgan's brigade in General Joseph 
Wheeler's cavalry corps, serving in this po- 
sition until the end of the war. He then re- 
sumed the practice of his profession at Jack- 
sonville, where he resided until his death, which 
occurred on December 8, 1877. His wife had , 
died in the meantime, on November 6, 1874. 

John Miller Francis was afforded the ad- 
vantages of the public schools of his native 
city, after which he was matriculated in the 
University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa, where 
he was graduated as a member of the class of 
1887, receiving the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts. In 1889 he completed a post-graduate 
course in his alma mater, which then conferred 
upon him the degree of Master of Arts. In 
1887 he was made adjunct professor of chem- 
istry in the university, and in 1889-90, on leave 
of absence, he took a course of post-graduate 
work in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 
Maryland, devoting special attention to organic 
chemistry. 

In October, 1892, Mr. Francis came to De- 
troit and assumed the position of assistant in 
the Department of Analytical Chemistry in the 
laboratories of Parke, Davis & Company, and 
was promoted to full charge of this depart- 
ment in 1897, at which time the work of the 
Experimental Department was likewise placed 
under his supervision. In 1905 he succeeded 
Mr. Frank G. Ryan as chief chemist and su- 
perintendent of the Control Department, which 
latter covers and directs all processes employed 
in the manufacturing of the multifarious prod- 
ucts of the great concern, these preparations 
numbering about eight thousand. Of the mani- 
fold duties resting upon Mr. Francis detailed 
mention can scarcely be made in an article of 
this character, but it may well be understood 
that of all departments of this great enterprise 
none are intrinsically more responsible and ex- 
acting in their demands than those assigned to 
his charge. He has charge of the check sys- 
tem for the prevention of mistakes, the identi- 
fication of goods and control of quality of all 
raw materials and finished products; controls 



558 



DBTEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the suggestion of all new products, the inves- 
tigation of new drugs and therapeutic agents, 
the improving of quality, new processes of 
manufacture, and the investigation of com- 
plaints from the trade and the medical profes- 
sion.^ This splendidly devised control system 
implies first the securing of materials of the 
best quality and proper identity; second, the 
distribution and proper utilization of this ma- 
terial, much of which is of tremendous toxic 
potency; third, the prevention of mistakes and 
probably fatal consequences by misplacing the 
material in the process of manufacture; and 
finally, the examination of the finished product 
to determine accurately its quality and regu- 
larity of standard. It will be seen from these 
statements how great is the responsibility in- 
volved, as it insures to the products that in- 
tegrity which has been so great a factor in gain- 
mg to Parke, Davis & Company an unrivaled 
and world-wide reputation. Mr. Francis is a 
member of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, the American Phar- 
maceutical Association, Deutsches Chemischen 
Gesellschaft, the American Chemical Society, 
and the Society of Detroit Chemists, and he is 
well known and holds a high reputation in his 
chosen profession. Pie is a member of the 
Detroit Club. In politics he pays allegiance to 
the Republican party, and he and his wife are 
zealous members of the Jefferson Avenue 
Presbyterian church, in which he is an elder. 
Both are active in the various departments of 
the church work. 

On November 25. 1891, Mr. Francis mar- 
ried Miss Evie E. Harris, daughter of Robert 
T. Harris, a representative member of the bar 
of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the children of 
this union are: John Miller, Jr., who was 
bom June 23, 1894; Evelyn Searcv, born Oc- 
tober 2, 1898; and Julia Clark, born on the 
8th of March, 1901. 



LEON 0. FINCK. 

The magnificent enterprise conducted by the 
corporation of Parke, Davis & Company, the 



largest manufacturing pharmaceutical chem- 
ists in the world, has gained its marvelous suc- 
cess largely through having in the various 
stages of its history enlisted the co-operation 
of men of strong initiative, executive and tech- 
nical ability, and in the personnel of the pres- 
ent executive corps few are better known or 
exercise more important functions than the 
subject of this sketch, whose popularity in busi- 
ness and social circles is measured only by the 
number of his acquaintances. He has a com- 
prehensive knowledge of practical pharmacy, 
which has inured greatly to his success as an 
administrative ofificer, while his general pro- 
gressiveness and public spirit place him well 
to the front among the representative business 
men of the Michigan metropolis. 

Mr. Finck was born at Sodus, Wayne coun- 
ty. New York, on the ist of October, i860, 
and is a son of David and Mary A. (Fitzsim- 
mons) Finck. The Finck family was founded 
in America in the colonial era of our national 
history and the genealogy is distinguished and 
interesting. The founder of the American 
branch was Andrew Finck, a native of the 
Palatinate of Germany. He was one of the 
five leaders of the colony of his countrymen 
who secured by purchase from the Mohawk 
Indians a tract of twelve thousand seven hun- 
dred acres of land in the beautiful Mohawk 
valley of New York. This transaction oc- 
curred in 1723, and the colony, located at 
"Stone Arabia" was known as the "Palatine 
Germans." made up of the most steriing class 
of German citizens,— men and women who 
u-ere themselves the most worthy and useful of 
pioneers in the new country and whose de- 
scendants have pla3^ed well their parts in life. 
Numerous representatives of this sturdy stock 
are yet to be found in the Mohawk valley, 
noted for its fine farmsteads and evidences of 
thrift and prosperity as one generation has 
followed another on to the stage of life's ac- 
tivities. The subject of this review has in his 
possession a tracing of the original deed given 
by the Mohawk Indians and signed by the 
sachems of the tribe at the time of the trans- 



I 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



559 



fer of the above mentioned property to the 
German colonists. 

Andrew Finck, the original American 
progenitor, came to the New World in 1709. 
He lived on the banks of the Hudson river for 
some time, then moved to Schoharie county, 
New York. As may be inferred from preced- 
ing statements, a number of years elapsed ere 
he became concerned in promoting the forma- 
tion of the Palatine colony, and his knowledge 
of conditions and opportunities proved potent 
in influencing others of his countrymen to take 
up their abode on the frontier in the old Em- 
pire state. The next in line of direct descent to 
the subject of this article was Christian Finck, 
son of Andrew, and the former was in turn 
followed by a son Andrew, who was a valiant 
soldier in the colonial wars antecedent to the 
Revolution, having served six years under Sir 
William Johnson. At the age of fifty-five 
years he gave still more unmistakable evidence 
of his loyalty, when he took up arms in de- 
fense of the cause of independence, becom- 
ing a private in the Continental line. Three of 
his sons also were soldiers in the Revolution- 
ary forces, — Andrew, who attained to the rank 
of major and who was a close associate of 
Colonel Marinus Willett, of New York Con- 
tinental Infantry and the "Levies," known as 
the "Pride of the Mohawk Valley": Major 
Andrew Finck also served under General 
Washington at Valley Forge and White Plains 
and under General James Clinton on the Hud- 
son; Christian, who was likewise a gallant sol- 
dier in the Revolution and who also took part 
in the second war with England, having held a 
captain's commission during the war of 1812; 
and Henry, who served throughout the Revo- 
lution. Two of Andrew Finck's sons-in-law 
were also officers. Of these three sons men- 
tioned, the second, Christian, figures as the an- 
cestor of Leon C. Finck, whose name initiates 
this article. Christian Finck became a success- 
ful farmer in the Mohawk valley and his death 
occurred at Victory, Wayne county. New 
York, when he was well advanced in years. 
His son Christian (third of the name) suc- 



ceeded to the old homestead farm, which is 
still known by the family name. David Finck 
was a man of high intellectual attainments, 
having been graduated in a leading college in 
New York state and having been for a number 
of years a successful and popular teacher in 
the schools of that commonwealth, where he 
continued to reside until his death, which oc- 
curred in 1864. Mrs. Mary A. Fitzsimmons 
Finck was a grand-daughter of Major Amos 
Scott, a gallant officer in the war of 181 2 and 
a representative of one of the old and distin- 
guished families of the nation. 

Leon C. Finck was about four years of age 
at the time of his father's death, and the fam- 
ily removed soon afterward to the city of 
Syracuse, New York, where he was reared to 
maturity and where he secured his early edu- 
cational training in the public schools. In 
1873, at the age of thirteen years, he secured 
employment in the retail drug store of Brown 
& Dawson, of that city and remained there 
until 1880, devoting himself assiduously to the 
study of pharmacy and to the practical details 
of the work, and being gradually advanced to 
the position of chief prescription clerk in the 
establishment. Upon his withdrawal, in 1880, 
Mr. Finck came to Detroit, bearing with him 
letters of introduction and commendation ad- 
dressed to George S. Davis, general manager 
of the firm of Parke, Davis & Company, 
through whom he secured a position as assist- 
ant in the general pharmaceutical department. 
He was energetic and ambitious and his rise 
to his present responsible office has been gained 
through the various grades of promotion to 
which he entitled himself by his ability and fi- 
delity. In 1882 Mr. Finck was made foreman 
of the extract department, and in 1884 he was 
placed in charge of the general pharmaceutical 
department. In 1893 he assumed supervision 
of the formula department and in 1896 was 
appointed head of the control department. For 
several years he also managed the digestive- 
ferment department. He is counted among the 
old pioneers in the manufacture of pepsm and 
other digestive ferments. 



560 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Mr. Finck was one of the four active mem- 
bers and secretary of the board of control gov- 
erning the army of employes in the big De- 
troit laboratories during six years, 1900- 1906. 
He was also assistant superintendent ten years. 
Upon the reorganization of the mannfac- 
ing departments of Parke, Davis & Company's 
great establishment, in January, 1907, Mr. 
Fmck was appointed division superintendent in 
control of stock, finishing and shipping depart- 
ments. He is also chief of the finely equipped 
private fire department maintained to protect 
the many laboratory buildings in the large 
plant, covering several city squares. He has 
served more than twenty-five years as an offi- 
cer in that excellent organization, which is rec- 
ognized as one of the best drilled and most ef- 
ficient private fire departments in this coun- 
try. Several hundred employes are engaged 
in the division over which Mr. Finck has direct 
supervision, and he has the unqualified esteem 
and good will of all, being genial and unas- 
suming in his association with those about him, 
though ever insisting upon the maintenance of 
good discipline. He has charge each year of 
the annual excursions given by the company 
to its employes and their escorts, numbering 
fully five thousand, and as "admiral" of the 
excursion fleet he has given dispensations 
which have made the annual outings a source 
of unrivaled pleasure to all concerned. 

On the 25th of November, 1902, Mr. Finck 
was united in marriage to Miss Mary Shaugh- 
nessy, daughter of the late Patrick Shaugh- 
nessy, of Detroit. They have no children. 

Mr. Finck is an appreciative member of the 
Sons of the American Revolution, being a 
member of the board of managers of the Mich- 
igan Society. He is also an active member of 
the Society of Colonial Wars, and the histori- 
cal societies of Herkimer and Montgomery 
counties. New York. He takes justifiable 
pnde in the family history and in the generic 
history of the nation which has honored and 
been honored by those who have borne the 
name of Finck and by several of his ancestors 
who were prominent among the earliest pio- 



neers m New England. He is a stockholder 
in Parke, Davis & Company and was until re- 
cently vice-president of the Detroit Regalia 
Company. As a citizen he has exhibited'' lib- 
eral public spirit, and he has been reasonably 
prominent in political and municipal affairs 
ni Detroit. He is an uncompromising Repub- 
lican and has in many ways rendered effective 
service in the party cause. He served as a 
committeeman in the Wayne County Business 
Men's Republican Club and a member of the 
executive committee of the Detroit Municipal 
League. He also served as a member of the 
executive committee of the citizens' street-rail- 
way committee appointed by Mayor Codd. 
Mr. Finck was appointed professor of prac- 
tical pharmacy in the Detroit College of Medi- 
cine in 1891. 

He was, years ago, active in athletic affairs, 
as an amateur base-ball pitcher, tennis player 
and expert bicycle rider. He was secretary 
and lieutenant in the old original Detroit Bi- 
cycle Club. He is now an enthusiastic auto- 
mobile driver. 



JOHN T. SHAW. 

Shortly before attaining to his legal major- 
ity Mr. Shaw entered the service of the First 
National Bank of Detroit, with whose execu- 
tive affairs he has since been consecutively 
Identified and of which great institution, most 
notable, both historically and financially, he is 
now vice-president,— a preferment which in- 
dicates how well he has applied his energies 
and abilities and to how great a degree he has 
the confidence and esteem of the stockholders 
and directors of the bank. For more than 
thirty years he has thus been intimately con- 
cerned with banking interests in the Michigan 
metropolis, and in no insignificant sense has 
he contributed to upholding the essentially im- 
pregnable prestige of Detroit in a financial 
way. He is honored by and honors the great 
banking house to whose ser\'ice his entire busi- 
ness career has been devoted, and he is em- 
inently entitled to consideration in this publica- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



561 



tion as one of the leading financiers of the 
state and one of the representative citizens of 
the fair "City of the Straits." 

Mr. Shaw was born at Plymouth, Wayne 
county, Michigan, on the 30th of July, 1854, 
and is a son of John and Mary (Maiden) 
Shaw, the former of whom was born at Why- 
sail, Nottinghamshire, England, and the latter 
near Farmington, Oakland county, Michigan. 
When the subject of this sketch was about 
thirteen years of age he entered the North- 
ville. Union school, to which school he is in- 
debted for his early educational discipline, in- 
cluding a course in the high school. 

John T. Shaw came to Detroit, in 1876, the 
centennial year of our national independence 
and the one which marked the virtual initiation 
of his own independent career. On the ist of 
April, 1876, he became bookkeeper in the First 
National Bank, retaining this position until he 
succeeded E. C. Bowman, upon the latter's 
retirement from the position of discount clerk. 
From this office he thereafter rose through 
various grades of promotion until finally, on 
the loth of January, 1893, he was appointed 
cashier of the bank. Of his advancement to 
this important office Wendell's history of banks 
and banking- in Michigan speaks as follows, 
and the words, as coming from Mr. Emory 
Wendell, who was so long president of the 
institution, are especially significant and apro- 
pos : "He availed himself of his opportunity 
to familiarize himself with the workings of 
the bank, and so came to its management thor- 
oughly equipped for the responsibilities inci- 
dent thereto, and enjoying the full confidence 
of the directors." 

On the loth of January, 1899, he was 
elected a director and vice-president of the 
bank, while still retaining the office of cashier, 
and of these three positions he continued to be 
the incumbent until the death of the honored 
president, the late Dexter M. Ferry, when he 
was recognized as the normal candidate for 
the presidency, to which he was elected on the 
19th of November, 1907. Mr. Ferry is the 
subject of an individual memoir in this vol- 



ume, and in the department devoted to the 
banking and other financial interests of De- 
troit and Wayne county is also given a review 
of the history of the First National Bank. 

The career of Mr. Shaw has been somewhat 
unique, and yet has represented but the faith- 
ful application of definite powers to the ac- 
complishment of the work to which he has set 
himself. Through his own efforts he has at- 
tained to a large measure of material success 
and to a high reputation as a financier and 
business man, and the while he has stood for 
progressiveness and loyalty in all that makes 
for good citizenship. It is no insignificant 
thing to stand at the head of so great an in- 
stitution as the First National Bank, and such 
precedence stands as its own vouclier for 
sterling character as well as definite ability. 

Since the consolidation of the First National 
and Commercial National Banks, under the 
title of the First National Bank of Detroit, 
Mr. Shaw has held the office of vice-president 
and cashier. 

OLIVER BOURKE, JR. 

One of the well known and distinctively 
popular officials connected witli the Detroit 
postoffice is Oliver Bourke, Jr., who is super- 
intendent of carriers and who has most effec- 
tively handled the work of his important de- 
partment, whose service most closely touches 
the general public. 

Mr. Bourke is a native of the city of Detroit, 
where he was born on the 14th of July, 1865, 
being a son of Oliver and Henrietta Alicia 
Bourke, the former of whom was born in 
Heathfield House, County Mayo, Ireland, and 
the latter in Clane, Ireland. Mr. Bourke re- 
ceived his early education in the public schools 
of Detroit and under the instruction of private 
tutors. On the ist of February, 1881, he be- 
came an employe in the local postoffice, George 
C. Codd having been postmaster at the time. 
His first service was as registry clerk, and for 
eight years he was in charge of this depart- 
ment at night. In 1889 he was promoted to 
the position of assistant chief clerk of the de- 



562 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



livery division, in which capacity he served 
until 1892, when he was appointed assistant 
superintendent of the city-delivery department. 
Shortly afterward he was detailed as superin- 
tendent of carriers and collectors and in 1904 
he was promoted to his present office of su- 
perintendent of carriers, in which position he 
has done much to systematize the work of his 
department and bring it up to the highest pos- 
sible point of efficiency. He now has under 
his supervision two hundred and eighty-five 
regular carriers and thirty-nine extras, and 
within his connection with the carriers' de- 
partment the bulk of mail handled therein 
has been increased four-fold. Mr. Bourke has 
served under the regimes of the following 
named postmasters and is one of the veterans 
of the official corps of the office: George C. 
Codd, Alexander Copeland, Elwood T. Hance, 
John J. Enright, Freeman B. Dickerson, and 
Homer Warren. 

Mr. Bourke was for six years a member of 
Company D, Detroit Light Infantry, and in 
1893 he was elected captain of the City Greys, 
but declined to qualify for the office, though he 
served six months as first lieutenant in his com- 
pany. He is an able tactician and has taken 
great interest in military affairs, often serving 
as a drill master. Of later years his official 
duties at the postoffice have prevented his giv- 
ing any considerable attention to the militia. 
Both he and his wife are communicants of St. 
Paul's church, Protestant Episcopal. 

On the 26th of October, 1892, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Mr. Bourke to Miss 
Esther K. Jaquith, daughter of the late Mer- 
ton P. Jaquith, a well known insurance man 
of Detroit, and grand-niece of the late Amasa 
Rust, one of the pioneer lumber barons of the 
Saginaw valley. Mr. and Mrs. Bourke have 
three children, — Esther H., Marion G., and 
Charlotte V, 

GEORGE H. PAINE. 

As one of the definite factors in connection 
with the upbuilding of the "greater Detroit," 
George H. Paine has been prominent. He was 



born in the city of Saginaw, Michigan, on the 
i8th of January, 1858, and is a son of Asa H. 
and Jane (Hutchinson) Paine. To the public 
schools of his native city Mr. Paine is indebted 
for his early educational discipline, and at the 
age of sixteen years he assumed a clerical po- 
sition in the law offices of Wisner & Draper, 
of Saginaw, under whose preceptorship he read 
law, being admitted to the bar in 1879. In 
1880 he was appointed assistant prosecuting 
attorney of Saginaw county, and prior to his 
admission to the bar he served as clerk of the 
circuit court. 

In 1882 Mr. Paine located in Detroit, where 
he established himself in the practice of his 
profession, but after five years devoted himself 
exclusively to the promotion of industrial en- 
terprises. In 1889 he was identified with the 
organization and incorporation of the National 
Loan & Investment Company, of Detroit, of 
which he became the first secretary and general 
manager, and he continued in this office until 
April, 1899. when he resigned. In 1896 he 
was the leading spirit in effecting the organi- 
zation of the Firestone Rubber Tire Company, 
of which he became one of the largest stock- 
holders and was the first president. In 1899 
he again came to the forefront as an effective 
promoter, bringing about the organization and 
incorporation of the Consolidated Rubber Tire 
Company, which was capitalized at over $5,- 
000,000, and absorbed the business of the Fire- 
stone and other important concerns in the same 
line of enterprise. In 1900, with Sherman R. 
Miller and John W. Leggett, lie organized the 
W. F. Stimpson Company, which purchased the 
plant and business of the Computing Scale 
Company, of Elkhart, Indiana, and of this 
newly organized corporation he became presi- 
dent. In 1902 he was one of the principal or- 
ganizers of the Computing Scale Company of 
America, a three million dollar corporation, of 
which he was elected \'ice-president and man- 
aging director of the Stimpson plants con- 
trolled by the corporation, which also absorbed 
the business of the Dayton Computing Scale 
Company, of Dayton, Ohio, and the Money- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



563 



weight Scale Company, of Chicago. In 1903 
Mr. Paine became associated with Sherman R. 
Miller in the purchase of the control of the 
Incandescent Light & Stove Company, of Cin- 
cinnati, of which he has since been treasurer. 
In 1908 he purchased Mr. Miller's interest. 
The concern is capitalized for one million five 
hundred thousand dollars and is the largest of 
its kind in the world. Mr. Paine has also been 
instrumental in the organization of several 
other important industrial corporations. He 
holds membersliip in the Detroit Country Club, 
the Detroit Driving Club, the Huron Moun- 
tain Club, the Chicago Athletic Club, and the 
National Arts Club, of New York city. In 
Oakland county, Michigan, Mr. Paine has a 
model farm of one hundred and fifty acres, 
known as "Cherry Tree Farm." 

In April, 1893, Mr. Paine was united in 
marriage to Miss Sadie H. Burnstein, and they 
have two daughters, — Janet and Dorothy. 



GEORGE B. RUSSEL. 

A representative of one of the old, prominent 
and distinguished families of Detroit and rec- 
ognized as one of the progressive young busi- 
ness men who are proving potent factors in 
forwarding the industrial advancement of the 
Michigan metropolis, George B. Russel is well 
entitled to consideration in this compilation. 
He is secretary and treasurer of the Seamless 
Steel Bath Tub Company, one of the large and 
important industrial concerns of Detroit, and 
to this corporation he gives the major portion 
of his time and attention. 

Mr. Russel is a native of Detroit, where he 
was born on the 8th of June, 1873, and he is a 
son of George H. Russel, one of the city's 
prominent capitalists and influential citizens 
and one to whom a special sketch is devoted on 
other pages of this work, so that a recapitula- 
tion of the family history is not demanded at 
the present juncture. After completing the 
curriculum of the public schools of his native 
city Mr. Russel was matriculated in the Uni- 
versitv of Michigan, in which he was grad- 



uated as a member of the class of 1895 and 
from which he received the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts. In 1896-7 he was a student in the 
law school of Plarvard University, withdraw- 
ing at the end of his first year. After leaving 
Harvard he became the general agent for 
Michigan of the American Finance & Securities 
Company, of New York, with headquarters in 
Detroit, and this incumbency he retained until 
1904, when he resigned to become one of the 
organizers of the Detroit Seamless Steel Bath 
Tub Company, the promotion of which was 
entrusted mainly to him. In 1904 he was 
elected secretary and treasurer of the company, 
and its financial and general accounting de- 
partments have since been under his able su- 
pervision. In business circles he has gained a 
reputation which is not the result of influential 
family connections or extraneous prestige. He 
is a thorough and painstaking administrative 
officer and has had large experience in the 
handling of financial affairs. A description of 
the company and business with which he is 
identified is gi\en in another department of 
this publication. 

In politics Mr. Russel is aligned as a staunch 
supporter of the cause of the Republican party, 
and he is identified with the Detroit Board of 
Commerce, the Detroit Club, the Detroit Uni- 
versity Club, the Country Club, and the Detroit 
Automobile Club, besides maintaining affilia- 
tion with the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity of 
his alma mater, the University of Michigan. 



HENRY J. RENTE. 

Elsewhere in this publication appears a re- 
view of tlie business of the American Radi- 
ator Company, with especial reference to its 
Michigan plant, of which Mr. Rente is the 
assistant manager, being recogfnized as an able 
executive and reliable and progressive business 
man, so that he is well entitled to consideration 
in this volume, in which definite recognition is 
accorded especially to those who are contribut- 
ing to the upbuilding of the "Greater Detroit." 

Mr. Rente is a native of the city which is 



564 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



now his home, and was born on the 17th of 
March, 1862. He is a son of Frederick W. 
and Augusta (Heche) Rente, both of wliom 
were bom in Germany. Their marriage was 
solemnized in this city in 1859. The father be- 
came identified with the manufacturing of wire 
cloth, being employed in the old Snow Iron 
Works, which later were operated under the 
title of Snow & Barnum. He continued to be 
identified with this line of enterprise until he 
had attained to the age of sixty-seven years, 
after which he lived virtually retired until his 
death, which occurred in 189 1. He is survived 
by his wife and five children. 

Henry J. Rente, the immediate subject of 
this review, secured his rudimentary education 
in a parochial school of the Evangelical church 
and later continued his studies in the public 
schools of his native city. He also availed 
himself of the advantages of night schools for 
some time and in 1884 he was graduated in the 
Detroit Business University. For a time he 
was a clerk in the drug store of B. E. Sickler, 
with whom he remained for about one year, 
after which he entered the establishment of the 
E. T. Barnum Wire & Iron Works, where he 
learned the trade of wire weaving, becoming 
specially expert and operating one of the first 
steam looms utilized in the business. After 
being thus employed for a period of four years 
Mr. Rente served an apprenticeship at the ma- 
chinist's trade, in the works of the Detroit 
Safe Company, and in 1887 he secured employ- 
ment as a machinist in the plant of the Michi- 
gan Bolt & Nut Works, of Detroit. In Feb- 
ruary. 1S89, he accepted a position with the 
Michigan Radiator & Iron Manufacturing 
Company, in whose plant he became a tool- 
maker and general machinist. In 1892 he was 
promoted to the position of foreman of the 
machine shop. In 1900 he resigned this office 
and associated himself with Joseph C. Jacques, 
Edward Wieber and Louis Risser and organ- 
ized the Detroit Iron Manufacturing Company, 
of which he became president and general man- 
ager. The company was incorporated witli a 
capital stock of ten thousand dollars and its 



functions were a general jobbing business in 
the foundry line. In 1901 Mr. Rente retired 
from this company and became forwarder of 
the Michigan plant of the American Radiator 
Company, successor to the Michigan Radiator 
& Iron Manufacturing Company, with which 
he had previously been identified. Since 1904 l' 
he has been assistant manager of the plant, as 
is indicated in the article descriptive of the com- 
pany and its business. He is a loyal member 
of the Detroit Commercial Club, is a Repul> 
lican in politics, is affiliated with the Indepen- 
dent Order of Odd Fellows and the Loyal 
Guards, and both he and his wife attend St. 
James' church, Protestant Episcopal. 

In February, 1893, Mr. Rente was united in 
marriage to Miss Margretta V. Watson, 
daughter of Edward C. Watson, of Detroit.' 
and they have three children,— Henry Watson, 
Sidney Raymond, and Edna. ; 



ALBERT H. ROEHM. 

A member of one of the prominent and rep- 
resentative families of Detroit and numbered 
among the city's enterprising and public-spir- 
ited business men, Mr. Roehm is incumbent of 
the office of treasurer and general manager of 
the Detroit Carriage Company, data concern- 
ing which appear on other pages of this work. 
Mr. Roehm is a native of Detroit, where he 
was born on the 5th of December, 1863, and 
he is a son of Herman and Caroline (Rich) 
Roehm, the former of whom was long and 
prominently identified with important business 
enterprises in Detroit, where he still main- 
tains his home and where he is now living es- 
sentially retired from active business. His 
wife is deceased. 

The subject of this sketch is indebted to the 
excellent public schools of Detroit for his early 
educational training, and he initiated his busi- 
ness career when sixteen years of age, by en- 
tering the employ of Roehm & Davison, whole- 
salers in carriage hardware, of which firm his 
father was the senior member. He became 
city buyer for this finn. and he retained this 



1 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



565 



position for a period of two years. In 1881 
he became entry clerk in the wholesale hard- 
ware establishment of Ducharme, Fletcher & 
Company, and in the following year he ac- 
cepted a position with W. H. Edgar & Com- 
pany, wholesale dealers in sugars. With this 
latter concern he served as shipping and billing 
cleric until 1885, in which year he assumed a 
position in the stock rooms of the Detroit Elec- 
trical Works. In 1887 he was promoted to the 
position of general inspector in the manufac- 
turing department of this corporation. In 
1889 Mr. Roehm became assistant superin- 
tendent in the factory of the Rumsey Manu- 
facturing Company, and when the same was 
succeeded by the Detroit Carriage Manufac- 
turing Company he identified himself with the 
latter in the capacity of superintendent, his 
honored father having been president of the 
company. This company was in turn succeeded 
by the Detroit Carriage Company, and as treas- 
urer and manager of the latter the subject of 
this sketch has proven an admirable executive 
officer. He has the general management of the 
sales and manufacturing departments and has 
been a forceful factor in promoting the large 
and substantial business now controlled by the 
company. He takes pride in the giant strides 
which his native city is making along indus- 
trial and commercial lines and is a firm believer 
in the "Greater Detroit." He is a member of 
the Detroit Board of Commerce, is a Repub- 
lican in his political allegiance and is affiliated 
with the Masonic fraternity, in which he holds 
membership in Palestine Lodge, No. 357, Free 
& Accepted Masons, and Peninsular Chapter, 
No. 16, Royal Arch Masons. 

In addition to his interests in the Detroit 
Carriage Company Mr. Roehm is secretary of 
the Spider Lake Mining Company, in Ontario, 
Canada, and secretary and a member of the 
directorate of the Michigan Storage Battery 
Company, of Detroit. As a business man he 
is signally alert and aggressive, and his in- 
fluence is felt distinctively in each of the cor- 
porations with which he is identified. 



On the 2(1 of January, 1886, Mr. Roehm was 
united in marriage to Miss Mary Cackle, 
daughter of Adam Cackle, a well known citizen 
of Berlin, Ontario. 



EDWARD A. SUMNER. 

The Detroit plant of the American Radiator 
Company is one of the important departments 
of this great concern, having a force of six 
hundred men, and the local business of the 
company has as its able manager Edward A. 
Sumner, who is one of the aggressive and en- 
terprising business men of the Michigan me- 
tropolis. 

Mr. Sumner was born in the city of Jackson, 
Michigan, on the 26th of Otcober, 1874, and is 
a son of Edward A. and Florence (Bingham) 
Sumner, the former a native of Massachusetts 
and the latter of Michigan. The father was for 
many years identified with the Withington & 
Cooley Manufacturing Company, one of the 
leading industrial concerns of Jackson, and he 
was treasurer of the company until 1889, when 
he formed the Detroit Radiator Company and 
removed to Detroit. 

The subject of this review was accorded the 
advantages of the public schools of his native 
city, and in 1893 he entered the celebrated 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the 
city of Boston, in which institution he was 
enrolled three years. 

In 1896 Mr. Sumner located in Detroit and 
served an apprenticeship in the foundry, core, 
machinery and laboratory departments of the 
plant of the Radiator Company. In 1899- 1900 
Mr. Sumner had charge of placing in operation 
the company's plant at Dole, France. In Au- 
gust, 1900, he returned to the United States 
and was given a position in the general offices 
of his company, in Chicago. Later he was 
made secretary of the operating board of the 
company, and in this office he had general 
charge of the foundry end of the various plants 
owned by the company. On the ist of Decem- 
ber, 1901, he was appointed manager of the 
Detroit plant, and of this office he has since 



566 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



remained incumbent. Under his effective su- 
pervision the output of the plant has been in- 
creased twenty per cent., and the business has 
otherwise been brought up to a high standard. 
The annual disbursement of the Detroit plant 
in wages aggregates three hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. 

In politics Mr. Sumner gives his allegiance 
to the Republican party, and he is identified 
with a number of representative social and 
business organizations in Detroit, including the 
University Club, the Detroit Club, the Country 
Club, the Detroit Boat Club, the Racquet and 
Curhng Club, the Loyal Legion, and the Board 
of Commerce, of which he is second vice-presi- 
dent. He and his wife are communicants of 
the Protestant Episcopal church, and are mem- 
bers of the parish of Christ church, on Jefferson 
avenue. 

On the 28th of October, 1905, Mr. Sumner 
was united in marriage to Miss Ernestine D 
Tappey, daughter of Dr. Ernest T. Tappey, 
one of the leading physicians and surgeons of 
Detroit. 

Reverting to the late Edward A. Sumner, 
Sr., father of the subject of this sketch, it may 
be said that he came from Massachusetts to 
Michigan in 1865, and located at Jackson, 
where he became a prominent and influential 
factor in industrial and civic affairs. He had 
rendered loyal service as a defender of the 
Union in the civil war, having been first lieu- 
tenant of his company in the Forty-third Mas- 
sachusetts Volunteer Infantry. In 1889 he re- 
moved to Detroit, where he became associated 
with George H. and Walter S. Russel, Charles 
Stinchfield and Charles H. Hodges in the or- 
ganization and incorporation of the Detroit 
Radiator Company, of which he was treasurer 
and general manager until the plant and busi- 
ness were purchased by the American Radiator 
Company. Of this company he was elected 
second vice-president and a director, and he re- 
tained these offices, together with that of man- 
ager of the Detroit plant, until 1900, when he 
retired from active business. He died at St. 
Augustine, Florida, on the 21st of April, 1905. 



He was a man of sterling integrity and dis- 
tinctive ability. His life was one of usefulness 
and honor and he ever commanded the confi- 
dence and esteem of his fellow men. His po- 
litical support was given to the Republican 
party. He was a member of the Detroit Club 
the Prismatic Club, the Detroit Boat Club the 
Country Club, the Grand Army of the Republic 
and the Loyal Legion. 



ANTHONY SEEGER. 

One of the native sons of Detroit who has 
here found ample scope for the exercise of his 
abilities and energies and who has here attained 
to a position among the representative youn- 
men identified with the city's industrial inter^ 
ests, IS Mr. Seeger, who is secretary and treas- 
urer of the Posselius Brothers Furniture Manu- 
facturing Company, of whose plant and busi- 
ness description is given in another department 
of this compilation. In its respective field the 
concern is one of the most important in the 
city, and it is most consonant that this work 
take cognizance of those who have executive 
control and direction of the enterprise. 

Anthony Seeger was born in Detroit, on the 
6th of July, 1870, and is a son of Frederick 
and Elizabeth Seeger, both of whom were na- 
tives of Funke, Germany, whence they came to 
America when young folk. Frederick Seeger 
left his native land in 1846 and immigrated to 
the United States. He located in Detroit in 
the year mentioned and here learned the car- 
penter's trade, to which he devoted his atten- 
tion for many years, during about a decade of 
which he was engaged in contract work in the 
copper regions of the upper peninsula of 
Michigan, where he passed the major portion 
of his time between the years i860 and 1870, 
in which latter year he returned to Detroit.' 
Here he was for some time in the employ of 
the Voigt Brewery Company, and he was also 
engaged in the retail liquor trade at the corner 
of Second street and Grand River avenue. He 
was a staunch and enthusiastic supporter of the 
cause of the Democratic party, and did efficient 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



567 



service for the same, though he never sought 
the honors or emohunents of pubhc office of 
any kind. He was well known in Detroit and 
was honored for his sterling integrity and loyal 
citizenship. His death occurred on the 30th of 
June, 1907, and he survived his devoted wife 
by about ten years, since she passed away in 
1897. Of their children the following brief 
data are given : Theresa is the wife of Frank 
Schoenherr, a successful cigar manufacturer 
of Detroit ; Josephine is the widow of John C. 
Posselius, who was one of the interested prin- 
cipals in the Posselius Brothers Furniture Man- 
ufacturing Company; Anna is the wife of 
David Hunt, a contracting brick mason of De- 
troit; Clara is the wife of Oscar L. Buchler, 
traveling salesman for S. Rothschild & Brother, 
of Detroit; Louise G. is the wife of John S. 
Thomas, a traveling representative for the Pos- 
selius Brothers Furniture Manufacturing Com- 
pany ; Frank is a successful farmer in Deerfield 
township, Wayne county, this state; and An- 
thony is the immediate subject of this review. 
Anthony Seeger secured his early educa- 
tional training in the public schools of Detroit, 
and later attended the Detroit Business Uni- 
versity, where he completed a commercial 
course. Prior to entering this institution, how- 
ever, he had, when but thirteen years ofjige, 
become an apprentice to the trade of wood 
carving, in the establishment of A. Posselius 
& Brother. After leaving the business college 
he again identified himself with the same con- 
cern, being employed in the factoiy about six 
months and then becoming a salesman in the 
company's store, in 1887. When a reorganiza- 
tion of the finn was made under the title of 
F. Posselius & Brothers, on the ist of January, 
1890, he again found employment in the fac- 
tory, and later he became bookkeeper of the 
concern, at the time of its incorporation under 
the present title, August i, 1890. This office 
he retained until 1900, when he was elected 
secretary and treasurer of the company, — a 
preferment which he had justly earned through 
his able and assiduous efforts. This dual office 



he has since retained and his executive talent 
comes into play to the furtherance of the in- 
terests of the company in every department, 
including that of sales, of which he has direct 
charge. Since the incorporation of the com- 
pany the business has increased in volume by 
fully four hundred per cent. 

Mr. Seeger is aligned as a stalwart supporter 
of the principles and policies of the Democratic 
party, and he is affiliated with Kilwinning 
Lodge, No. 297, Free & Accepted Masons, of 
which he is senior warden at the time of this 
writing, in 1908. 

On January 24, 1895, Mr. Seeger was united 
in marriage to Miss Betha L. Gibbings, daugh- 
ter of Thomas P. Gibbings, a well known con- 
tractor and builder of Detroit. The children 
of this union are: Edith G., who was born 
November 18, 1895; Florence L., who was 
born May 24, 1901 ; and Marion H., who was 
born August 22, 1905. 



ERNEST G. SWIFT. 

Li another department of this publication is 
entered a review of the history of the great 
concern of Parke, Davis & Company, the larg- 
est manufacturers of pharmaceutical prepara- 
tions in the world, and it is needless to say that 
the corporation is one which has had a ponder- 
ous influence in furthering the commercial ad- 
vancement and priority of Detroit. In the 
same connection it is but consonant that men- 
tion also be made of those prominently identi- 
fied with the management and control of the 
great enterprise. Of this number Mr. Swift 
is one, since he is the incumbent of the re- 
sponsible and exacting position of general 
manager of the institution. 

Ernest G. Swift was born at Rawdon, prov- 
ince of Quebec, Canada, on the 14th of Feb- 
ruary, 1 86 1, and is a son of Thomas and Alice 
(Sadler) Swift, of English ancestry. Thomas 
Swift was a farmer in the province of Quebec, 
where he was reared and educated and where 
his entire life was passed. His ancestors were 
numbered among the early settlers in the 



568 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



vicinity of Rawdon. Ernest G. Swift received 
the advantages of the public schools of his na- 
tive town, and when fourteen years of age he 
entered the employ of the wholesale drug house 
of Lymans, Clare & Company, of Montreal. 
In 1878, while thus engaged, he was matricu- 
lated in the Montreal College of Pharmacy, 
from which institution he was graduated as a 
member of the class of 1882. 

In 1883 lie identified himself with Parke, 
Davis & Company, and here he won steady ad- 
vancement, receiving several promotions prior 
to 1892, when he was awarded the office of 
manager of the Canadian business of the con- 
cern, with headquarters at Walkerville, On- 
tario. Under his direction the Canadian or- 
ganization developed and prospered to such an 
extent that upon the death of William M. 
Warren, in November, 1903, he was elected 
to succeed the latter as general manager of the 
corporation. 

The institution has a corps of thirty-five hun- 
dred employes, besides three hundred and fifty 
traveling representatives, and a strong and sure 
directing hand is needed at the helm. Without 
special advantages or influence Mr. Swift has 
won his advancement, and withal he has shown 
himself signally free from ostentation and un- 
due show of authority. He has the confidence 
and good will of the army of employes and is 
recognized as a sane, careful and conscientious 
business man of marked executive ability. He 
is a member of the Detroit Board of Commerce 
and is in full sympathy with its high civic ideals 
and commercial co-ordination of work. In 
politics he gives his allegiance to the Repub- 
lican party, and he holds membership in the 
Detroit Club, the Detroit Country Club, the 
Detroit Boat Club, the Old Club at St. Clair 
Flats, the New York Drug Club, and the Chi- 
cago Drug Club. He and his wife are mem- 
bers of the Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian 
church. 

In July, 1887, was solemnized the marriage 
of Mr. Swift to Miss Alice C. Cope, daughter 
of Phillip Cope, a representative contractor of 



Rome, New York. They have three children, 
—Herbert D., Clarence B., and Leroy E. 

In conclusion is entered the following es- 
timate which appeared in one of the leading 
Detroit daily papers of recent date: "It re- 
quires no small amount of ability and energy 
to successfully manage the affairs of a con- 
cern of such magnitude as Parke, Davis & 
Company. Add to this the functions of secre- 
tary, and life becomes more strenuous. In 
spite of the burdens thus imposed Ernest G. 
Swift finds time to devote to editorial duties, 
being publisher of the Bulletin of Pharmacy 
and the Therapeutic Gazette." 



CYRENIUS A. NEWCOMB. 

In the enlisting of men of so notable enter- 
prise, ability and integrity in the furtherance 
of her commercial and industrial activities is 
mainly due the precedence and great material 
prosperity of Michigan's metropolis, and the 
Newcomb, Endicott Company has been espe- 
cially prominent and potent in its sphere of 
operations, building up an enterprise which is 
paramount in extent and importance to any 
other of similar character in this favored com- 
monwealth of the Union. The great retail 
store conducted by this firm dates its founda- 
tion back nearly two score of years, and the 
subject of this brief sketch was one of the 
founders of the business, with which he has 
been actively identified from the time of its in- 
ception to the present. The firm has not only 
kept pace with the march of progress but has 
been a leader in the advancement, its establish- 
ment standing at the forefront at each consec- 
utive stage of development in the civic and 
commercial affairs of the city in which it is 
located. The reputation of the firm extends 
throughout the entire state, into the most 
diverse sections of which its trade penetrates. 
It has become trite in later years to speak of 
the young man as the dominating force in 
business, but in the light of sober investigation 
it will be found that the substantial business 
interests of the country have been conser\'ed 



.!?■ H 



DETKOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



669 



and broadened under the control of men of 
ample experience and past the stage of com- 
parative youth. Thus Mr. Newcomb, still in 
the harness, has attained to the psalmist's span 
of three score years and ten, but none can 
doubt that his powers to-day show no diminu- 
tion, but rather have been strengthened and 
matured by his long years of faithful and able 
service in the commercial field. He has never 
been inferior to any emergency confronting 
him, is positive as an individual and has clear- 
ly shown the qualities of leadership. As sub- 
stantial voucher for this stands the magnifi- 
cent business enterprise with which he is iden- 
tified. 

The lineage of the Newcomb family is of 
ancient and distinguished order, and authentic 
records trace the genealogy in England back 
to the twelfth century. The Harlein manu- 
scripts in the British Museum record the 
names of the Newcombs of Devonshire from 
the year 1189. So far as reliable data are ob- 
tainable, the first representative of the family 
in America was Captain Andrew Newcomb, 
who was a resident of Boston, Massachusetts, 
in 1663, having probably immigrated to the 
new world either from Devonshire, England, 
or from Wales. The name became prominent- 
ly identified with the annals of New England 
and eastern Canada in the colonial era, and in 
later generations have been scions who have 
attained to distinction in public life, in the 
professions, as scientists and as business men 
of exceptional acumen and strength. In an 
early day the family were seized of large tracts 
of land at Martha's Vineyard and other sec- 
tions of New England, even including historic 
Arcadia, to which point they were drawn by 
reason of the attractions offered under the pro- 
visions of the English monarch's proclamation 
of 1 761, the French having been driven from 
their homes in that idyllic region without re- 
gard to their inherent rights. The sternest 
Puritanism was represented by the Newcombs 
of the early days, but in later years members 
of the family became identified with the Pres- 
byterian and Methodist churches, while at the 



present time, as a matter of course, various 
other denominations claim their adherents 
from this sturdy stock. It may be said, after a 
survey of the generic family history, that a 
high order of intellectuality has characterized 
the Newcombs in the several generations in 
America. As has been written, "Several were 
college graduates at an early day, and the min- 
isterial, editorial and educational professions, 
as well as the guild of authors, are all repre- 
sented in the connection, and some of the fam- 
ily have made large gifts to schools and col- 
leges. Travelers and scientists of note are also 
in the genealogical list." Representatives of 
the family were found enlisted as loyal sol- 
diers in the Continental line during the war of 
the Revolution, while others remained faith- 
ful to the British crown and were found ar- 
rayed under its banner. In the war of 181 2 
and also that of the Rebellion the military 
prestige and patriotism of the Newcombs was 
not allowed to flag, being shown forth in val- 
iant military service. 

Cyrenius Adelbert Newcomb, the immediate 
subject of this sketch, was born at Cortland, 
New York, on the loth of November, 1837, 
being a son of Colonel Hezekiah and Nancy 
(Rounds) Newcomb, both of whom were 
born in Franklin county, Massachusetts. The 
former was a son of Hezekiah Newcomb, who 
was a prominent and influential citizen of 
northwestern Massachusetts, in whose general 
court or legislature he represented Bernards- 
town and Leyden for more than a score of 
years. Colonel Hezekiah Newcomb likewise 
became a valued member of the legislature of 
the old Bay state, and after his removal to 
New York he became a prominent figure in 
its militia, in which he was commissioned a 
colonel. He was a man of fine mentality and 
no little erudition, having been a successful 
and popular teacher for a number of years 
and having also followed the profession of 
civil engineering, making many important sur- 
veys in the state of New York. He acquired 
a valuable landed estate and was a man uni- 



570 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



fornily esteemed and respected by his fellow 
men. Both he and his wife were members of 
the Universalist church, and his political sup- 
port was given to ths Whig party. He died at 
Cortland, New York, as did also his cherished 
and devoted wife. 

The subject of this sketch was afforded the 
advantages of the common schools of his na- 
tive state and was later sent to Massachusetts 
to continue his educational discipline, in the 
meanwhile having had the beneficent sur- 
roundings of a cultured and refined home. In 
1 86 1 he was graduated in the Massachusetts 
state normal school at Bridgewater. He ini- 
tiated his business career at Hannibal, New 
York, and when twenty years of age he went 
to Taunton, Massachusetts, where he assumed 
a clerical position in the dry-goods establish- 
ment of N. H. Skinner & Company, being 
thus employed for a period of nine years, at 
the expiration of which he was admitted to 
partnership in the business. Two years later, 
however, he withdrew from the firm,- having 
decided to try his fortunes in the west. 

In 1868 Mr. Newcomb took up his residence 
in Detroit, with whose civic and busmess af- 
fairs he was destined to become most promi- 
nently identified, and shortly after his arrival 
he became associated with Charles Endicott in 
the purchase of the well established dry-goods 
business of James W. Farrell. At this time 
the title of Newcomb. Endicott & Company 
was adopted, and it has remained virtually un- 
changed to the present. With interests of 
mutual order and with their business affairs 
further cemented by the strongest and most 
inviolable of personal friendship, Messrs. New- 
comb and Endicott continued their close rela- 
tionship in the firm bearing their names until 
Mr. Endicott was called from the scene of life's 
endeavors, his death occurring on the i8th of 
January, 1896, after which his interest in the 
business was taken by others. 

For one year after the purchase of their 
business the firm of Newcomb, Endicott & 
Company remained in the original location. 



the Merrill block, on Woodward avenue, and 
they then removed to the then new Detroit 
Opera House building, facing the Campus 
Martins, where they occupied the ground 
floor. In view of conditions in Detroit to-day 
it seems strange to revert to the fact that at 
that time this location was considered much 
removed from the general retail center, which 
was more nearly at Jefferson avenue. In these 
quarters the firm continued business for a full 
decade, at the expiration of which, in 1879, 
they again led the van in the movement of 
business to the north on Woodward avenue, 
taking possession of the large and substantial" 
building erected for their use by D. M. Ferry, 
on the east side of the avenue and just north 
of State street. The building has since been 
enlarged and remodeled to meet the ever in- 
creasing demands for larger accommodations. 
As indicative of the increase in the busi- 
ness of the concern from the time of its found- 
mg, the following pertinent figures are offered : 
In 1868 the transactions of the firm repre- 
sented $145,000; in 1878, $457,298; in 1888, 
$1,189,003; in 1898. $1,229,421; and in 1906, 
$2,233,910. Employment is given to more 
than six hundred persons, and the salary roll 
represents the expediture of six thousand dol- 
lars each week. A most cordial feeling is 
manifest between the employers and their em- 
ployes, and this makes for the effective service 
for which the house is so well known. The 
firm was the first to institute the plan of 
closing at six o'clock in the evening, and has 
been the leader in other meritorious innova- 
tions and advances. 

In February, 1903, the business was incor- 
porated under the laws of the state, with a 
capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars, 
and the officers of the corporation are as fol- 
lows: Cyrenius A. Newcomb, Sr., president; 
George T. Moody, first vice-president; H. 
Byron Scott, second vice-president; Cyrenius 
A. Newcomb, Jr., secretary; and John Endi- 
cott, treasurer. These officers, with Howard 
R. Newcomb, constitute the board of direc- 



DETEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



571 



tors. The subject of this sketch is hkewise 
vice-president of the Anderson Carriage Com- 
pany. 

In poHtics Mr. Newcomb is ahgned with the 
Republican party in so far as national and 
state issues are involved, and in local affairs 
he maintains an independent attitude. He has 
long been an ardent advocate of the cause of 
temperance and has been especially active in 
its work, realizing the demoralizing power of 
the liquor traffic and being animated by true 
humanitarian principles. He was one of the 
organizers of the Universalist church in De- 
troit, and made liberal contributions toward 
the erection of its beautiful edifice. As a 
citizen he has ever been loyal to the best in- 
terests of Detroit, whose moral, civic and ma- 
terial welfare he has done all in his power to 
promote. His reputation in the business world 
is unassailable and to him is accorded the full- 
est measure of popular confidence and esteem 
in the city which has so long been his home 
and in which he has so worthily won his 
splendid success. 

On the i2th of November, 1867, Mr. New- 
comb was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
E. Haskell, a daughter of William R. Has- 
kell, of Hartford, Connecticut, and they be- 
came the parents of four children, namely : 
William Wilmon, who is a successful physi- 
cian and well known in the scientific world as 
an entomologist; Cyrenius Adelbert, Jr., who 
is secretary of the Newcomb, Endicott Com- 
pany, as already noted ; Mary Queen, who is 
the wife of William E. Fuller, Jr., of Fall 
River, Massachusetts; and Howard Rounds, 
who is one of the department managers of the 
Newcomb, Endicott Company. Mrs. New- 
comb was summoned to the life eternal on the 
17th of November, 1887, having filled a secure 
place in the social and religious life of the 
city. On the 20th of September, 1899, Mr. 
Newcomb contracted a second marriage, being 
united to Miss Mary Sharp, his present com- 
panion and one who presides with gracious 
dignity over their attractive home. 



LOUIS W. SCHIMMEL. 

A native of Detroit who has here attained to 
success and prominence as an enterprising and 
substantial business man and public-spirited 
citizen, is Louis W. Schimmel, secretaiy and 
general manager of the Tivoli Brewing Com- 
pany, a description of whose business is given 
within the pages of this volume. Mr. Schim- 
mel was born in Detroit on the 9th of March, 
i860, and is a son of Louis and Catherine 
(Boenewitz) Schimmel, both of whom were 
born at Hagen, province of Westphalen, Ger- 
many, where they were reared and educated. 
They were married in Detroit. They immi- 
grated to America in the year 1850 and made 
Detroit their destination. The father was a 
furrier by trade and he at once secured em- 
ployment in the establishment of the late Fred- 
erick Buhl, at that time the leading fur mer- 
chant of Michigan. A number of years later 
Mr. Schimmel located at St. Peter, Minnesota, 
where he engaged in the general merchandise 
business with his brother William and where 
he was measurably successful in his operations. 
In 1869 he returned to Detroit, where he con- 
tinued to be identified with business affairs in 
the line of his trade until 1883, when he re- 
tired, passing the remainder of his long and 
useful life in this city, where he died on the 
13th of December, 1890. His wife passed to 
the life eternal on the 24th of October, 1900, 
and they are survived by six children, namely : 
L. W. Schimmel, G. R. Schimmel, A. D. J. 
Schimmel, Oscar Schimmel, Mrs. A. Corbeille, 
and Lilly Schimmel. 

Louis W. Schimmel, the immediate subject 
of this sketch, was afforded the advantages of 
the public schools of Detroit and also of the 
German-American Academy in this city, an ad- 
mirable institution in its day. To further pre- 
pare himself for the active duties of life he com- 
pleted a commercial course in the Goldsmith 
Business College, in which he was graduated 
in 1877. In the same year he became book- 
keeper for A. Williams & Company, dry- 
goods merchants, which position he held until 



572 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



1881, when he engaged in the retail crockery 
business under the firm name of L. W. Schim- 
mel & Company. He built up a prosperous 
business and continued in the active control of 
the same until 1885, when he disposed of his 
interests in the enterprise and returned to De- 
troit, where he entered the employ of Ekhardt 
& Becker, who here conducted a successful 
brewing business. He became bookkeeper for 
this firm and served in this capacity until 1898, 
when he resigned the office and became one of 
the three principals in the organization of the 
Tivoli Brewing Company, of which he has 
since been secretar}' and general manager, as is 
indicated in the article descriptive of the busi- 
ness, elsewhere in this work. He is a wide- 
awake progressive business man and loyal citi- 
zen, and has ever commanded confidence and 
esteem in the community which has represented 
his home during practically his entire life. His 
circle of friends in Detroit is limited only by 
that of his acquaintances, and all view with 
pleasure the success which he has achieved 
through his own well directed efforts. 

In political allegiance Mr. Schimmel is 
aligned as a stalwart supporter of the cause of 
the Republican party, though he has never 
sought political preferment or prominence. In 
local affairs he is independent of strict partisan 
lines or domination. He is affiliated with 
Schiller Lodge, No. 263. Free & Accepted 
Masons, and Detroit Lodge, No. 34, Bene\'0- 
lent & Protective Order of Elks. 

On the 4th of June, 1890, Mr. Schimmel 
was united in marriage to Miss Julia Kling. 
daughter of Philip Kling, who is the subject 
of a special memoir in this publication and 
who was the founder of the Philip Kling 
Brewing Company. Mr. and Mrs. Schimmel 
have one child, Clara, who is a member of 
the class of 1910 in the Eastern high school of 
Detroit. 



JAMES J. SULLIVAN. 

A progressive and popular representative of 
the industrial interests of Detroit is James J. 
Sullivan, founder of the Sullivan Packing- 



Company, of which specific mention is made 
on other pages of this work. He is one of 
the successful live-stock commission mer- 
chants of the Michigan metropolis and is also 
actively identified with the administrative af- 
fairs of the Sullivan Packing Company, of 
which he is president. 

James J. Sullivan is a native of the state 
of Michigan. He was born at Birmingham, 
Wayne county, in 1858, and is a son of Jere- 
miah Sullivan, wiio remained a resident of 
Michigan until his death. Jeremiah Sullivan 
was born and reared in county Cork, Ireland, 
whence he immigrated to America as a young 
man, and he eventually became a successful 
farmer in the vicinity of Birmingham, Michi- 
gan. Both he and his wife were devout com- 
municants of the Catholic church and were folk 
of sterling worth of character. 

James J. Sullivan secured his early educa- 
tional discipline in the district schools and was 
reared under the invigorating influences of 
the home farm. In 1875 he initiated his inde- 
pendent efforts as a buyer of cattle, and in this 
line of enterprise he has become a recognized 
authority, while his operations have been of 
large scope for many years past. He is one 
of the leading live-stock commission merchants 
of the Detroit and Buffalo stockyards, and he 
divides his time between these two cities. In 
1895 he engaged in the packing and provision 
business, by founding the Sullivan Beef Com- 
pany, and in 1899 ^'S second son, Frank J. 
was admitted to partnership. The latter is 
now the secretary, treasurer and general man- 
ager of the thriving concern. The subject of 
this review is a member of the Buffalo live- 
stock exchange, as well as that of Detroit, and 
he has a wide acquaintanceship among the rep- 
resentative stock dealers of the country. He 
is an enterprising business man and loyal and 
public-spirited citizen, taking much interest in 
all that concerns the welfare of his home city. 
His political support is given to the Democratic 
party, and he and his family are communicants 
of the Catholic church, holding membership 
in the parish of Sts. Peter and Paul. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



573 



In 1878 was solemnized the marriage of 
James J. Sullivan to Miss Katherine Falvey, 
of Detroit. She is a daughter of Daniel Fal- 
vey, who was born in Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. 
Sullix'an have seven children, concerning 
whom the following brief data are give : Mary 
is the wife of Thomas Thompson, of the firm 
of W. B. Thompson & Brother, of Detroit ; 
James is associated with his father in the com- 
mission business; Frank J. is secretary and 
treasurer of the Sullivan Packing Company; 
Katherine, Lucile, Edith and Donald remain 
at the parental home. 



EDWARD STANCE. 

Among those prominently identified with 
business interests in the city of Detroit, is Mr. 
Stange, who is president of the American 
Brewing Company, specifically mentioned in 
this work, and who is known as a progressive 
and substantial business man and loyal citizen 
of the Michigan metropolis. 

Mr. Stange was born in Nordhausen, king- 
dom of Saxony, Germany, on the 26th of Oc- 
tober, 1842, and is a son of Charles Frederick 
Stange, likewise a native of Saxony. The 
father was a general mason by trade and fol- 
lowed this vocation in his native land until 
1844, when he immigrated with his family to 
America and took up his residence in Detroit, 
where he engaged in the work of his trade and 
where he eventually became a successful con- 
tractor. He was a man of sterling integrity 
and was one of the well known and highly 
honored German-American citizens of Detroit, 
where he maintained his home for nearly two 
score of 3'ears and where his death occurred 
in 1882. Both he and his wife, who died in 
1858. were consistent members of the German 
Reformed church. 

Edward Stange is indebted to the public 
schools for his early educational training and 
in this city practically his entire life has been 
passed, since he was but two years of age at 
the time of the family immigration to the 
United States. In 1856 he entered upon an 
apprenticeship at the trade of book-binding, 



in the establishment of Richmond & Backus, 
and he continued to follow this trade until 
1864, when he became a clerk in a retail gro- 
cery, in which he was employed until 1868, 
when he engaged in the same line of enter- 
prise on his own account, opening a modest 
store at the corner of Elizabeth and Beaubien 
streets. By close attention to business and by 
honorable methods he built up a successful en- 
terprise and gained a position of financial in- 
dependence. He continued in the grocery 
trade for many years, remaining in his origi- 
nal location until 1890, when he removed to the 
corner of Gratiot and Brush streets, where he 
gave his attention more especially to the man- 
ufacturing of vinegar until 1893, when he dis- 
posed of his business in that line. In 1890 
Mr. Stange was one of the organizers of the 
Exposition Brewing Company, of which he 
was secretary and treasurer until 1892, after 
which he lived practically retired from active 
business until 1900, when he became one of 
the organizers and incorporators of the Amer- 
ican Brewing Company, of which he was made 
a director. Upon the reorganization of the 
company, in 1902, he was elected its president, 
and of this office he has since remained the 
able and popular incumbent. 

In politics Mr. Stange is a staunch adher- 
ent of the Republican party, and while he has 
never sought the honors or emoluments of 
public office he has at all times shown a lively 
interest in public afifairs. He is a member of 
the German Salesmen's Association, and is 
past master of Schiller Lodge, No. 263, Free 
& Accepted Masons, which was organized in 
1883, and of which he is a charter member. 
He is treasurer of the lodge at the present time, 
is identified with Scottish Rite Masonry, and 
is a member of Moslem Temple of the An- 
cient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mys- 
tic Shrine. He is the owner of valuable real 
estate in Detroit and takes deep interest in all 
that tends to conserve the civic, industrial and 
material advancement of the city which has 
represented his home from his childhood days 
to the present time. 



574 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



On the loth of November, 1877, Mr. Stange 
was united in marriage to Miss Minnie 
Brumme, daughter of the late Dr. Carl 
Brumme, who was a representative physician 
and surgeon of Detroit for many years. Con- 
cerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Stange 
the following brief data are offered : Amelia 
is the wife of Edward M. Thurber, claim clerk 
in the Detroit offices of the Michigan Central 
Railroad; Dorothea is the wife of Otto Auger, 
who is employed by the American Brewing 
Company; Meta remains at the parental home^ 
Frederick Carl is employed in the office of the 
American Brewing Company; and Hugo Al- 
fred is at home. 



ALEXANDER I. McLEOD. 

Few citizens of Detroit are better known or 
enjoy a higher measure of popularity than 
Alexander I. McLeod, who has here passed 
the major portion of his life and whose ac- 
tivities have touched and entered many differ- 
ent fields. He has been incumbent of offices 
of distinctive public trust, has been identified 
m a prominent way with newspaper work, has 
been concerned with lake-marine navigation, 
and has been especially conspicuous in yacht- 
ing circles. His friends are in number as his 
acquaintances, and their loyalty is fortified by 
appreciation of the canny traits which are his 
as a scion of staunch old Scottish highland 
stock. He is a representative of the historic 
clan McLeod, and in a collateral way of those 
of Stuart and Cameron. 

The fact that Mr. McLeod is a native of 
the smallest state of the American Union has 
not mihtated against his "bigness," of intellect 
and soul, as all who know him can well testi- 
fy. He was born in the city of Providence, 
Rhode Island, on the 2d of August, 1852! 
and is a son of Alexander and Janet (Reid)' 
McLeod. His father was born in the high- 
lands of Scotland, whence he came to Amer- 
ica when a lad of sixteen years, having worked 
his passage on a sailing vessel and having first 
settled in Nova Scotia. There he learned 
the trades of ship carpenter and marine drafts- 



man, and to these closely allied vocations he 
thereafter devoted his attention throughout 
his entire active business career, which was 
diversffied by employment on land and sea 
He made numerous voyages and incidental 
thereto visited many of the principal ports of 
the world. Finally he took up his residence 
>n Providence, Rhode Island, where he be- 
came a successful shipbuilder. I„ the financial 
depression and panic of 1857 he met with se- 
vere losses, which greatly impaired the com- 
fortable fortune which he had gained through 
energy and well directed efforts. Under these 
conditions he was moved to locate in the west 
and in that year he came, with his family, to 
Michigan and took up his abode at Mount 
Clemens, Macomb county, where he engaged 
ni shipbuilding on a modest scale. In iLo 
he removed to Detroit, and here he was for 
many years superintendent of the shipyard of 
Campbell & Owen, which firm was succeeded 
by the Detroit Dry Dock Company, and the 
latter in turn by the present Detroit Shipbuild- 
ing Company, which is a branch of the Ameri- 
can Shipbuilding Company. He continued a 
resident of Detroit until his death, which oc- 
curred m 1875, and was a man of sterling in- 
tegrity, ever commanding the confidence and 
respect of all who knew him. His wife who 
was a native of Paisley, Scotland, died in 
1865, and of their four children three are liv- 



Alexander I. McLeod was afforded the ad- 
vantages of the excellent public schools of 
Detroit, where he was reared to maturity, hav- 
ing been seven years of age at the time of the 
family removal to this city. At the age of 
eighteen years he entered service as a sailor 
on the Great Lakes, having been fond of the 
water from his boyhood days and having never 
as yet abated his love for the ever varying 
attractions of our great inland seas. At the 
age of nineteen years he withdrew from his 
lake-marine vocation to enter upon one of 
radically different order.— one in which he 
was destined to achieve no mediocre success 
and prestige. He entered the employ of the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



575 



old Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, and final- 
ly became a member of its reportorial force, in 
which connection he made so excellent a rec- 
ord that in 1872 he became a member of the 
editorial staff of the paper. This incumbency 
he retained until 1873 and he gained a repu- 
tation of being a forceful and vigorous writer, 
having a clear appreciation of news values and 
evincing distinctive and mature judgment as 
to matters of public and civic polity. In the 
year last mentioned Mr. McLeod received from 
Judge George S. Swift the appointment to 
the office of clerk of the recorder's court of 
Wayne county, and in this position he served 
until 1877, when he resigned to engage in 
business in an independent way. He became 
one of the organizers and incorporators of the 
Pierce Chemical Company, which engaged in 
the manufacturing of wood chemicals. The 
inventor of the processes utilized was Henry 
M. Pierce, who became president of the com- 
pany, and Mr. McLeod was superintendent. 
He was identified with the enterprise about 
one year, at the expiration of which, in 1878, 
he became associated with Captain Augustus 
C. Donnelly in the operation of a line of packet 
steamers on the Ohio and Tennessee rivers. 
These boats plied between Cincinnati, Ohio, 
and Florence, Alabama, and Mr. McLeod was 
chief clerk on the "Ariadne," of Cincinnati, 
in which vessel he owned a one-fourth inter- 
est. From this enterprise he withdrew in 
1882, in which year he returned to Detroit, 
where he entered the employ of the Evening 
News Company, and from 1885 to 1889 he 
was city editor of this popular daily. On the 
1st of January, 1889, ^^^ became private sec- 
retary to Mayor Hazen S. Pingree, during 
wh.ose excellent administration he continued 
incumbent of this position, from which he re- 
tired in 1895. In the autumn of the preceding 
year he had been elected treasurer of Wayne 
county, and that he ably handled the fiscal 
affairs entrusted to his supei-vision is best evi- 
denced in the fact that he was chosen as his 
own successor in the election of 1896. He 
made many and effective improvements in the 



system of handling the business of the treas- 
urer's office (notably by the introduction of 
the Cashier System, which was adopted also 
by the water board and the receiver of taxes), 
and the plans which he thus formulated have 
since continued to be utilized by his successors 
in this responsible and exacting office. He 
retired from office in July, 1898. In politics 
Mr. McLeod is a stalwart in the local camp 
of the Republican party, and he has done effec- 
tive service in its cause. 

Mr. McLeod has been more or less inti- 
mately identified with lake-marine interests 
for many years, having been part owner of 
the composite steamer "John Owen," and of 
the steamer "Progress," in which latter con- 
nection he was vice-president of the Progress 
Transportation Company. In 1895 ^^ became 
one of the organizers and incorporators of 
the Detroit Telephone Company, of which he 
was elected vice-president, besides being 
a member of its directorate. The successful 
work of this company is a matter of city and 
state history, and a review of its work and 
operations is not demanded in this connection, 
though it may be said that the subject of this 
sketch was a potent factor in building up the 
business of this important corporation. In 
1897 he was concerned in the organization of 
the new State Telephone Company, of which 
he was vice-president up to the time of its con- 
solidation with the Bell Telephone Company. 
In 1905 Mr. McLeod became one of the or- 
ganizers and incorporators of the Maxwell- 
Briscoe-McLeod Company, which is engaged 
in the sale of automobiles and whose territory 
covers Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, 
Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The en- 
terprise has been most successful and Mr. Mc- 
Leod has been president and general manager 
of the company since 1906. He is also presi- 
dent of the Detroit Reduction Company, man- 
ufacturers of fertilizers, a director of the Chi- 
cago Reduction Company, of the Seaboard 
Portland Cement Company and of the Central 
Savings Bank of Detroit. 

For a long term of years Mr. McLeod has 



576 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



been one of the most prominent and enthusi- 
astic figures in yachting circles on the Great 
Lakes, and the speedy boats with which he 
has been concerned have effectually trimmed 
the sails of many a worthy rival. In 1884 he 
served as vice-commodore of the Michigan 
Yacht Club, in 1898 as commodore of the In- 
ter Lake YachtingAssociation, and for the year 
1905 as commodore of the Detroit Yacht Club. 
He is the owner of the yawl "Frances A.," 
named in honor of his wife, and the same is a 
fine specimen of its type, being thirty-five feet 
in length and the winner of many races. In 
1887 he was the head of the syndicate which 
built the "City of the Straits," constructed by 
the Detroit Dry Dock Company, from the de- 
sign of Brady Wandell. This yacht has a 
long series of victories in hard fought strug- 
gles, with Commodore McLeod at the stick, 
the most notable of which was sailed in a 
snow storm, on Lake Erie, on November 21, 
1888, and which resulted in a victory over 
the "Alice Enright," of Toledo, the then cham- 
pion of the lakes of fifty-seven minutes over a 
thirty-mile course. Again in 1900, when 
the honor of Detroit seemed to be at stake, 
Commodore McLeod organized another syn- 
dicate, which built the famous forty-foot sloop 
"Detroit," which cleaned up everything in her 
class, finally going the long trip overland to 
San Diego, California, where she beat every- 
thing on the Pacific coast and won the trophy 
given by Sir Thomas Lipton. Mr. McLeod 
is one of the few surviving members of the 
old International Yacht Club, of which the 
late Kirk C. Barker was the commodore and 
leading spirit. In 1884 the subject of this re- 
view effected the organization of the Michigan 
Yacht Club, the immediate predecessor of the 
present Detroit Yacht Club, and largely 
through his efforts was secured from the board 
of park commissioners of Detroit the franchise 
and concession which made possible the erec- 
tion of the club house on Belle Isle. 

Mr. McLeod is a member of the Fellow- 
craft Club, the Bankers' Club, the Detroit 
Board of Commerce, the Detroit Motor Boat 



Club, and a life member of the Detroit Yacht 
Club, besides being identified with the Inter- 
Lake Yachting Association. He holds member- 
ship in the Harmonic Society of Detroit and 
is affiliated with the various York and Scot- 
tish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, in 
which he has attained to the thirty-second de- 
gree. 

On the 28th of October, 1876, Mr. McLeod 
was united in marriage to Miss Frances A. 
Millington, daughter of John Millington, who 
was a leading architect in New York city, and 
they have one daughter, Frances Janet. 



WILLIAM H. ELLIOTT. 

This is a name that long represented a com- 
manding power in the retail commercialism of 
Detroit, and the record of the life and labors 
of Mr. Elliott is without blot or stain. He 
was a man who made his own opportunities 
and lived up to their full possibilities. He was 
a man whose integrity was inviolable ; whose 
ability in the administration of large affairs 
was most admirable, and whose hold upon the 
confidence and regard of the people of Detroit 
and the state of Michigan was secure. The 
great retail dry-goods store of which he was 
so long the head still perpetuates his name 
and accomplishment, as the business is con- 
ducted under the title of the William H. Elli- 
ott Company. He rose to prominence also in 
connection with financial institutions of lead- 
ing order, and was a citizen whose services 
and influence were freely given in aiding such 
interests and movements as make for the gen- 
eral welfare of the community. 

Mr. Elliott was born near Amherstburg, 
province of Ontario, Canada, on the 13th of 
October, 1844, and was a son of James and 
Elizabeth (Pastorius) Elliott, both of whom 
passed the greater portion of their lives at 
Kingsville, Essex county, Ontario, where the 
father was for many years engaged in the mer- 
cantile business and in the operation of a grist 
mill. The family of which he was a worthy 
scion was early founded in America and is 





^L^/i^^>~-^ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



577 



one which has given to the work of the world 
men of force, ability and rectitude, as one gen- 
eration has followed another on to the stage 
of life. The original America progenitor was 
Andrew Elliott, v/ho immigrated from Eng- 
land in the year 1640 and became one of the 
settlers of Beverly, Massachusetts. He took 
a prominent part in the affairs of his com- 
munity, as did also his descendants in the co- 
lonial and Revolutionary days. A number of 
representatives of the family were found en- 
rolled as valiant soldiers in the Continental 
line during the war of the Revolution, and the 
annals of New England, that cradle of much 
of our national history, bear record of the 
worthy lives and deeds of many of the scions 
of this sterling stock. Thomas Elliott, grand- 
father of the subject of this memoir, settled 
at Amherstburg, Ontario, in the early part of 
the nineteenth century, and there he passed 
the residue of liis life. 

William H. Elliott was reared to the sturdy 
discipline of the farm, as his father was the 
owner of a well improved farm, which he 
operated in connection with his other enter- 
prises. William H. attended the common 
schools until he had attained to the age of 
fifteen years, when he became a clerk in a gen- 
eral store in his native town. No undue dig- 
nity or emolument attached to his initial 
services in the field of practical business, but 
the mettle and ambition of the youth were 
definitely manifested early in his career. In 
1864 he secured a clerkship in a small dry- 
goods store in Detroit, and two years later he 
became an employe of George Peck, whose 
name is written large on the record of mer- 
chandising and banking in the Michigan 
metropolis. In 1872 Mr. Elliott became a 
member of the firm of George Peck & Com- 
pany, and this statement bears its own signifi- 
cance, in that it shows the appreciative esti- 
mate placed upon him by so able a business 
man as Mr. Peck. In 1880 Mr. Elliott retired 
from this firm and engaged in the same line 
of enterprise individually, at 139 Woodward 
avenue. He brought to bear indefatigable 



energy, intelligent methods and thorough 
knowledge of the business, so that the enter- 
prise soon became noted as one of the fore- 
most of the kind in Detroit. In 1895 he 
erected the fine six-story building at the north- 
west corner of Woodward and Grand River 
avenues, and this has since been occupied by 
the great dry-goods establishment of which he 
was the founder and at whose head he con- 
tinued until his death, which occurred on the 
1st of May, 1901. It is not necessary to enter 
into specific details as to the upbuilding of the 
splendid enterprise which thus brought Mr. 
Elliott to a position as one of the leading 
merchants of the state, for the name and repu- 
tation of the house indicate all this with dis- 
tinctive clarity. Mr. Elliott was one of the 
original directors of the Preston National Bank 
and long held this position, and he was also a 
member of the directorate of each the Union 
Trust Company and the State Savings Bank 
of Detroit. He was for some time a director 
and the treasurer of the Thompson-Houston 
Electric Light Company, was a trustee of Har- 
per hospital and a director of the Dime Sav- 
ings Bank. 

Mr. Elliott was essentially a business man, 
but he was fully alive to all the duties of citi- 
zenship and his public spirit was of insistent 
and helpful type. His allegiance was given 
to the Republican party, of whose cause he 
was a stalwart supporter, though he never en- 
tered the arena of "practical politics." Gov- 
ernor Rich conferred upon him appointment as 
a member of the board of control of the state 
prisons and he was a delegate to the national 
convention of his party in 1892, at Minne- 
apolis. He was called upon to serve as presi- 
dent of the Michigan Club, a strong factor in 
Michigan politics, and he was also identified 
with leading social organizations in his home 
city, including the Detroit Club, the Country 
Club, and the Lake St. Clair Fishing & Shoot- 
ing Club. He was the owner of a fine stock 
farm in Oakland county and gave to the same 
much attention. 

In 1870 was solemnized the marriage of 



578 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Mr. Elliott to Miss Lena Caverly, who died in 
March of the following year. On the 21st of 
April, 1875, he wedded Miss Susan Fidelia 
Hogarth, a daughter of the late Rev. William 
Hogarth, D. D., a former and venerated pas- 
tor of the Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian 
church. Detroit. Of this church Mr. Elliott 
was a zealous member and supporter, as is also 
his widow, who still retains her home in De- 
troit. Mr. Elliott stood "four-square to every 
wind that blows," and his life was one of 
signal usefulness and honor. He was gener- 
ous and considerate in his intercourse with 
others, and many a deed of unostentatious 
chanty and influential helpfulness stands to his 
credit. His name merits an enduring place in 
the history of Detroit and the state of Michi- 
gan. 



GEORGE S. CUDDY. 

Through his own ability and efforts the sub- 
ject of this sketch has risen to a position as 
one of the progressive and substantial business 
men of his native city, being treasurer and 
also manager of the experimental department 
of the Enterprise Foundry Company, of which 
specific mention is made on other pages of 
this work, so that further reference to the de- 
tails of the business is not demanded in the 
present connection. 

Mr. Cuddy was born in Detroit on the 29th 
of November, 1869, and is a son of James and 
Mary A. (Thompson) Cuddy, both natives 
of Ireland. The father was reared and edu- 
cated m the Emerald Isle, whence he immi- 
grated to America when a young man, and 
soon after his arrival in the new world he 
took up his residence in Detroit. In his na- 
tive land he had learned the trade of brick 
mason and this he followed for some time 
after locatmg in Detroit. He was energetic 
ambitious and frugal, and finally he became a 
successful sewer contractor in this city. He 
was a man of sterling integrity and had the 
respect of all who knew him. He died in De- 
troit, in 1875, and his wife survived him by 
a number of years. Both were consistent com- 



municants of the Protestant Episcopal church. 
George S. Cuddy, the immediate subject of 
this sketch, was afforded the advantages of the 
public schools of Detroit and supplemented 
this discipline by taking a course in the Gut- 
chess Business College, of this city. In 1880 
he entered upon an apprenticeship at the 
moulder's trade, in the Michigan Stove Works, 
v^here he gained a thorough knowledge of his 
trade and became a specially skillful work- 
man. He served a full apprenticeship of three 
years' duration, and from 1883 until 1893 he 
was employed as a journeyman moulder in 
the shops of the Cribben & Sexton Company 
stove manufacturers, in Chicago. In the year 
last mentioned he returned to Detroit, and 
here he was employed in the foundry depart- 
ment of the Ideal Manufacturing Company un- 
til 1896, when he associated himself with 
others in the organization and incorporation 
of the Enterprise Foundry Company, as is 
shown in the article descriptive of that con- 
cern. He was made a member of the direc- 
torate of the company at the time of its in- 
corporation and also became superintendent of 
the foundry department. In 1900 he was elect- 
ed treasurer of the company, and this office 
he has since retained, in connection with the 
superintendency of the experimental depart- 
ment of the well equipped plant of the con- 
cern. The success of the enterprise has been 
m a large degree due to his expert technical 
knowledge and to his executive ability in regu- 
lating the various agencies involved in the 
prosecution of the business, as well as to his 
effective generalship in gaining and retaining 
the good will and esteem of the employes, who 
have thus been impelled to render the best 
possible service. He has shown indefatigable 
energy and has given close attention to the 
details of the business. The company began 
operations upon a limited capital but within a 
decade has built up, against decisive compe- 
tition, a business which -is recognized as one 
of the foremost in its particular province in 
the city of Detroit. 

In politics Mr. Cuddy is a stalwart adher- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



579 



ent of the Republican party, and he and his 
wife are communicants of the Protestant Epis- 
copal church. He is a member of the Inter- 
national Moulders' Union, and as a practical 
workman himself is thoroughly in sympathy 
with organized labor, — a fact which the men 
in the employ of his company fully appreciate. 
On the 29th of December, 1895, was solem- 
nized the marriage of Mr. Cuddy to Miss 
Anna B. Pritchard, who was bom and reared 
in Detroit, being a daughter of Samuel Pritch- 
ard. Mr. and Mrs. Cuddy have two children, 
— William G., who was born on the 20th of 
December, 1896, and Samuel Pritchard, who 
was born on the 12th of July, 1897. 



JOHN BOYDELL. 

It was given the subject of this memoir to 
attain to a large measure of success in the 
business world, to make a definite impress up- 
on the commercial activities of Detroit and to 
leave a reputation unsullied in every respect. 
He was the founder of the great paint manu- 
facturing industry now conducted under title 
of the Boydell Brothers' White Lead & Color 
Company, and he and his brother William were 
the pioneers in this important line of enter- 
prise in the Michigan metropolis. 

John Boydell was born in Liverpool, Eng- 
land, on the nth of December, 1842, and his 
death occurred, in Detroit, on Thursday, Oc- 
tober 17, 1907. He Avas a boy at the time of 
his parents' immigration to the United States, 
and the family settled in the vicinity of De- 
troit, where he was reared to maturity and 
where he received the advantages of the com- 
mon schools. After serving several years as 
a clerk Mr. Boydell became bookkeeper for the 
James H. Worcester Paint Company, of De- 
troit. The business of this concern was re- 
solved into the Detroit White Lead Works in 
1865, and with the latter he remained only a 
brief interval, having determined to initiate an 
independent business career. He accordingly 
purchased a stock of painters' supplies and es- 
tablished a modest paint business on his own 



account. A short time afterward his brother 
William joined him in the enterprise, and 
they met with distinctive success. This led them 
to venture into the manufacturing field, in 
which they initiated operations in the year 
1877. Careful and conscientious effort and 
correct principles brought to them continued 
success and they soon gained a reputation for 
reliability and for the superior character of 
products. With the rapid expansion of the 
enterprise it became necessary to seek larger 
quarters, and they accordingly erected a three- 
story building at Nos. 39 to 43 Fort street 
east. From that time their success was con- 
stantly cumulative, as they had initiative pow- 
er, keen business sagacity and definite purpose. 
From time to time it was found necessary to 
add to the plant, and it is now recognized as 
one of the largest of its kind in the Union. 

As already intimated, Boydell Brothers, as 
the firm was known for a term of years, were 
the pioneer paint manufacturers in Detroit. 
When William Boydell died, in 1901, John 
Boydell, with the aid of his son, J. Frank Boy- 
dell, present president of the company, took 
over the business, and he continued to be ac- 
tively identified with its management until his 
death. 

From an attractive brochure recently issued 
by the Boydell Company are taken the follow- 
ing pertinent extracts concerning the Boydell 
brothers and their work: 

John was born in Liverpool, in 1842, and 
William in Stafford, England, in 1849. It is 
thus seen that John was the elder by seven 
years. In personal characteristics they were 
not alike, but one was a good foil for the other, 
and, combined, they made a potential working 
team. John was probably the better self-con- 
trolled, — more dignified, more forceful, an ex- 
cellent financier, and the dominant factor in 
their dual lives. He had hosts of friends, al- 
though he did not yield his friendship easily; 
but when once given it stood like a rock — 
stood the test of time. William was a better 
"mixer," generous almost to a fault, and with 
a personal magnetism that drew men to him. 
There was no blindness of pride or impatience 
of ambition in his makeup. He was a lovable 



580 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



man and men loved him. John's initial work 
was with the Worcester Paint Company, 
which, in 1865, became the Detroit White 
Lead Works, when he withdrew and started in 
business for himself. W'illiam became asso- 
ciated later. And they prospered ! The fine 
block of six and eight story buildings, which 
to-day covers the area of almost an entire 
square of down-town property, illustrates their 
growth, — and the business is still growing. 
Both John and William had ideas about suc- 
cess, — sane ideas, ideas that commanded re- 
sults, — and results came quickly. They were 
not merely splendid dreamers, but they were 
also splendid workers, and it is work which 
counts every time. The management was 
vested in John. He was not a voluble man, 
and his reticence was sometimes mistaken for 
exclusiveness ; but that was a great mistake. 
When he was the least talkative he was the 
most thoughtful, and his thought bore fruit, 
luscious and ripe. He knew when silence was 
golden, but, nevertheless, he had the gift of 
effective speech, and could, when he deemed 
it essential, forcibly impress his views upon 
others. He knew the value of concentration — 
understood that rays are powerless when scat- 
tered, but burn in a point. 

As their interests were mainly centered in 
paints, both John and William naturally 
thought paint, talked paint and dreamed of 
paint ; but they could also talk, think and dream 
of other things, as they were cultured, well 
read and thoroughly en rapport with the so- 
cial amenities of life. They were both ideal- 
ists in one sense, believing in those ideals that 
give zest and charm to realism ; but first of 
all they were practical men, and had no use 
for the visionary who seeks a pathway among 
the stars as a short cut to mundane good. In 
their business they believed in a community 
of interests — a trinity of manufacturer, deal- 
er and painter. They had no sympathy with 
the policy which excluded the latter, or with 
the evolution which more largely admitted the 
distant distributor or large jobber within the 
paint circle, as they considered that the dealer 
was a sufficient medium and that it was un- 
reasonable that the painter or the consumer 
should pay the jobber's profit. John and Will- 
iam Boydell were constantly in touch with 
the dealer, and that there was a mutual good 
will and esteem is evidenced by the books of 
the firm, which in hundreds of accounts show 
a continuous and uninterrupted record of over 



a quarter of a century, and this, it must be re- 1 
membered, in the face of ever increasing com- ' 
petition. 

There was a John Boydell, lord mayor of 
London in 1752, and our John Boydell was a 
descendant in the direct line. This Lord 
Mayor Boydell was a man who reflected cred- * 
it on the name. He was a capable man, a man 
who did things and made posterity his debtor. |j 
He invented the steel engraving and gave us 
a series of some five hundred, illustrating the 
immortal plays of Shakespeare. Copies of 
these same engravings are now in possession 
of another descendant, J. Frank Boydell, who 
succeeded his father as president of the Boy- 
dell Brothers' White Lead & Color Company. 
Both the late John and William Boydell were 
plain men, plain, every-day American citizens, 
and were profoundly conscious of their privi- 
leges as such ; but they were also proud that 
in the past their name had been linked to the 
mother country with credit and honor, that 
their ancestors were men of national repute, 
whose lives had been useful and whose work 
survives. And they, in turn, had the supreme 
consciousness of work well done, a memorial 
that would live long after they had passed to 
that "undiscovered country from whose bourne 
no traveler returns." 

In January, 1908, after the death of John 
Boydell, the Boydell Brothers' White Lead & 
Color Company was reorganized under the 
same title, and J. Frank Boydell, the only son 
of the founder of the business, succeeded his 
father in the presidency of the company. The 
other officers are as here noted : Albert 
Taepke, first vice-president ; John G. Wood, 
second vice-president and treasurer; Henry J. 
Woodlock, secretary; and Gordon Montagu, 
assistant general manager. 

John Boydell was past master of Detroit 
Lodge, No. I, Free & Accepted Masons, and 
was identified with Monroe Chapter, Royal 
Arch Masons; Detroit Commandery, No. i, 
Knights Templars; and Michigan Sovereign 
Consistory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish 
Rite. In Masonic circles he ranked very high, 
the 1908 class of Michigan Sovereign Con- 
sistory being named the John Boydell class, as 
a distinct token of the fraternity's affectionate 
esteem. His funeral was conducted under 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



581 



the auspices of Detroit Commandery, and his 
body lay in state at the Masonic Temple on 
Saturday, October 19, 1907, after which in- 
terment was made in Woodmere cemetery. 

June 4, 1872, John Boydell was united in 
marriage to Miss Cassie Witherspoon, who 
survives him, as do also two children, — J. 
Frank, who is proving an able business suc- 
cessor of his honored father, as president of 
the Boydell Company; and Bessie N., who is 
the wife of John G. Wood, second vice-presi- 
dent and treasurer of the same company. 

WILLIAM H. McGregor. 

In the department of this publication de- 
voted specifically to the representative indus- 
trial and commercial concerns of Detroit is 
given a description of the National Twist 
Drill & Tool Company, of which Mr. Mc- 
Gregor is the president. To the article men- 
tioned reference should be made, since the 
same is largely supplemental to this brief 
resume of the career of the chief executive of 
the company. 

Mr. McGregor was born in Detroit on the 
i6th of August, 1861, and comes of staunch 
and illustrious Scotch ancestry. He is a son 
of Alexander and Margaret (Clarke) McGreg- 
or, both of whom were born in the city of 
Edinburgh, Scotland, where they were reared 
and educated and where their marriage was 
solemnized. In 1855 Alexander McGregor 
came to America and took up his residence in 
Detroit. 

William H. McGregor secured his early ed- 
ucational training in the public schools of De- 
troit, and in 1892 he was matriculated in the 
Detroit College of Law, in which he completed 
the prescribed course and was graduated as 
a member of the class of 1895, receiving the 
degree of Bachelor of Laws and being duly 
admitted to the bar of his native state. In 
1898 he was elected clerk of Wayne county, 
assuming the duties of the office on the ist 
of the following January and continuing in 
service, through successive re-elections, until 
January i, 1905. His long tenure of the of- 



fice offers the best evidence of his able and 
satisfactory administration of the same. He 
was a member of the board of education from 
1895 until 1899, and served as its president 
in 1896. 

Mr. McGregor is essentially progressive and 
public-spirited as a citizen and business man, 
and his allegiance is given to the Republican 
party, though he is liberal in political affairs of 
a local order. He is a member of the Detroit 
Bar Association, the Harmonic Society, and 
the Detroit Yacht Club, and has attained to 
the thirty-second degree in Scottish Rite 
Masonry. He is affiliated with Ashlar Lodge, 
No. 91, Free & Accepted Masons; Peninsular 
Chapter, No. 16, Royal Arch Masons; De- 
troit Commandery, No. i, Knights Templars, 
besides the various bodies of the Scottish Rite 
and also Moslem Temple of the Ancient 
Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine. He is likewise affiliated with the lo- 
cal bodies of the Benevolent & Protective Or- 
der of Elks and the Knights of Pythias. He 
was one of the organizers of the National 
Twist Drill & Tool Company, and has been 
its president from the start, as is shown in the 
article descriptive of the company. Mr. Mc- 
Gregor is a bachelor and enjoys unalloyed pop- 
ularity in the business and professional circles 
of his native city. 



PETER J. HOENSCHEID. 

One of the important industrial concerns of 
Detroit is the National Twist Drill & Tool 
Company, of which the subject of this sketch 
is general manager and of which detailed men- 
tion is made on other pages of this publication. 
As one of the representative business men of 
Detroit Mr. Hoenscheid is well entitled to con- 
sideration in this work. 

Peter J. Hoenscheid was born in the beauti- 
ful old city of Cologne, Gennany, on the 29th 
of June, 1853, and is a son of Joseph and 
Catharina (Honsbach) Hoenscheid, both of 
whom passed their entire lives in Germany, 
where the father followed the vocation of ma- 



582 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



chinist during the major portion of his active 
career. The subject of this sketch was af- 
forded the advantages of the excellent schools 
of his native city, attending the same until he 
was sixteen years of age. He then assumed 
a position in the establishment of his father, 
who was at that time a successful manufac- 
turer of machinery in Cologne. He continued 
to be identified with the business, of whose 
practical details he gained an intimate knowl- 
edge, until 1 87 1, when he severed the ties 
which bound him to home and fatherland and 
immigrated to America, having been a youth 
of eighteen years at the time. He located in 
New York city, where he became an appren- 
tice in a machine shop, and in 1874 he secured 
a position in the employ of A. M. Beyers & 
Company, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, manu- 
facturers of gas, oil and water tubes. He was 
employed as a toolmaker in this establishment 
until 1879, when he removed to Cleveland, 
Ohio, where he became a machine builder and 
toolmaker in the plant of the National Ma- 
chinery Company. In the following year he 
accepted a similar position with the Cummer 
Engine Company, in the same city, and there, 
in 1 88 1, he entered the employ of the Stand- 
ard Tool Company, manfacturers of tools for 
the makers of twist drills, reamers and milling 
cutters. In 1882 he was given the superin- 
tendency of the milling department, and he re- 
tained this incumbency until 1890, when he 
went to Akron, Ohio, where he entered the 
employ of the Whitman & Barnes Manufac- 
turing Company, makers of twist drills. He 
was made superintendent of the drill depart- 
ment of the plant and also had charge of its 
special machine department during the period 
of his connection with the concern. In 1897 
Mr. Hoencheid resigned his position and came 
to Detroit, where he became superintendent of 
the plant of the Detroit Twist Drill Company, 
retaining this office until 1903, when he ef- 
fected the organization of the National Twist 
Drill & Tool Company, in which he became 
one of the principal stockholders and of which 
he has since been general manager. He is 



known as one of the able mechanicians of De- 
troit and is the inventor of a number of im- 
proved mechanical devices,— principally in the 
hue of milling and grinding machinery used 
for the making of twist drills and reamers 
His mventions are covered by several patents 
granted by the United States patent office, and 
much of the improved machinery utilized in 
the plant of the National Twist Drill & Tool 
Company was invented by him. For his in 
ventions he was granted a diploma of honor- 
able mention at the World's Columbian Expo- 
s.t.on, m Chicago, in 1893. He is identified 
w.th various fraternal and social organiza- 
tions in his home city. 

Mr^Ho^^ u'l ^^'^'""'^^d the marriage of 
Mr Hoenscheid to Miss Barbara MesleL., of 

foreman of the milling department of th Hame 

concern and John A., who is a machinisHn 
the employ of this company. 



HARRY C. WALKER. 

Numbered among the popular and progres- 
sive young business men of his native city the 
subject of this sketch is secretary and [;eas 
urer of Walker & Company, a descriptilnof 
whose flourishing business is incorporated in 
this work, and he is a son of Henry W. and 
Eva (Bassett) Walker, the former of whom 
.s president of the same company, whose enter- 
prise includes the manufacturing of electric 
and other advertising signs, bill-posting and 
general publicity work in the distributing of 
advertising matter. 

Harry C. Walker was born in Detroit, on 
the 1st of September, 1878, and to the public 
schools of his native city he is indebted for his 
early educational discipline. He completed a 
course in the Central high school, and this 
training was effectively supplemented by a 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



583 



course in the Michigan State Agricultural Col- 
lege, at Lansing, in which admirable institu- 
tion he was graduated in 1897. Soon after 
leaving college he became assistant manager 
of the business of Walker & Company, and 
upon the incorporation of the business, in 
March, 1906, he was elected to his present 
dual office of secretary and treasurer, also con- 
tinuing to act as assistant manager. He has 
amply demonstrated his ability for the 
Iiandling of business affairs of important or- 
der and has effectively assisted his father in 
the building up of the fine enterprise with 
whicli he has been identified for a period of 
ten years. He has thoroughly familiarized 
himself with the details and technicalities of 
the advertising business, and is recognized as 
an expert in the field of out-door advertising. 
He has shown marked facility in securing to 
his company new business and stands as a 
type of the enterprising young men who are 
doing much to further the material, commer- 
cial and civic advancement of Detroit. 

Mr. Walker was prominent and active in 
athletic circles for many years, but has largely 
withdrawn from the same since the exactions 
of business have pressed upon him. While a 
student in the Central high school he was the 
able and popular manager of both its foot- 
ball and base-ball and track teams, and manoeu- 
vered his forces in such a way as to admirably 
uphold the prestige of the school in the field 
of amateur athletics. For two seasons he also 
was the successful manager of the base-ball, 
foot-ball and track teams of the Detroit Ath- 
letic Club, in which he still retains member- 
ship. He is a member of Corinthian Lodge, 
Free & Accepted Masons, Detroit Golf Club, 
Detroit Yacht Club, Detroit Motor Boat Club, 
the Adcraft Club, the Harmonic Society, 
and the Rushmere Club, at St. Clair Flats. 
Politically he is independent. Member of the 
Associated Bill Posters of United States and 
Canada. Mr. Walker enjoys uniform popu- 
larity in business and social circles of the city 
which has ever represented his home. 

On the 1st of June, 1903, Mr. Walker was 



united in marriage to Miss Edith Tidd, daugh- 
ter of Edward B. Tidd, who is a representa- 
tive citizen and insurance man of the city of 
Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Walker have 
two children, — William Tidd Walker, born 
February 22, 1904; and Jane, born Decem- 
ber 15, 1906. 

BERT C. WILDER. 

One of the well-known representatives of 
lake-marine interests in Detroit is Bert C. 
Wilder, who is general auditor of the De- 
troit & Cleveland Navigation Company, of 
which due description is given on other pages 
of this work. He also holds the same office 
with the allied corporation, the Detroit & Buf- 
falo Steamboat Company, the most important 
corporations operating passenger and freight 
service on the Great Lakes. 

Mr. Wilder takes pride in the fact that he 
can claim the old Wolverine state as the place 
of his nativity. He was born at Richmond, 
Macomb county, Michigan, on the 12th of No- 
vember, 1865, and is a son of Henry L. and 
Minerva (Carter) Wilder, the former of 
whom was born at Kingston, province of On- 
tario, Canada, and the latter of whom was 
born at Rockport, Ohio, January 28, 1838, 
being now deceased. The Wilder family was 
founded in Michigan by John Wilder, grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch, and this 
worthy pioneer of the state came from his 
native town of Kingston, Ontario, and be- 
came one of the early settlers of Macomb 
county, where he purchased a tract of wild 
land, in Armada township, eventually reclaim- 
ing the greater portion to cultivation. He 
was an honored and respected citizen of the 
commonwealth and a man of impregnable in- 
tegrity. He and his wife were residents of 
Macomb county during their lifetime. The 
Wilder family is of English origin and was 
early founded in the province of Ontario. 
Representatives of the name are now scattered 
over the provinces and the United States. 

In the maternal line Mr. Wilder is a direct 
descendant of John Carter, of Hampshire, 



584 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



England, who immigrated to America in 1600, 
settling in Salisbury, Massachusetts. From 
him to the subject of this sketch the line is 
traced directly, in turn, through Rev. Thomas 
Carter, who was born in 1610 and died in 
1684. having been graduated in famous old 
Cambridge University, England, and having 
been one of the prominent, scholarly and in- 
fluential clergymen of the Massachusetts col- 
ony; his son Thomas was born in 1655 and 
died in 1754; the ancestor in the next genera- 
tion was Thomas, who was bom in 1685 and 
died in 1772; the latter's son Samuel, born 
May 31, 1734, served as a soldier in the Con- 
tinental line in the war of the Revolution, in 
which he rose to the rank of lieutenant, and 
he died April i, 1821 ; Samuel, Jr., son of 
Lieutenant Samuel Carter, was born in War- 
ren, Connecticut, April 9, 1760, and died 
March 22, 181 3. David Carter, son of Sam- 
uel, Jr., and Sarah (New comb) Carter, was 
born May i, 1796, and died May 9, 1840. 
He was the father of Minerva (Carter) Wild- 
er, mother of our immediate subject. 

Further data concerning the Carter geneal- 
ogy may be found in the memoir dedicated to 
the late David Carter, of Detroit, and appear- 
ing on other pages of this volume. 

Bert C. Wilder received his education in 
the public schools, and in 1881, when sixteen 
years of age, entered the employ of the whole- 
sale grocery firm of Symons, Smart & Com- 
pany, of Bay City, Michigan, where in the 
meanwhile he attended the high school. He 
remained with the firm mentioned until 1886, 
being promoted to the position of cashier dur- 
ing the second year of his connection with 
the concern, and later becoming general book- 
keeper. During the last two years of his con- 
nection with the house he resided in Saginaw, 
to which city the firm had trans fered its head- 
quarters. 

In March, 1886, Mr. Wilder was offered 
and accepted the position of general cashier of 
the Detroit & Cleveland Steam Navigation 
Company, this office being tendered him by his 
uncle, the late David Carter, who was at the 



time secretary and general manager of the 
company. Upon the death of Mr. Carter, in 
1901, Mr. Wilder was elected secretary of the 
recently organized Detroit & Buffalo Steam- 
boat Company, of which he also became as- 
sistant treasurer, as did he also of the Detroit 
& Cleveland line. In February, 1906, still 
further and well merited recognition came to 
him when he was made auditor of both com- 
panies, of which office he has since remained 
incumbent, justifying here, as at all times, the 
trust reposed in him. He is well known in 
marine circles and has so ordered his course 
as to retain the confidence and esteem of those 
with whom he has come in contact in either 
a business or social relation. 

In politics, though not active in partisan af- 
fairs, Mr. Wilder is a staunch adherent of 
the Republican party, and both he and his 
wife are valued members of the Martha 
Holmes Methodist Episcopal church, taking 
an active interest in the various departments 
of church work. Mr. Wilder has been a trus- 
tee of the church for the past fifteen years 
and has been connected with the Sunday school 
for practically the same period. He was for 
years a member of the Young Men's Christian 
Association, and is a member of the Sons of 
the American Revolution, and the Detroit 
Transportation Club. 

On the 20th of February, 1889, Mr. Wilder 
was united in marriage to Miss Florence S. 
Cogswell, daughter of Mr. Don Cogswell, a 
well known lumber inspector of the Saginaw 
valley, and they have five children, — Gerald 
F., Cyril H., Bert C, Jr., David Carter, and 
Florence Ruby. 

HENRY C. HODGES. 

Henry Clay Hodges was born in the town- 
ship of South Hero, Grand Isle county, Ver- 
mont, on the 2d of March, 1828. His family 
is of stanch English stock, the original pro- 
genitor in America having come from Eng- 
land the later part of the seventeenth century 
and taken up his residence in the colony of 
Massachusetts. 

Asoph Nathaniel Hodges, the great-grand- 




J^^^C^ ^^^^ (/^^c:/^/>^ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



585 



father of Henry Clay Hodges, was born in 
the historical town of Salem, Massachusetts, 
in 1723, removing when a young man to Es- 
sex county. New York, where he passed the 
remainder of his life. His son, Ezekiel 
Hodges, was born in Essex county. New York, 
in 1755, a few years prior to the inception of 
the Revolution and served with General Van 
Rensselaer during that war. 

Nathaniel Hodges, son of Ezekiel, and the 
father of Henry Clay Hodges, was bom in 
Washington county. New York, in the year 
1787, and passed his boyhood in the Empire 
state, removing to Grand Isle county, Ver- 
mont, in 1813. He served in the war of 
1812. He was recognized as a strong char- 
acter, having the courage of his convictions, 
was broad and liberal in his views, a deep 
student of history, and possessed of a remark- 
able memory. In politics he was a Henry 
Clay Whig, voting the Whig ticket until the 
organization of the Republican party when he 
became a supporter of the Lincoln policy. He 
died in his eighty-third year. 

Clarissa Phelps Hodges, mother of Henry 
Clay Hodges, was born in the town of South 
Hero, Vermont, in the year 1793. She came 
of the Connecticut branch of the Phelps and 
Pearl families, which settled in Hartford and 
vicinity in the early colonial days. She be- 
came a member of the Methodist church at the 
age of twelve, was devoted to the study of the 
Bible and was recognized as an able contrib- 
utor to the religious papers of the country 
until she reached her eighty-fifth year. She 
died at the age of ninety-one. 

Henry Clay Hodges was reared under the 
invigorating influences and environments of 
the old Green Mountain state, receiving the 
advantages of the common school education m 
his home county. It is needless to say that his 
academic opportunities were limited in scope, 
though this handicap did not prove sufficient 
to hinder in the least the development of his in- 
tellectual talents. Apprenticed at the age of 
sixteen to the trade of carriage-making, at 
the age of twenty he had so far mastered his 



trade as to enable him to start in business for 
himself. At the age of twenty-two he arrived 
in Detroit, on the ist day of December, 1850. 
Going from Detroit to Marshall, he became 
the clerk and cashier of the Michigan Central 
Railroad hotel, which was at that time the 
most celebrated between New York and Chi- 



cago. 



In 1852 Mr. Hodges began the study of law 
under the preceptorship of Judge James R. 
Slack of Huntington, Indiana. While pur- 
suing his law studies he also taught in the 
country schools in the vicinity during the win- 
ter terms. In 1853 he returned to Michigan, 
locating at Niles, where he entered the em- 
ploy of the J. F. Cross Company which con- 
trolled extensive marble quarries in Vermont. 
The following year he was admitted to part- 
nership in the business and removed to Fond 
du Lac, Wisconsin, where the firm established 
branch quarters. In 1854 he was married to 
Miss Julia Bidwell of Hastings, Michigan. 
Returning to Michigan in 1862, he entered 
into partnership with his brother, Charles C. 
Hodges and Edward Barker under the firm 
name of Barker, Hodges & Brother, they hav- 
ing been given the general agency for the Con- 
necticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, of 
Hartford, for the states of Michigan, Wiscon- 
sin, Iowa and Minnesota. In 1864 Mr. Bar- 
ker retired and the firm then became Hodges 
Brothers, with headquarters in Detroit. Be- 
sides engaging in the insurance business, the 
Hodges Brothers were also pioneers in real- 
estate business in this city, handling largely 
their own property, which included about 
seventy-five acres of the Woodbridge farm. 
In 187 1 they purchased a tract of land in the 
northern suburbs of Detroit, donating a tract 
seventy feet in width and giving it the 
name of Lincoln avenue. Through Mr. 
Hodges' efforts, Trumbull avenue, which was 
then about sixty feet wide, was increased to 
eighty feet. In the same year they purchased 
the property at the corner of State and Gris- 
wold streets, where the Hodges building now 
stands. 



586 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



To Mr. Hodges and the late David M. 
Richardson the city is indebted for the concep- 
tion of the idea of estabhshing the boulevard 
which novi' encircles the city. Though a 
somewhat different route was originally pro- 
jected, the interest aroused through the efforts 
and suggestions of Messrs. Hodges and Rich- 
ardson finally culminated in the building of 
the present magnificent driveway. 

In 1879 the Hodges Brothers purchased the 
business of John R. Grout, manufacturer of 
lubricating devices, and thereupon organized 
and incorporated the Detroit Lubricator 
Company, of which Mr. H. C. Hodges was 
president. The plant of this company has 
been enlarged from time to time until it is 
the largest and most important of its kind in 
the world. 

In 1872 Mr. Hodges became vice-president 
and one of the managing directors of the 
Wyandotte Rolling Mills, and after the death 
of Captain E. B. Ward succeeded him as presi- 
dent. He, with Captain Ward and others, 
organized the Detroit-Arizona Copper Mining 
Company and was vice-president of the corpo- 
ration until the death of Captain Ward, when 
he became president. The mines controlled by 
this company have since become among the 
largest copper-producing mines in the country. 
In 1882 he and his brother effected the cor- 
poration of the Detroit Steam Radiator Com- 
pany, this company being the first to manufac- 
ture the type of cast-iron radiator which has 
since become standard the world over. 

Mr. Hodges is still largely interested in 
real estate in the city. In politics he is a Re- 
publican, in so far as national issues are in- 
volved, and attended the convention, in i860, 
which nominated Lincoln. But he is essen- 
tially a man of independent views and is not 
constrained by partisan lines. He is public 
spirited to a degree and has ever shown a loyal 
interest in all that is for the well being of 
the city in which he has so long maintained 
his home and in which his name is a recog- 
nized synonym for honor and integrity. 
Thus far reference has been made to the 



business phases in the career of Mr. Hodges. 
In the world of literature he has gained a 
position of prominence. He is an original 
thinker and has given to the world in his 
published works a valuable contribution. In 
the ancient science of planetary influences he 
has made most extensive researches and is 
known as one of the leading exponents of the 
same at the present day. 

His investigations in this direction have 
been very thorough, the results being pub- 
hshed m his work of six volumes entitled 
"Science and Key of Life," as well as other 
books on astrological science. These works 
show the wide scope of his investigations and 
deep knowledge of the subjects treated. 

He is editor and publisher of the "Stellar 
Ray," a monthly magazine devoted to the prac- 
tical problems of life. 

Mr. Hodges' entire life has been one of 
broad usefulness. A close student by nature 
and possessed of a remarkable memory his 
wide reading has resulted in a fund of knowl- 
edge possessed by few men who have been so 
actively engaged in business affairs. 



LEWIS NEWBERRY. 

On other pages of this volume is entered a 
sketch of the Newberry Baking Company, of 
which Lewis Newberry is president, and it is 
but consistent that a review of his career also 
be incorporated, as he has gained recognition 
as one of the progressive and successful busi- 
ness men of the Michigan metropolis. 

Mr. Newberry was born at Rochester, Oak- 
land county, Michigan, on the 6th of January, 
1859, and is a son of George and Mary j' 
(Bemis) Newberry. George Newberry like- 
wise was born in the village of Rochester and 
IS a son of Seneca Newberry, who was one of 
the honored pioneers of Oakland county and 
one of the first merchants of Rochester, where 
he took up his residence about 1829. Seneca 
Newberry was a man of distinctive promin- 
ence and influence in his community, and rep- 
resented Oakland county in the first legisla- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



587 



ture of the state of Michigan. He was a 
staunch supporter of the principles of the 
Democratic party and was one of its leaders in 
Oakland county, where he continued to reside 
until his death. George Newberry and his 
brother Homer became associated with their 
father in the building and equipping of a pa- 
per mill in Shiawassee county, about 1862, 
and they operated the same for many years. 
Since 1895 George Newberry has lived prac- 
tically retired from active business, and he and 
his wife still reside in Rochester. He has al- 
ways been aligned as a supporter of the cause 
of the Democratic party and has been influen- 
tial in its councils, though he has never sought 
or held public office. He resided in Detroit 
for a period of about thirty-five years, during 
which he here represented the manufactory of 
the Shiawassee Paper Company, of which he 
was a member. He was one of the organizers 
of the Detroit Yacht Club and was its first 
commodore, as was he also of the Citizens' 
Yachting Association, in which he held this 
office for several years. 

Lewis Newberry gained his early education- 
al discipline in the public schools of Detroit, 
and in 1877 he became a traveling salesman 
for the Shiawassee Paper Company, but in the 
following year he identified himself with rail- 
road interests. He continued to be thus en- 
gaged, with various companies, until 1886. In 
the year mentioned he returned to Detroit, 
where he assumed the position of shipping 
clerk for the Morton Baking Company, with 
which he continued to be connected until 1906, 
when he became one of the organizers and in- 
corporators of the Newberry Baking Com- 
pany, of which he has since been president 
and to the interests of which he gives the 
major portion of his time and attention. 

Mr. Newberry is affiliated with Ashlar 
Lodge, No. 91, Free & Accepted Masons, and 
Peninsular Chapter, No. 16, Royal Arch 
Masons. 

In 1898 Mr. Newberry was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Addic Ohl, of Grand Rapids, 
Michigan. 



THOMAS NESTER. 

The great lumbering industry of the state 
of Michigan in the days past made many mil- 
lionaires and one of the most picturesque fig- 
ures who achieved fortune through his con- 
nection with the same was the late Thomas 
Nester, who rose from the position of a man- 
ual laborer in blacksmith shop and sawmill 
to a place in the class mentioned above. He 
became a resident of Detroit after he had 
gained his position as one of the lumber barons 
of the state and here he continued to make his 
home until his death, which occurred on the 
1 2th of May, 1890. Genial, broad-minded, 
whole-souled, Thomas Nester was a man 
among men and he made his life count for 
good and for genuine helpfulness. 

Mr. Nester was born in the historic old 
town of Newport, county Mayo, Ireland, in 
January, 1833, and was a son of Patrick Nes- 
ter, who was a blacksmith by trade. The sub- 
ject of this sketch was reared to the age of 
thirteen years in his native land, where he re- 
ceived such rudimentary educational advan- 
tages as his parents were able to afford him. 
He waxed strong in physique and had the 
typical mental alertness and good humor so 
characteristic of his race. In 1846 the par- 
ents came with their five children to America 
and settled in a small town near Hamilton, 
province of Ontario, Canada, where the 
father erected a cross-roads blacksmith and 
wagon shop and resumed the work of his 
trade, by which he gained an honest living 
and made the best possible provision for his 
children, the youngest of whom alone was 
born after the immigration to America. This 
youngest was Timothy, who was later to 
wield distinctive power in the political affairs 
of Michigan, of whose bar he became a rep- 
resentative member. 

Thomas Nester attended the little village 
school at intervals and soon began to assist 
his father as helper in the blacksmith shop just 
mentioned. At the age of seventeen years he 
left the parental roof, his father having in the 
meanwhile removed to a farm of forty acres 



588 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



which he had purchased near London, On- 
tario, and he then came to Michigan, where 
he initiated his independent business career in 
a most modest way. In 185 1 he disembarked 
from a lake boat at Bay City, and his employ- 
ment for the first winter was as driver of a 
team of oxen, in service in connection with a 
sawmill in the vicinity. He received in com- 
pensation twelve dollars a month and his board. 
In the spring he secured employment in a saw 
mill at Bangor, and from that point he finally 
went to Port Huron, where he became head 
sawyer. His services in this capacity were 
requited in the wages of twenty- four dollars a 
month, with long days of arduous toil. In 
the winter season he went into the lumber 
camp, where he did his full share of work in 
chopping, driving team, etc. In the opening 
spring he was one of the best men in the 
"drive" of the logs down the stream to the 
mill, and in the latter he then resumed his 
work as head sawyer. This line of herculean 
labor the future millionaire continued to fol- 
low about six years, or until he had attained 
to the age of twenty-two years. In the mean- 
while his parents also had come to Michigan, 
and he had the privilege, as he always con- 
sidered it in after years as well as at the time, 
of making the payments on the farm which 
his father purchased, in Sanilac county; when 
the final payment was made Thomas, or 
"Tom," as he was ever known by his friends, 
gave to his father the deed to the property.' 
His parents passed the remainder of their lives 
in Michigan, simple, honest. God-fearing folk. 
An incident in the career of Mr. Nester has 
been related and has sufficient incidental sig- 
nificance to be worthy of reproduction in this 
article : The lumber business was booming in 
those times, and the Port Huron mills fre- 
quently had two shifts of men at work. One 
night Tom Nester was working his shift when 
he became aware that a raft of logs belong- 
ing to Avery & Murphy and moored in the St. 
Clair river, adjoining the mill, had become un- 
fastened and was moving out of the boom 
into the river, where it would become scat- 



tered and lost. The raft consisted of about five 
million feet of logs and its value at that time 
was about fifty thousand dollars. Young Nester 
promptly went to the home of Mr. Avery, 
whom he aroused and to whom he stated 
the facts in the case. The millionaire Avery 
and the young sawyer together, and without 
other aid, succeeded in saving the raft, but 
Mr. Avery had been thrown into the water 
and would have undoubtedly drowned had it 
not been for the prompt efforts of Nester in 
rescuing him from his perilous position among 
the twisting and jamming logs. Filled with 
gratitude, and admiring the dexterity and 
courage of the young man, Mr. Avery sent for 
hmi the next morning and insisted that he 
should enter the employ of the firm. In this 
connection Nester rose to the position of small 
boss and through the opportunities secured 
for sub-contracting in a small way, he man- 
aged to accumulate a little money. His con- 
tracting operations gradually increased in ex- 
tent and importance, and through the same 
was laid the foundation for his ample fortune. 
It is not necessary to enter into details con- 
cerning the various steps in his career as a 
lumber operator, for the development of 
the same has often been related in connec- 
tion with him and others who had to do with 
the developing of the lumbering industry in 
the northern pine districts. 

In 1865 Mr. Nester entered into partnership 
with Colonel William L. Little, a banker of 
New York, and James F. Brown, cashier in 
the former's bank. The two partners sup- 
plied the requisite funds as against the skill 
and experience of Mr. Nester, who had thor- 
oughly proven his trustworthiness and reso- 
lute honesty of purpose through his previous 
operations. The first investment made by the 
new firm was in the purchase of a tract of fif- 
teen hundred acres, at ten dollars an acre, and 
within three years, from the cutting of the 
timber and the manufacturing and sale of the 
lumber therefrom, they each realized about 
thirty thousand dollars. The compact was 
then terminated, and thereafter Mr. Nester 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



589 



was similarly associated with Jesse Hoyt, the 
New York capitalist, until 1873, when Mr. 
Nester sold his interest in the business to his 
partner. In the meanwhile he had purchased 
lands and cut pine on his own account, and 
when the partnership mentioned was dissolved 
he placed his capitalistic resources at about one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For sev- 
eral years he continued his individual opera- 
tions, which continually broadened in scope 
and importance, and he built a large sawmill 
at what is now known as the village of Alger. 
Between 1878 and 1880 Mr. Nester bought 
about forty thousand acres of land in Roscom- 
mon and Gladwin counties, and at a cost of one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars he built a 
broad-gauge railroad, twenty miles in length, 
to assist in moving the timber from this tract, 
which was not accessible to streams by which 
the logs could be floated. From the first year's 
operations he cleared sufficient money to de- 
fray the cost of constructing his railroad, a 
work which he considered one of the most im- 
portant which he ever undertook. Somewhat 
later Mr. Nester was associated in intimate 
partnership relationships with such well known 
capitalists as A. W. Wright and Wells, Stone 
& Company, of East Saginaw, and these as- 
sociations were to him of the most pleasing 
order, as were they also to his partners: 
through the connection large profits were real- 
ized. Mr. Nester eventually sold his railroad 
for somewhat more than five hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and it is now a part of the Pere 
Marquette system. 

In 1882 Mr. Nester disposed of his various 
interests in the Saginaw region, and at that 
time he removed from Saginaw to Detroit, 
where he passed the residue of his life. He 
became a stockholder in the People's Savings 
Bank and had other local capitalistic interests, 
but the greater portion of his wealth was rep- 
resented in his holdings of timber lands in 
various sections of the state. Mr. Nester was 
a man of forceful individuality and his optmi- 
ism was always of the most inspiring type. 
He was generous in his relations with his fel- 



low men, liberal and public-spirited as a citi- 
zen, and sincere and honorable in all his busi- 
ness relations. He was a Republican in his 
political faith, but was not so strongly par- 
tisan that he was not ready to use his pleasure 
and judgment in casting his vote for the one 
he considered the best man. He was reared in 
the faith of the Catholic church and was a 
liberal supporter of the same. 

April 21, i860, occurred the marriage of 
Mr. Nester to Miss Margaret Mahon, daugh- 
ter of a prosperous farmer of Sanilac county, 
and she survives him, as do also four of their 
children,— George and John, of Detroit; 
Frank, of Duluth, Minnesota ; and Mary, Mrs. 
M. J. Bourke, of Detroit. 



CYRENIUS A. NEWCOMB, JR. 

In the local business field the subject of this 
brief review is well upholding the prestige 
of the name which he bears, and he is recog- 
nized as one of the representative business men 
of the younger generation in his native city. 
He is a son of Cyrenius A. Newcomb, Sr., 
one of the founders and the present head of 
the corporation known as the Newcomb, Endi- 
cott Company, and in the sketch of the life of 
the father, appearing on other pages of this 
work, is given adequate genealogical record 
and also details in connection with the busi- 
ness enterprise of the Newcomb, Endicott Com- 
pany, the most important and extensive of the 
retail dry-goods houses in the state of Michi- 
gan. Of the corporation noted the subject of 
this article is secretary. 

Cyrenius Adelbert Newcomb, Jr., was born 
in Detroit on the 14th of January, 1871, and 
his earlier educational discipline was secured 
in the public schools of this city. He was 
graduated in the Central high school as a 
member of the class of 1889, and later en- 
tered the literary and scientific department of 
the University of Michigan, in which he com- 
pleted the prescribed course and was grad- 
uated in 1893, with the degree of Bachelor 
of Letters. On the ist of August, 1893, he 
assumed a position of minor order in the em- 



590 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ploy of Newcomb, Endicott & Company, and 
he has learned the business in all its details 
advancing gradually through the various 
grades of responsibility and trust until he 
finally became secretary of the company. In 
1897 Mr. Newcomb became buyer for the de- 
partment devoted to linens, woolens, domes- 
tics, etc., having been admitted to partnership 
in the firm in the preceding year. Upon the 
incorporation of the business, under the origi- 
nal title, in 1903, he was elected secretary, 
and of this office he has since remained in- 
cumbent. As an executive he has shown 
marked discrimination and resourcefulness, 
and in addition to the office of secretary he 
has his share of the supervision of the business. 
In politics Mr. Newcomb is aligned as a 
staunch supporter of the cause of the Republi- 
can party. He is a member of the University 
Club, the Detroit Boat Club, the Detroit Coun- 
try Club and the Fine Arts Society. He is also 
identified with the Aldine Association, of New 
York city, and the Psi Upsilon fraternity of his 
alma mater, the University of Michigan. He 
has a deep and abiding interest in all that per- 
tains to his native city and is ever ready to aid 
in the support of measures and enterprises 
tending to the advancement of Detroit along 
both material and civic lines. 

On the 1 6th of December, 1896. Mr. New- 
comb was united in marriage to Miss Brownie 
Jenness Kellie. daughter of Ronald Scott 
Kellie, who is a representative member of the 
Detroit bar and personal mention of whom ap- 
pears on another page of this work. The three 
children of this union are: Cyrenius Adel- 
bert (3d), Alice J., and John Jenness 



HARRY D. MORTON. 

Mr. Morton is to be given consideration in 
this work as one of the enterprising and 
prominent business men of the younger gen- 
eration in Detroit, and through the industry 
with which he is connected he is contributing 
his quota to the commercial advancement of 
the Michigan metropolis. He is treasurer and 



general manager of the Gies Gear Company, 
of which adequate description is given on other 
pages of this publication. 

Harry D. Morton was bom in the city of 
Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the 17th of Decem- 
ber, 1872, and is a son of Andrew N and 
Bettie N. (Congdon) Morton. His father 
was born at Marengo, Calhoun county, this 
state, in 1844, a son of Davis Morton who 
was a native of Freetown, Massachusetts, and 
who became one of the sterling pioneer set- 
tiers of Washtenaw county, Michigan, where 
he passed the residue of his life, whicli was 
largely devoted to agricultural pursuits An- 
drew N. Morton has been identified with the 
railway mail service for neariy twenty vears 
and has a run between Detroit and Grand 
Rapids. He and his wife maintain their home 
at Chelsea, Michigan. Mrs. Morton is a 
daughter of the late Elisha Congdon, founder 
of the village of Chelsea, Michigan, to which 
P^ace he removed from Norwich, Connecticut 
He became a large landholder in the vicinity 
of Chelsea and was there engaged in the gen- 
eral merchandise business for many years. 
His wife, whose maiden name was Eloise 
Standish, was a descendant on the paternal 
side m the seventh generation from Captain 
Miles Standish. of Massachusetts, whose name 
has been perpetuated in history and in the 
works of the New England bard, Longfellow 
Harry D. Morton attended the public schools 
of Chelsea until he was seventeen years of 
age, when he came to Detroit, where he com- 
pleted a thorough course in the Pernin short- 
hand school. After his graduation he secured 
employment in the offices of Daniel Scotten & 
Company, the extensive tobacco manufactur- 
ers of Detroit, and he was thus engaged until 
1893, when he assumed the position of office 
manager for the Howard Publishing Com- 
pany of this city. In 1895 he entered into 
partnership with Frederick G. Coryell, under 
the firm name of Morton & Coryell, and they 
established an office as general stenographers 
in the Chamber of Commerce building In 
1900 Mr. Morton became manager of 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



591 



the legal department of the Farbenfabriken of 
Elberfeld Company, New York city, manufac- 
turers of analine dyes, and also of a varied 
line of drugs and chemicals, and originators 
of phenacetine. He remained with this con- 
cern until 1906, when he returned to Detroit 
and became one of the principals in the or- 
ganization and incorporation of the Gies Gear 
Company, of which he has since been treas- 
urer and general manager. He is a Repub- 
lican in politics. 



JOHN S. VAN ALSTYNE. 

This well known and highly honored citizen 
of Wayne county may consistently be termed 
the father of the village of Wyandotte, with 
whose upbuilding he has been most con- 
spicuously identified, along both civic and in- 
dustrial lines, and he is to-day one of the best 
known and most thoroughly representative 
citizens of the village mentioned. He was the 
first president of its common council and dur- 
ing the long years of his residence there he 
has been at all times loyal and progressive, 
giving his co-operation and influence in sup- 
port of measures inuring to the general good 
of the community. He was one of the organ- 
izers of the Wyandotte Savings Bank, of which 
he has been president during the entire period 
of its existence, and of this popular and stable 
financial institution specific mention is made 
on other pages of this publication. 

As the name clearly indicates, John Sclier- 
merhorn Van Alstyne is of sturdy Holland 
Dutch ancestry, and the Van Alstyne and 
Schermerhorn families were numbered promi- 
nently among the founders of the Dutch colo- 
nies in the present state of New York. The 
original American progenitor in the agnatic 
line was Jan Martense Van Alstyne (de- 
Wever), who came to America prior to July, 
1655, and who resided for some time at Al- 
bany, New York, and later at Kinderhook. 
He married Dirkie Harmens, and their son 
Abraham Jans Van Alstyne, who was an elder 
of the Dutch church at Kinderhook in 17 16, 



married Marreitje Van Deusen. The next in 
line of direct descent to the subject of this 
sketch was their son Sander Van Alstyne, who 
married Elbertie Van Alen, and who served as 
captain of a militia company at Kinderhook. 
His son Johannes Van Alstyne was a soldier 
in the war of 181 2 and chose as his wife 
Sarah Van Der Poel. Their son Alexander 
married Mary Witbeck, and of this marriage 
was born Dr. John S. Van Alstyne, father of 
him whose name initiates this sketch. It will 
thus be seen that Mr. Van Alstyne is both 
directly and collaterally identified with many 
of the old and honored Knickerbocker families 
whose names have been prominently linked 
with the annals of the old Empire state from 
the early colonial epoch. 

John Schermerhorn Van Alstyne was bom 
in Greenbush, Rensselaer county, New York, 
on the 25th of October, 1834, and is a son of 
Dr. John S. and Anna Maria (Schermerhorn) 
Van Alstyne, both of whom passed their entire 
lives in New York state. Dr. Van Alstyne 
became one of the representative physicians 
and surgeons in the city of Albany, where his 
death occurred in 1844; his wife survived him 
by several years, and of their four children 
only one is living at the present time,— the 
subject of this sketch. After a due prelimi- 
nary training in the common schools the sub- 
ject of this review completed a course of study 
in a well conducted academy at Schodack 
Landing, New York. 

In 1850, at the age of sixteen years, Mr. 
Van Alstyne came to Michigan and took up 
his residence in Detroit, where he became a 
student in the law office of Barstow & Lock- 
wood, and in 1855 he was admitted to the bar 
of the state, being well equipped for the prac- 
tical work of his chosen profession. Through 
the influence of circumstances, however, he 
found it expedient to turn his attention to 
other lines of endeavor. About the time of his 
admission to the bar the Eureka Iron Com- 
pany was organized, and among its interested 
principals were numbered Messrs. Barstow 
and Lockwood, his law preceptors. They se- 



592 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



cured for Mr. Van Alstyne the position of 
manager of the company's large real-estate 
holdings in Wyandotte, where about two thou- 
sand acres of land had been purchased by the 
new corporation. About six months after re- 
ceiving this appointment Mr. Van Alstyne 
was made manager of the company's business, 
having proven himself well qualified for the 
assumption and discharge of the important 
duties which thus devolved upon him. In 
1 86 1 he became associated with Alexander 
Stewart in forming the firm of Stewart & Van 
Alstyne, and they engaged in the manufac- 
turing of lumber, with headquarters in Wyan- 
dotte. From March, 1862, until June of the 
following year Mr. Van Alstyne was in the 
service of the government, having been as- 
signed to the paymaster's department of the 
United States army, and having been on duty 
in the national capital, New York city. South 
Carolina and with the Army of the Potomac. 
Upon receiving his release from the govern- 
ment service Mr. Van Alstyne returned to 
Wyandotte, and continued in the lumber trade 
until 1872, when he resumed the management 
of the business of the Eureka Iron Company, 
with which he continued to be identified in 
this capacity until the closing of the enterprise, 
in 1892. During and subsequently to the 
panic of 1873, with characteristic prescience 
and discrimination, Mr. Van Alstyne leased, 
at a nominal rental, a large amount of the 
company land at Wyandotte, and this he 
placed at the disposal of the people of the com- 
munity to enable them to raise vegetables and 
other products and through this means aid in 
tiding over the period of so great financial 
depression. In this matter, with true and 
practical benevolence, he anticipated by many 
years the policy of the late and honored Gov- 
ernor Pingree, who had recourse to the same 
means in aiding the poor of the city of De- 
troit. 

In all public affairs of a local order Mr. 
Van Alstyne manifested from the beginning a 
commendable interest, and in 1867 he was a 
prominent and influential meinber of the com- 



mittee which secured a city charter for Wyan- 
dotte. He was elected the first mayor of the 
city and served one term. Though urged by 
prominent members of both political parties 
to become a candidate for a second term, he 
felt constrained to decline the overtures. In 
1 87 1 he was one of the organizers of the 
Wyandotte Savings Bank, of which he has 
been president during the entire intervening 
period and which, under his wise and careful 
administration, has ever held a high reputation 
and commanded unqualified confidence, so that 
it is to be regarded as one of the representative 
financial institutions of Wayne county. He 
is a director of each the Eureka Land Com- 
pany and the Wyandotte Land Company, and 
has other important interests. Through his 
well directed efforts he has gained large 
wealth, and throughout his entire career, 
marked by energy, enterprise and progressive- 
ness, his reputation for impregnable honesty 
and integrity of purpose has remained unsul- 
lied. In 1887 Mr. Van Alstyne had supei^vi- 
sion of the borings made for natural gas in 
Wyandotte. The contracts for this important 
and expensive work were drawn by him, and 
at no time was there the slightest friction or a 
dispute as to the application of any portion of 
the money invested in the enterprise. Though 
the boring was carried to a depth of five 
thousand six hundred and forty-five feet, no 
gas was discovered, but at a depth of seven 
hundred and thirty feet salt was found, — a 
bed three hundred and four feet deep. These 
experimental operations were protracted over 
a period of about two years, and from the dis- 
coveries incidentally made has been developed 
the great soda-ash industry carried on to-day 
in Wyandotte. The borings were made on 
land owned by the Eureka Iron Company, and 
after the failure to find gas, twenty acres of 
this land were sold to Captain John B. Ford, 
at a figure sufficient to entirely cover the ex- 
penditures made in the search for gas. The 
No. I works of the Michigan Alkali Company 
are now located on the tract of twenty acres 
just mentioned. Mr. Van Alstyne is essen- 




Cvw 




iL 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



593 



tially a business man and unremitting appli- 
cation has marked his entire career. Right 
living and enthusiastic interest in material and 
social affairs have kept him alert and in his 
vigor and appearance there is slight indication 
that he has passed the psalmist's span of three 
score years and ten. He has the spirit of 
perennial youth and has ever found life worth 
the living. 

In his political allegiance Mr. Van Alstyne 
is aligned as a loyal supporter of the cause of 
the Republican party, and his religious faith 
is that of the Dutch Refonned church. He 
was one of the founders and charter members 
of Wyandotte Lodge, No. 170, Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons, and of the same he has served 
as master for fifteen or more years, at varying 
intervals. He has advanced to the supreme 
degree, the thirty-third, in this time-honored 
fraternity, having gained this distinction 
through election to the same at the annual 
meeting at Boston of the Consistory of the 
Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in 1905. For 
five years he served as high priest of Wyan- 
dotte Chapter, No. 135, Royal Arch Masons, 
and he is also identified with Monroe Council, 
Royal and Select Masters, Detroit; Michigan 
Sovereign Consistory, Ancient Accepted 
Scottish Rite, besides holding membership in 
Moslem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in Detroit. 

On the 15th of October, 1863, Mr. Van 
Alstyne was united in marriage to Miss Ellen 
Folger, a daughter of the late Andrew J. 
Folger, of Wyandotte. Concerning the child- 
ren of this union the following brief data are 
given: Anna Folger is the wife of Robert B. 
Burrell, of Wyandotte; John Schermerhorn, 
Jr., who married Miss Isabella Watkins, is 
the vice-president of the Peninsular Engrav- 
ing Company, of Detroit ; and Frederick 
Easton, who married Blanche Lacy, is cashier 
of the Wyandotte Savings Bank. The family 
has ever been prominent in the best social 
life of the community and the attractive home- 
stead is a center of gracious and refined hos- 
pitality. 



CHARLES F. MELLISH. 

From the early settlement of Michigan no 
state has contributed a larger quota of sterling 
citizens than has the fine old Empire com- 
monwealth, and at the present time that state 
has in Detroit a worthy representative in the 
person of Charles F. Mellish, who is a promi- 
nent figure in local business circles, and who 
here numbers his friends by the roster of his 
acquaintances. He is a director of the Har- 
greaves Manufacturing Company, of which 
description is given on other pages of this 
work, and in the capacity of assistant manager 
he is actively identified with the administration 
of the business of the company. 

Mr. Mellish was born in the city of Buffalo, 
New York, on the 7th of December, 1859, and 
is a son of Captain James William Willoughby- 
Mellish and Lavinia (Suthen) Mellish, the for- 
mer of whom was born in the city of London, 
England, and the latter of whom was a native of 
Ipswich, England. Captain Mellish was reared 
and educated in his native city and as a youth 
he entered the English army, in which he event- 
ually attained to the rank of captain. He 
finally resigned his commission and came to 
America, where he became prominently identi- 
fied with manufacturing industries. He first 
located in the city of New York, after which 
he resided for a time in the city of Buffalo, 
and finally he took up his residence in Lock- 
port, that state, where he was associated with 
others as one of the interested principals in the 
Hydraulic Manufacturing Company, in which 
he was a stockholder and director. He was a 
prominent and influential citizen of Lockport 
for many years, having been active in both the 
business and civic affairs of the community 
and having been a man of marked ability and 
fine intellectuality. Both he and his wife con- 
tinued to reside in Lockport until their death. 

Charles Fillmore Mellish, the immediate sub- 
ject of this review, gained his early educational 
discipline in the public schools of the city of 
Lockport, and the inception of his business 
career was through his connection with the 
establishment of the firm of R. W. & E. Beck. 



594 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



art dealers in that city. He entered the em- 
ploy of this firm in 1878 and remained with 
the same, as a salesman, until 1883, '" which 
year he was offered a position as traveling 
salesman for the Hargreaves Manufacturing 
Company, of Detroit, manufacturers of picture 
frames, mouldings, etc., and dealers in all 
kinds of pictures. With this extensive con- 
cern he has since continued to be identified and 
he has risen to a position of authoritative in- 
terest in the business, which is one of the 
largest of the kind in the United States, as 
may be seen by reference to the article descrip- 
tive of the same. He became one of the most 
successful representatives of the house and re- 
mained "on the road" until 1900, after which 
he became a factor in connection with the office 
affairs of the company. He finally secured an 
interest in the business, and in 1900 he was 
made assistant manager, also having charge 
of the sales department. His services have 
been potent in forwarding the success of the 
enterprise and its expansion into new terri- 
tory, and he is one of the able and valued 
officials of the company. As a progressive 
business man and loyal citizen Mr. Mellish 
holds membership in the Detroit Board of 
Commerce, in whose work he maintains an 
active interest. 

Mr. Mellish is aligned as a stalwart sup- 
porter of the cause of the Republican party 
and he has done effective service in the local 
ranks of the "Grand Old Party." He was a 
most ardent supporter of the Hon. Edwin 
Denby in the latter's campaigns for congress 
and aided materially in securing the election 
of this able representative from Michigan. 
Incidentally, it is interesting to note that 
Messrs. Denby and Mellish greatly resemble 
each other in facial lines and physical contour 
and that they are often mistaken one for the 
other. Mr. Mellish is a member of the De- 
troit Club, the Detroit Country Club, the Pic- 
ure Frame Manufacturers' Association of 
America, and other social and business or- 
ganizations. He and his wife are communi- 
cants of the Protestant Episcopal church, being 



identified with the parish of Christ church. 
The family residence is at 625 Jefferson ave- 
nue, and the same is notable for its generous 
hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. Mellish are active 
in the best social life of the city. 

On the 2d of July. 1884, was solemnized the 
marriage of Mr. Mellish to Miss Sarah Estelle 
Butler, daughter of the late Titus S. Butler, a 
prominent merchant of Lockport, New York 
Mr. and Mrs. Mellish have one daughter Mar- 
jone Butler Mellish, who was graduated in 
the Detroit Home and Day School and who 
IS now attending Miss Douglass' school in 
New York city. 



NEIL McMillan. 

For more than a quarter of a century Mr 
McMillan has been identified with important 
industrial interests in Detroit, where he is now 
secretary and general manager of the Na- 
tional Can Company, of whose business an 
adequate description is given on other pages 
of this volume. He is a Scotsman by birth 
and typical of the sturdy race from which he 
IS sprung, while he is known as one of the 
representative business men of the beautiful 
metropolis of the Wolverine state. 

Mr. McMillan was born in Tranent Scot- 
land, on the i8th of March, 1852, and is a son 
of Michael and Jean (Ballantine) McMillan, 
both of whom passed nearly their entire lives 
m the land of "brown hills and shaggy wood." 
He was educated in the schools of his native 
land and after leaving school clerked in a gen- 
eral store and in the office of the Duke of 
Portland. In 1870 Mr. McMillan came to 
America and took up his residence on a farm 
near London, Ontario, Canada, and later lo- 
cated at Bothwell, conducting a general store 
until 1876, when he moved to California and 
with his brothers operated a stock ranch until 
1882, when he removed to Detroit, where he 
effected the establishment of the Dry Dock 
Sheet Metal Works, which later became known 
as the Detroit Sheet Metal & Brass Works. 
Of this concern he was secretary and treas- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



595 



urer, Frank E. Kirby having been president. 
The business was eventually sold to the De- 
troit Ship Building Company. The enterprise, 
under the personal supervision and manage- 
ment of Mr. McAlillan, was built up to large 
proportions, and the brass foundry of the com- 
pany at the time was the largest in the city. 
The concern gave employment to fully two 
hundred skilled workmen and controlled a 
large and substantial business, principally in 
the line of work and equipment for steamboats 
and railroad cars. 

In 1887 Mr. McMillan organized the Art 
Stove Company, of which he was first treas- 
urer and later president, being one of the 
heaviest stockholders in the corporation. He 
finally sold his interest in the business, after 
making the enterprise a distinctive success, 
which it continues to the present time. Mr. 
McMillan became identified with the National 
Can Company at the time of its organization 
and incorporation, in 1901, and the article de- 
scriptive of the company offers further details 
concerning his connection with the same. As 
the chief practical executive officer of the com- 
pany he gives to its affairs the major portion 
of his time and attention, and the business is 
now one of the most important of the kind in 
America. Mr. McMillan has long been rec- 
ognized as an aggressive and able business 
man, and none is more loyal to Detroit or a 
more staunch believer in the still more splendid 
future which shall be the city's along general 
industrial and civic lines. 

In politics Mr. McMillan gives his allegiance 
to the Republican party, but the honors and 
emoluments of public ofSce have never had 
aught of allurement for him. He is an ap- 
preciative member of the time-honored Ma- 
sonic fraternity, and is affiliated with Union 
Lodge, King Cyrus Chapter, and Detroit 
Commandery, No. i, Knights Templars. He 
holds membership and is a trustee in the Mary 
Palmer Memorial Methodist Episcopal church. 
In 1887 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. McMillan to Miss Caroline Lebot, who 
was born and reared in Detroit, being a daugh- 



ter of Enos Lebot, who was born in France, 
being a son of Jean Lebot, who served in the 
French army as aide-de-camp under Napoleon 
and who came to America and settled in De- 
troit after the overthrow of the French empire. 
Enos Lebot was a child at the time of the 
family immigration to America and he is now 
(1908) one of the venerable and honored 
residents of Detroit, being eighty-three years 
of age. Mr. and Mrs. McMillan have three 
children, — Enos L., Neil, Jr., and Ursulla C. 



JOHN McFARLANE. 

A skilled chemist and one who has had 
most careful and extended training in connec- 
tion with pharmaceutical manufacturing, Mr. 
McFarlane is eminently qualified for the po- 
sition which he occupies, — that of superin- 
tendent of the laboratories and general manu- 
facturing department of F. A. Thompson & 
Company, of which concern adequate descrip- 
tion is given on other pages of this work. 
Mr. McFarlane was born at Guelph, prov- 
ince of Ontario, Canada, on the 13th of De- 
cember, 1862, being of Scotch and English 
descent. He was afforded the advantages of 
the public schools of his native city and also 
those of the Guelph Collegiate Institute. In 
the meanwhile he had begun clerking in a 
local drug establishment, and after leaving 
school he continued to be thus engaged in 
Guelph until 1881, when he came to Detroit 
and secured a position in the pill department 
of the great laboratories of Parke, Davis & 
Company. In 1884 he was promoted to a 
position in the extract department, of which 
he was given general charge in 1898, resign- 
ing this office to accept that of superintendent 
of the recently organized firm of F. A. Thomp- 
son & Company, of whose well equipped labo- 
ratories he has since had the general super- 
vision, in connection with the superintendency 
of the entire manufacturing department. He 
has been a potent factor in promoting the up- 
growth of the business, which is now one of 
no inconsiderable scope and importance, as 



596 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



may be seen by reference to the article de- 
scriptive of the same, and he is one of the 
popular business men and loyal and public- 
spirited citizens of Detroit. He is a stock- 
holder of the concern of which he is superin- 
tendent and has other business interests of a 
local order. In politics Mr. McFarlane gives 
his allegiance to the Republican party, and he 
is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and 
the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks. 
He is a bachelor. 



CHARLES W. MUNZ. 

_ Among other sterling citizens of foreign 
birth who have achieved success and marked 
precedence in connection with the industrial 
activities of the city of Detroit is Mr. Munz, 
who is president and general manager of the 
Posselius Brother Furniture Manufacturing 
Company, of which large and prosperous con- 
cern specific mention is made elsewhere in this 
volume. He is numbered among the ener- 
getic, progressive and loyal business men who 
are extending the fame and commercial pros- 
perity of the Michigan metropolis, and his suc- 
cess IS the more pleasing to contemplate from 
the fact that it stands as the diametrical result 
of his own well ordered efforts. 

Charles W. Munz was born in the kingdom 
of Wurtemburg, Germany, on the 25th of 
.Tilly. 1864, and there the family had been es- 
tablished for many generations before his ad- 
vent m the world. The name has long been 
identified with wood-working enterprises in 
that section of the German empire, and its 
representatives have been skilled artisans as 
wagon-makers, furniture manufacturers cabi- 
net-makers, etc. The subject of this sketch 
was afforded the advantages of the excellent 
schools of his native place, and when fourteen 
years of age he there entered upon an appren- 
ticeship to the trade of butcher. He followed 
this vocation in Germany until 1881, when, at 
the age of seventeen years, he severed the ties 
which bound him to home and fatherland and 
set forth to seek his fortunes in America 



Soon after his arrival he came to Detroit and 
near this city he was employed for two years 
at farm work, in the meanwhile preparing to 
Identity himself with some wood-working in- 
dustry as soon as opportunity offered He had 
an inherent predilection and talent for this 
line of work and felt confident of his 
ability to gam success in connection with 
the same. In 1883 Mr. Munz entered the 
employ of the Clough & Warren Organ 
Company, of Detroit, where he became an 
apprentice at the trade of cabinet-making 
in which he became an expert workman. In 
i«87 he entered into a contract with the com- 
pany to do the setting up of the finished or- 
gans and making them ready for shipment, and 
he continued to be identified with this concern 
until 1892. In this year he perfected the in 
vention of an improved form of extension 
table, upon which he received government pat- 
ents. He then promoted the organization of 
a company to manufacture his tables, the result 
being the incorporation of the Hillsdale Manu- 
facturing Company, of Hillsdale, Michigan to 
which city he removed, to become superin- 
tendent of the plant. This factory was de- 
stroyed by fire in 1892, and Mr. Munz then 
returned to Detroit, where he made an arrange- 
ment with the Posselius brothers to manufac- 
ture his new patented extension tables, known 
as the Victor" tables. In the connection he 
also contracted with the firm to complete the 
tables himself after the machine-room assem- 
bling of the same. In 1898 he became a stock- 
holder in the Posselius concern, of whose plant 
he was then made superintendent. In the fol 
lowing year he purchased the interest of 
Charies Singelyn, president of the company 
and assumed the office of president of the cor- 
poration. This position he has since retained 
and under his discriminating direction and ad- 
ministrative policy the business has advanced 
by leaps and bounds until it has become one of 
the leading enterprises of the kind in the state 
as may be seen by reference to the article 
descriptive of the same. In 1905 Mr. Munz 
gave further evidence of his fine inventive 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



597 



ability by perfecting and patenting a machine 
for the automatic reproduction of wood-grain- 
ing. This machine met with instant favor and 
is now utihzed by the principal furniture man- 
ufactories in all sections of the Union. Mr. 
Munz is untiring in his devotion to business, is 
progressive in his ideas, a strong executive and 
a man of impregnable integrity of purpose, so 
that he has gained a secure place in the business 
circles of the city in which he has gained so 
marked success. 

In politics Mr. Munz gives his allegiance to 
the Republican party, but in local affairs he is 
not dominated by partisanship but gives his 
support to the men and measures meeting the 
approval of his judgment. He is a member of 
the Detroit Board of Commerce and the Fel- 
lowcraft Club, and both he and his wife are 
communicants of St. Anne's Catholic church. 
In the year 1892 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Munz to Miss Anna C. Stucky, 
daughter of George Stucky, of Detroit, and 
they have two sons,— Elmer, who was born in 
1894, and Harold, who was born in 1898. 



ROBERT M. MORTON. 



A representative business man of the 
younger generation in Detroit is Robert M. 
Morton, who is president of the Morton 
Baking & Manufacturing Company, elsewhere 
mentioned in this publication. He is the eldest 
of the children of Robert Morton, who was the 
founder of the company mentioned and who 
is made the subject of a specific sketch on 
other pages of this volume. 

Robert M. Morton takes justifiable pride in 
the fact that he is a native son of Brooklyn, 
New York, where he was born on the 21st of 
January, 1869. He was afforded the advan- 
tages of the pubHc schools of Detroit and was 
graduated in the old Capitol high school. In 
1888 he was graduated in the Goldsmith Busi- 
ness College, where he completed a thorough 
commercial course. From the time of leaving 
school Mr. Monon has been closely associated 
with his father in business. He first became 



a clerk in the retail store of the Morton Baking 
Company, at 75 Grand River avenue, and he 
continued to be thus engaged until 1890, when 
he became booldceeper at the manufacturing 
plant of the company. He was soon after- 
ward promoted to the office of assistant man- 
ager of the business, and in 1894 he was made 
vice-president of the company, to the success 
of whose business he has contributed in large 
measure. In February, 1908, he became presi- 
dent of the company, which office he now 
holds. He is a progressive, reliable and ag- 
gressive young business man and is thoroughly 
loyal to the city which has been his home from 
boyhood. He is a Republican in his political 
allegiance; he and his wife hold membership 
in the First Congregational church; he is af- 
filiated with Ashlar Lodge, No. 91, Free & 
Accepted Masons ; and is an enthusiastic mem- 
ber of the Detroit Golf Club. His city home 
is located at 174 Stanley avenue, and he has 
an attractive summer home at Topinabee, on 
Mullet lake, in Cheboygan county, Michigan. 
On the 29th of July, 1890, Mr. Morton was 
united in marriage to Miss Matie B. Ruthruff, 
daughter of William Ruthruff, a representative 
farmer of Greenfield township, Wayne county, 
and they have three children, namely : Marion 
R., who is a member of the class of 1909 in 
the Central high school; Helene D., who is 
attending the Central high school ; and Doug- 
las, who is a student in the McKinley school. 



PHILIP KLING. 

It is a satisfaction to the publishers to be 
able to incorporate in this work a brief review 
of the career of this venerable and honored 
pioneer citizen, who has maintained his home 
in Detroit for a long period of years, who has 
done well his part in furthering the industrial 
and civic development of the city and who is 
now living retired, enjoying the rewards of 
his former years of toil and endeavor. He 
figures as the founder of the Philip Kling 
Brewing Company, of which specific mention 
is made in this volume. 



598 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



There is no country in Europe that has not 
given some of its best and strongest men to 
help in building up our great American re- 
public, and in this sense the United States 
may well be compared to a crucible of conti- 
nental dimensions. By the melting and fusing 
together of elements of different nationalities 
the American nation was formed, and it is a 
well recognized fact that from no source has 
the republic gained a more valuable element 
to enter into the complex social fabric than that 
derived from the great empire of Germany. 
The subject of this sketch stands as one of the 
sterling German-American citizens of the 
Michigan metropolis, where he has lived and 
labored to goodly ends, resolute in purpose, 
indomitable in energy, and impregnable in per- 
sonal and business integrity. Philip Kling 
was born at Kehl. kingdom of Baden, Ger- 
many, in 1818. He was afforded the advan- 
tages of the excellent schools of his native 
land, where he was reared to maturity and 
where m his youth he learned the cooper's 
trade, becoming a thoroughly skilled artisan 
in the same. In 1836, at the age of twenty 
years, like many another young man of the 
German fatherland, he severed the home ties 
and set forth to seek his fortune in America. 
He remained for some time in the east and 
found employment at his trade in various lo- 
calities. In 1850 he came to Michigan and 
became a resident of Detroit,— a city in which 
he was destined to attain much of success and 
prestige in his chosen field of endeavor. Soon 
after his arrival in Detroit Mr. Kling estab- 
lished a modest cooperage business, near the 
corner of Gratiot avenue and Hastings street 
and through his trade he laid the foundation 
for his later business success. In 1856 he en- 
gaged in the brewing business, establishing his 
plant on the site of the fine brewery which now 
bears his name, and he individually conducted 
the enterprise for many years, as is noted in 
the article descriptive of the business, which 
was eventually incorporated under title of the 
Philip Kling Brewing Company. Practically 
the entire stock of the corporation is retained 



by members of the Kling family. During his 
active business career Mr. Kling made judi- 
cious investments in local realty, and through 
the appreciation in the value of these proper- 
ties, many of which he personally improved, 
he gained large financial returns. He is still a 
large owner of very valuable improved real 
estate in Detroit. Since 1899 he has lived 
essentially retired from active business, and 
though he has reached a patriarchal age he is 
still mentally alert and takes a lively interest 
in business affairs and in the events and ques- 
tions of the hour. 



JACOB KOLB. 

A successful business man and highly hon- 
ored citizen of Detroit is Jacob Kolb, who has 
long been engaged in dealing in horses in this 
city and who is now president of the Kolb- 
Gotfredson Horse Company, a review of whose 
establishment and operations is given else- 
where in this volume. 

Mr. Kolb was born in Detroit, on the 8th 
of February, 1859, and is a son of Jacob and 
Isabella (Mitchell) Kolb. His father was a 
native of Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany, where 
he was reared and educated and whence he 
immigrated to America in 1855. Soon after 
his arrival he came to Detroit, where he es- 
tablished his permanent home. Here he en- 
gaged in the buying and shipping of cattle, 
and his operations extended into a large por- 
tion of Michigan as well as into the province 
of Ontario, Canada. He also became a suc- 
cessful dealer in horses and was the founder 
of the business of which the subject of this 
sketch is now the executive head. Jacob Kolb, 
Sr., retired from active business in 1895 and 
continued to reside in Detroit until his death, 
which occurred in 1905. He was a man of 
sterling integrity of character, was aggressive 
and enterprising in business and was success- 
ful in his operations. He was loyal to the land 
of his adoption and fully appreciative of its 
institutions. His political support was given 
to the Democratic party. Isabella Mitchell 
was a native of Edinborough, Scotland, and 



I 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



599 



her marriage to Mr. Kolb was solemnized in 
Detroit, where she died in 1882. Of the chil- 
dren of this union four are living. 

Jacob Kolb, Jr., the immediate subject of 
this review, is indebted to the public schools of 
Detroit for his early educational training, and 
practically his entire business career has been 
one of close identification with the line of en- 
terprise in which he is now concerned. When 
about eighteen years of age he entered the 
employ of Joseph H. Bushor, horse dealer, and 
in 1878 he formed a partnership in the same 
line of business with Mr. Bushor. Thereafter 
Mr. Kolb was alone in business about ten years, 
and then was associated with George Cox for 
two years, at the expiration of which he as- 
sumed full control of the business, which, 
under his effective direction and supervision, 
has been developed into the most extensive and 
important of the kind in the middle west. The 
enterprise has wide ramifications and calls to 
Detroit many buyers from distant points. For 
further details concerning the business refer- 
ence may be made to the article descriptive 
thereof. Mr. Kolb is progressive as a citizen 
and as a man of business, and his success has 
been in harmony with the able efforts which 
he has put forth. In politics he gives his 
allegiance to the Democratic party, but he has 
never been active in public affairs. He is a 
member of Detroit Lodge, No. 34, Benevolent 
& Protective Order of Elks, and he enjoys 
distinctive popularity in the city which has 
ever been his home. 

On the nth of January, 1881, Mr. Kolb 
was united in marriage to Miss Mary Lorent, 
daughter of Nicholas Lorent, of Detroit, and 
they became the parents of three children,— 
Jacob A., Mary Clara, and Matilda Catherine. 
Jacob A. Kolb, the only son, was born on the 
26th of November, 1881, and his death oc- 
curred on the nth of July, 1907. He was a 
graduate of Assumption College, at Sandwich, 
Ontario, and was a young man of sterling 
character, gaining and retaining the confidence 
and high regard of all with whom he came m 
contact. He was associated with his father 



in business at the time of his death. Mary 
Clara, the elder of the two daughters, is now 
the wife of Benjamin Gotfredson, secretary 
and treasurer of the Kolb-Gotfredson Horse 
Company, and the younger daughter remains 
at the attractive family home, at 51 Canfield 
avenue, west. 



WALTER N. BAKER. 

On other pages of this volume, in a depart- 
ment devoted to representative industrial and 
commercial concerns of the city of Detroit 
and the county of Wayne, specific description 
is given of the Hargreaves Manufacturing 
Company, of which Mr. Baker is treasurer, 
and to said article reference should be made 
for further information in regard to the busi- 
ness associations of the subject of the brief 
sketch here entered. 

Mr. Baker is a native of the smallest of the 
commonwealths of the American Union, but 
this fact has in no sense militated against his 
capacity for large affairs, and he is recog- 
nized as one of the progressive and represen- 
tative business men of the younger generation 
in Detroit. He was born in the city of Provi- 
dence, Rhode Island, on the 21st of August, 
1866, and is a son of Charles and Emily C. 
(Yates) Baker. Both families were founded 
in America in the colonial epoch. When Wal- 
ter N. Baker was but one year old his father 
died and his widowed mother then came to 
Detroit, in 1867, joining relatives in this city, 
where she still maintains her home. 

The subject of this review is indebted to the 
public schools of Detroit for his early educa- 
tional discipline, which was effectively supple- 
mented by a course in the Goldsmith Business 
Colleo-e of this city. In 1884. when eighteen 
years^'o'f age, Mr. Baker initiated his business 
career by securing a position in the establish- 
ment of Ducharme, Fletcher & Company, 
wholesale hardware dealers, being first em- 
ployed in the office of the company and later 
in the stock department. In 1888, when but 
twentv-two years of age, he engaged in busi- 



600 



ness on his own account, by opening a retail 
hardware store at the corner of Fort street 
west and Clark avenue. This enterprise he 
brought to a point of most successful opera- 
tion and he conducted the same, under the title 
of the Baker Hardware Company, until April 
1896, when he sold the stock and business and 
purchased an interest in the Hargreaves Manu- 
factunng Company, with whose affairs he at 
once identified himself, first assuming the po- 
sition of bill clerk and remaining incumbent of 
this ofifice until 1902. In the meanwhile he 
had exercised other executive functions, and 
in the year mentioned he was elected to his 
present ofifice of treasurer, in which he has 
since had supervision of the finances, the cor- 
respondence and the purchasing department 
of the concern, proving a most discriminating 
and capable administrative officer. 

Mr. Baker is aligned as a supporter of the 
principles and policies of the Republican party 
but has never been active in the domain of 
practical politics. He is a member of Pales- 
tine Lodge, No. 357, Free & Accepted Masons • 
Monroe Chapter, No. i. Royal Arch Masons' 

r^Zt ^°^^'' ^°- ^°3, Independent Orde; 
of Odd Fellows; and is identified with the De 
troit Young Men's Christian Association, the 
Detroit Athletic Club, the Rushmere Club, and 
the Detroit Motor Boat Club. He is distinc- 
tively popular in business and social circles 
and still clings to a life of celibacy 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



WILLIAM V. MOORE. 

William V. Moore occupies a prominent 
place at the bar of his native city and is 
well upholding the professional and civic pres- 
tige of his honored father, the late William A 
Moore, a memoir of whom appears in this 
volume, so that a review of the family history 
IS not required at this juncture. 

In the city of Detroit William V. Moore 
was ushered into the world on the 3d of De- 
cember, 1856, and here he has maintained his 
home thus far throughout his life. After dulv 
availing himself of the advantages of the pub- 



lic schools of Detroit he was matriculated in 
his fathers cherished alma mater, the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, in which he was graduated 
as a member of the class of 1878, receiving 
the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the same 
year he began the study of law under the 
able preceptorship of his father, and finally 
he entered the law department of the Boston 

1880 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws 
Shortly after his graduation Mr. Moore was 
admitted to the bar of his native state, in 
Detroit, where he a once entered upon the 
active work of his chosen profession, in which 
he was continuously associated in practice with 
his father until the death of the latter He 
was thus originally with the firm of Moore & 
Canfield, which was succeeded by that of W 

tt.f 7'Z ^'°''' ^'"'^^ '■" *"™ ^^^^ place 
to that of Moore & Goff. The latter continued 
until 1905, when the present firm of Moore 
Standart & Drake was formed. 

Mr. Moore has devoted his attention prin- 
cipally to corporation law and is attorney for 
leading banks and insurance companies He 
>s well fortified for the work of his profession 
and IS one of the leading corporation lawyers 
of Detroit, where his firm controls a large and 
representative business. 

Mr. Moore is a stockholder and director 
and general counsel of the Wayne County 
Savings Bank and the Detroit Fire & Marine 
Insurance Company. He is vice-president of 
the No-^hern Engineering Works and has 
ot. • .:.,purtant capitalistic interests, many of 
which were largely promoted by his father 
In politics he gives his support to the Demo- 
cratic party, but public office has never offered 
sufficient allurement to cause him to become a 
candidate for the same. He was a member 
of the board of education from 1885 to 1889 
and during the last two years was president 
of that body. He has been a member of the 
fire commission of the city since 1905 In 
1896 he was delegate from the first district of 
Michigan to the national Democratic conven- 
tion at Chicago. He succeeded his father as a 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



601 



trustee of the Woodward Avenue Baptist 
church. 

June 28, 1883, Mr. Moore was united in 
marriage to Miss Jennie C. Andrews, who was 
born and reared in Michigan, and they have 
two children, — WiUiam V. H. and Mary. 



WILLIAM M. PINCK. 

He whose name initiates this paragraph is 
numbered among the progressive and alert 
business men who are giving and have given 
so distinctive impetus to the industrial ad- 
vancement of the Michigan metropolis, and 
the success which he has achieved through his 
own energy and ability is best evidenced in the 
scope and importance of the enterprise at 
whose head he stands. He is president of the 
corporation known as W. M. Finck & Com- 
pany, and as adequate description of this con- 
cern is given in another department of this 
publication it is not necessary to review the 
same in further detail at this juncture. 

Mr. Finck is a native of the old Empire 
state of the Union, having been born in Lyons, 
Wayne county, New York, on the 25th of 
June, 1854. Further information concerning 
the family history may be found on other pages 
of this work, in the sketch of the life of his 
brother, Leon C. Finck, with the Detroit es- 
tablishment of Parke, Davis & Company. Mr. 
Finck secured his early educational discipline 
in the school conducted by his father at Wol- 
cott. New York, to which place his parents 
removed when he was about eight years old, 
and later he continued his studies in the public 
schools of Syracuse, New York. He had in 
the meanwhile initiated his business career, 
since at the age of but twelve years he became 
a cash boy in the dry-goods establishment of 
Milton Price, of Syracuse, New York, and 
later he served as messenger for the Western 
Union Telegraph Company, in the same city. 
When sixteen years of age he secured the po- 
sition of train boy on the New York Central 
Railroad, making the run from Syracuse to 
Rochester. In 1870 Mr. Finck came to De- 
troit, and here he secured employment in the 



same line of service, on the Detroit & Mil- 
waukee Railroad. In this connection he trav- 
ersed the route between Detroit and Grand 
Haven. In 1878 he returned to New York 
state and located in Penn Yan, where he as- 
sumed a clerkship in the clothing store of his 
uncle, Charles Fitzsimmons, who was also one 
of the pioneer manufacturers of overalls. 
After a brief interval Mr. Finck was given 
charge of the overall manufactory, and he 
there gained excellent training in the manu- 
facturing of high-grade goods in the line which 
he eventually advanced to so marked prece- 
dence : the institution of which he is now presi- 
dent is one of the leading manufacturers of 
overalls and kindred products to be found in 
the entire Union. The enterprise conducted 
by his uncle grew rapidly and the manufac- 
turing quarters proved inadequate, while it was 
also difficult to secure the required number of 
employes. In view of these conditions the 
business was removed to Detroit in 1885, "'' 
which year Mr. Finck was admitted to part- 
nership with his uncle, under the firm name 
of Fitzsimmons & Finck. The original factory 
in this city was established in the building of 
the old Detroit Stamping Company, on Cham- 
plain street, and the firm was the first to insti- 
tute the manufacturing of high-grade overalls 
in Michigan. The high standard established 
at the time has been maintained by W. M. 
Finck & Company, and it is worthy of special 
note that at the present time Detroit leads all 
other cities in the United States in this line, 
since here are manufactured fully fifty per 
cent, of all high-grade overalls made in the 
country. In conserving this prestige, it is 
scarcely necessary to say, the Finck factory lias 
been the dominating force. From the begin- 
ning of the operations of the firm of Fitzsim- 
mons & Finck sales were made almost en- 
tirely on approval of goods, as merchants were 
somewhat loath to introduce goods of so high 
grade and of prices advanced above those for 
the greatly inferior products. They had been 
accustomed to handling goods ranging in price 
from four to five dollars a dozen, and with the 



602 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



improved workmanship and superior materials 
of the Fitzsimmons & Finck products prices 
ranged from eight to nine dollars a dozen. 
That the latter products made their value and 
economy apparent is evident from the fact that 
the demand has been constantly cumulative 
from the time of introduction and has resulted 
in the upbuilding of an industry of magnificent 
scope and importance. The original quarters 
secured in Detroit soon proved entirely inade- 
quate to accommodate the constantly expand- 
ing business, and in 1886 Fitzsimmons & Finck 
purchased of the late Daniel Scotten two lots 
of ground near Dix road, on Twenty-fourth 
street. On this land was erected a frame fac- 
tory building one story in height and seventy- 
five by one hundred feet in dimensions. Opera- 
tions were instituted in this factory with a 
force of only twenty-five hands. In 1891 Mr. 
Finck withdrew from the firm and associated 
himself with Hamilton Carhartt, forming the 
firm of Hamilton Carhartt & Company. From 
1891 until 1902 Mr. Finck had direct charge 
of the manufacturing department of the busi- 
ness of Hamilton Carhartt & Company and in 
the latter year he retired from the firm to effect 
the organization of the present corporation of 
W. M. Finck & Company, in which his asso- 
ciate from the start has been James L. Lee. 
From the review of the history of the concern 
on other pages of this volume may be gained 
an idea as to the wonderful growth of the 
enterprise within the few intervening years. 
Mr. Finck is essentially loyal and public-spir- 
ited as a citizen, is far-sighted and aggressive 
as a business man and has won a success of 
which he may well be proud. He is an appre- 
ciative member of the Detroit Board of Com- 
merce, is a Republican in politics and is identi- 
fied with the Society of Colonial Wars and the 
Michigan Society of the Sons of the American 
Revolution. 

In the year 1897 was celebrated the mar- 
riage of Mr. Finck to Miss Katherine Rheiner, 
daughter of Edward Rheiner, of Dayton, 
Ohio. Mr. Rheiner was a native of France. 
Mr. and Mrs. Finck have no children. 



A. ARTHUR CAILLE. 

A native son of Detroit who has here at- 
tained to a position of distinctive prominence 
as one of the most aggressive and successful 
young business men of the state, is A. Arthur 
Caille, president and general manager of the 
Caille Brothers Company, the most extensive 
manufacturers of coin-controlling machines in 
the world. A brief review of the history of 
the company is incorporated on other pages of 
this volume, and to the article in question ref- 
erence may be made for information definitely 
supplemental to this sketch of the career of the 
head of the concern. 

Mr. Caille was born in Detroit on the ist 
of April, 1867, and is a son of Joseph M. and 
Catherine (Moret) Caille. The father was a 
native of Switzerland, having been born in 
one of the French-speaking cantons of that fair 
little republic, where he was reared and edu- 
cated and where he learned the trade of cabi- 
netmaker. In 1 85 1 he came to America and 
took up his residence in Detroit, where he en- 
gaged in the work of his trade. Finally he 
established himself in the retail furniture busi- 
ness on Gratiot avenue, where he continued 
operations for a term of years, after which he 
removed to Owosso and later to Saginaw, this 
state, where he continued in the same line of 
enterprise. He retired from active business 
in 1897 and the closing years of his long and 
useful life were passed in Detroit, where he 
died in 1907, at tlie age of seventy-six years. 
His wife was born in Switzerland and her 
death occurred in 1885. Of their children 
three are living, — Adolph A. and A. Arthur, 
who are interested principals in the Caille 
Brothers Company, and Louise M., who is the 
wife of Robert C. Yates, identified with the 
operation of machines of the same company. 
The father was a Republican in his political 
proclivities and both he and his wife were 
members of the Saint Anne church. 

A. Arthur Caille was about ten years of age 
at the time of the family removal to Owosso 
and Saginaw, in whose public schools he se- 
cured his early educational discipline. In 1883 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



603 



he entered upon an apprenticeship at the wood- 
working trade, under the effective direction of 
his father, and he early evinced that distinctive 
mechanical skill and inventive ability which 
have been the prime conservators of his re- 
markable success in the field of independent 
manufacturing. He was the inventor of the 
modern cash-carrier system for use in mercan- 
tile establishments, having secured patents on 
his invention in 1889 ^^^ having instituted the 
manufacture of the same in the same year. 
His invention met with ready approval and the 
Caille system was by him installed in leading 
stores in all sections of the Union. In 1893 
he brought out his first patents in the coin- 
controlling slot machines, and in the placing 
of the same he was successful from the start. 
From this beginning has been evolved the gi- 
gantic industrial enterprise of which he is now 
the executive head and principal stockholder. 
The original factory was at Saginaw, from 
which city he removed his headquarters to De- 
troit in 1895. Here operations have since been 
continued and the plant of the company is the 
largest of its kind in the world. In 1906 Mr. 
Caille also became interested in the conducting 
of theaters devoted to vaudeville and moving 
pictures, and in this line also has his success 
been most pronounced. In the enterprise he 
is associated with J. H. Kunsky, under the 
firm name of The Casino Company, and the 
firm now controls a series of well equipped 
theaters in Detroit, Toledo and other cities. 

In politics Mr. Caille maintains an inde- 
pendent attitude, and in a fraternal way he is 
identified with Detroit Lodge, No. 34, Benevo- 
lent & Protective Order of Elks, of which he 
is a life member. He is also an enthusiastic 
member of the Detroit Yacht Club and takes 
much interest in nautical affairs. 



ness men of the Michigan metropolis. He was 
born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
on the 1 6th of September, 1878, and is a son 
of Samuel W. and Ellen Ida (Weeks) Callan. 
He was afforded the advantages of the excel- 
lent public schools of his native city and those 
of Detroit, after which he was matriculated in 
the University of Michigan, in which he was 
graduated as a member of the class of 1900, 
with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Later he 
was for one year a student in the law depart- 
ment of the university. In 1902 Mr. Callan 
was in the employ of the American Bicycle 
Company, having charge of the southern ter- 
ritory of the same, and later he was connected 
with the sales department of the American 
Hominy Company. In 1903 he was elected 
to his present office of secretary of the New- 
ton Beef Company, and he has since handled 
the ofifice affairs of the concern with marked 
ability and discrimination. He is a member 
of the University Club and the Detroit Coun- 
try Club, being popular in both business and 
social circles, and his political allegiance is 
given to the Republican party. 



WILLIAM CALLAN. 

The subject of this review is secretary of the 
Newton Beef Company, of which specific men- 
tion is made on other pages of this work, and 
is one of the clean-cut, aggressive young busi- 



DAVID MEGINNITY. 

The real-estate business in Detroit has an 
able and prominent representative in the sub- 
ject of this sketch, who is a native of this city 
and who retired from the office of collector of 
internal revenue for this district in August, 
1908. 

In Detroit, on the 3d of September, 1861, 
David Meginnity was born, being a son of 
Robert and Elizabeth (Hanna) Meginnity. the 
former of whom was born in the north of 
Ireland and the latter in Detroit. Robert 
Meginnity devoted the major portion of his 
active business career to the manufacturing of 
smoking tobacco in Detroit, where his father- 
in-law, John Hanna, was one of the pioneers 
in this line of industry, having been at the 
head of the old and well known firm of Hanna 
& Company. Robert Meginnity was a citizen 
of worth and influence and in 1869 he repre- 



604 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



sented the fifth ward of the city on the board 
of aldermen. He continued to reside in De- 
troit until his deatli, which occurred on the 
4th of July, 1875, and his venerable widow 
still maintains her home here. Of their chil- 
dren six are living,— three sons and three 
daughters. 

David Meginnity, the immediate subject of 
this review, duly availed himself of the ad- 
vantages of the schools of Detroit, and in 1879. 
at the age of eighteen years, he entered the 
employ of Lindsay & Gamble, lumber mer- 
chants, with whom he remained for a period 
of eight years, at the expiration of which, in 
1887, lie engaged in the wholesale lumber 
business on his own responsibility. In 1890 
he retired from this enterprise and engaged in 
the real-estate business, in which he has since 
continued most successfully. He has assisted 
m openmg a number of now important streets 
in the city and has built up a large and im- 
portant business in the handling of both im- 
proved and unimproved realty. In 1903 he 
was appointed to the office of collector of 
mternal revenue, of which he remained in- 
cumbent until August IS, 1908. He is an 
mterested principal in the firm of Blakeslee & 
Company, an instalment house, on Grand River 
avenue. 

In politics Mr. Meginnity has long been an 
active and valued worker in the cause of the 
Republican party. He was the prime or- 
ganizer of the Alger Club and served for some 
time as its president. In 1893 Governor Rich 
conferred upon him appointment to member- 
ship on the board of jury commissioners of 
Wayne county, which office he retained for a 
term of six years. In 1895-6 he was secretary 
of the Michigan League of Republican Clubs 
and in the latter year he was elected a delegate 
to the Republican national convention, being 
the youngest representative of Michigan in that 
body. 

_ On the 9th of September, 1890, Mr. Me-in- 
nity was united in marriage to Miss Grace'' A 
Graves, who was born and reared in Detroit 
being a daughter of Henry A. Graves, a rep- 



resentative citizen. The children of this union 
are: David, Jr., Norman K., Blanche G 
Henry G., and Robert. 



GEORGE D. MASON. 

Mr. Mason ranks as one of the representa- 
tive architects of the Union, and his labors in 
his profession have transcended local limita- 
tions, so that his reputation is on a parity with 
his splendid accomplishments in his chosen 
field of endeavor. He has had an experience 
of more than a quarter of a century in his pro- 
fession and the practical results of his work are 
seen in some of the best modern buildings in 
Detroit. 

Mr. Mason was born in the city of Syra- 
cuse, New York, on the 4th of July, 1856. and 
is a son of James H. and Zada E. (Griffin) 
Mason, natives of Syracuse, New York. They 
came to Detroit in 1870 and here the father 
was engaged in manufacturing for a number 
of years. Both are now deceased. The sub- 
ject of this sketch was reared to the age of 
fourteen years in his native city, duly availing 
himself of the advantages of its public schools, 
and he then came with his parents to Detroit,' 
where he continued his studies until he com- 
pleted the curriculum of the high school, in 
Avhich he was graduated as a member of the 
class of 1873. After leaving school he studied 
the art and science of architecture under the 
able preceptorship of the late Henry T. Brush, 
of Detroit, making rapid advancement in his 
technical learning and the power of applying 
the same in a practical way. In 1878 he 
formed a professional partnership with Zacha- 
riah Rice, under the firm name of Mason & 
Rice, and they continued to be associated in 
business as architects until 1898, since which 
time Mr. Mason has been engaged in the work 
of his profession in an individual way. In the 
year 1884 he made a tour of several months 
in Europe, devoting special attention to the 
study of architecture in its best forms in the 
various lands included in his itinerary, and 
having visited England, France, Germany, 
Italy and other countries. To further fortify 



I 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



605 



himself for the work of his profession he took 
a special and exacting course in higher mathe- 
matics a number of years ago. He is identified 
with the American Institute of Architects, be- 
ing one of the valued members of the Michi- 
gan chapter of this body. It is needless to 
enter into details as to the results accomplished 
by Mr. Mason farther than to call to the at- 
tention of those in the least familiar with mod- 
ern Detroit the fact that he planned and su- 
pervised the erection of following splendid 
structures, which are but a very few of those 
which stand as monuments to his skill : The 
Masonic Temple, the First Presbyterian 
church, Trinity Episcopal church, the Detroit 
Opera House and the magnificent Hotel Pont- 
chartrain, opened for business in the autumn 
of 1907. He also designed and erected the 
office building for the firm of Hiram Walker 
& Sons, the great distillers and manufacturers 
of Walkerville, Ontario. 

In politics Mr. Mason is a staunch adherent 
of the Democratic party but has never been an 
aspirant for public office, though he consented 
to serve as a member of the first board of 
building inspectors in Detroit, being incumbent 
of this office for one year. He is a Freemason 
of high rank, having completed the circle of 
the Scottish Rite, in which he has attained to 
the thirty-second degree. He also holds mem- 
bership in the Detroit Club, the Witenagemote 
Club and other social or semi-business organi- 
zations in his home city. 

In 1882 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Mason to Miss Ida Whitaker, daughter of the 
late Captain Byron Whitaker, of Detroit, a 
memoir of whom is given in this work. Mr. 
and Mrs. Mason have one daughter, Lillian. 



JOHN GILLESPIE. 

As general manager of the Detroit Regalia 
Company, in which he is a stockholder and of 
which mention is made on other pages of this 
volume, Mr. Gillespie is to be designated as 
one of the representative young business men 
of Detroit, of whose attractions as a place of 



residence and as a manufacturing and dis- 
tributing center he is deeply appreciative. 

In a section of the old Bay state which was 
made famous through the long-time residence 
of that erratic genius, the late Horace Greeley, 
the subject of this sketch was born, the place 
of his nativity having been Chicopee, Mas- 
sachusetts, where he was ushered into the 
world on the 3d of November, 1877. He is a 
son of George and Agnes (Adams) Gillespie, 
both of whom were natives of Scotland. When 
he was but a lad his father died. Mr. Gillespie 
was afforded the advantages of the public 
schools of his native village and early became 
dependent upon his own resources. At the age 
of thirteen years he secured a position in the 
office of the Ames Sword Company, at Chico- 
pee, Massachusetts, with which concern he 
continued to be identified until 1900, having 
gained a thorough knowledge of the business, 
including swords and general lines of regalia, 
and having risen to a position of distinctive 
trust and responsibility. In the year last men- 
tioned Mr. Gillespie came to Detroit and con- 
nected himself with the Armstrong Regalia 
Company, by which he was employed as a 
salesman until 1903, when he effected the or- 
ganization of the Detroit Regalia Company. 
In 1904 he consolidated the same with the 
Morgan, Puhl & Morris Company, and became 
general manager of the business. After the 
fire, which did great damage to the company, 
in March, 1907, a reorganization took place 
and the Detroit Regalia Company was incor- 
porated, with officers as noted in the article 
descriptive of the same. Mr. Gillespie has 
continued as general manager and it is in large 
measure due to his technical knowledge and 
his executive ability that tlie company has 
gained precedence as the third largest of the 
sort in the United States. 

Mr. Gillespie is a staunch Republican in his 
political proclivities, is an enthusiastic mem- 
ber of the Detroit Board of Commerce and is 
identified with the Fellowcraft Club and the 
Detroit Motor Boat Club. He has risen to 
liio-h degree in the Masonic fraternity, being 



606 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



identified with Michigan Sovereign Consist- 
ory of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Da- 
mascus Commandeiy, Knights Templars,' and 
Moslem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He also holds 
membership in the Knights of Pythias, the 
Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khora'ssan, 
and both the lodge and encampment of the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he 
is a colonel of the Patriarchs Militant. Mr. 
Gillespie is not married. 



EPHRAIM B. EASTER. 

Mr. Easter is auditor and credit manager 
of the Detroit Creamery Company, of which 
noteworthy concern an adequate description 
IS given on other pages of this volume, and 
his entire business career has been one of close 
identification with the line of enterprise which 
now engages the major portion of his time 
and attention. He is recognized as one of the 
alert and liberal young business men of De- 
troit, where he enjoys unqualified personal 
esteem and popularity. 

Mr. Easter was born in Greenfield township, 
Wayne county, Michigan, on the 20th of De- 
cember, 1872, and is a son of Alfred and 
Susan Cox (Brown) Easter. His father re- 
mains in active service as executive head of 
the Detroit Creameiy Company and was the 
founder of the business. After duly availing 
hmiself of the advantages of the public schools 
of Detroit, Ephraim B. Easter supplemented 
this traming by entering the Detroit Business 
University, in which he completed a thorough 
course and was graduated as a member of the 
class of 1888. He forthwith entered the em- 
ploy of his father, who had long been estab- 
lished in the dairy business in Detroit. In the 
following year the subject of this sketch was 
admitted to partnership in the business and 
the firm name of A. Easter & Son was then 
adopted. The son assumed charge of the of- 
fice, accounts, collections and correspondence, 
and upon the incorporation of the Detroit 
Creamery Company, in 1900, he became audi- 



■ tor and credit manager, of which dual office 
he has since continued the efficient incumbent 
He is represented by a large holding of the 
stock of the company and its affairs engross 
the greater part of his time, for the business 
of the concern is most extensive, as may be 
seen by reference to the article descriptive of 
the same. Mr. Easter is also a stockholder in 
the Detroit & Buffalo Steamboat Company. 

The political views of Mr. Easter are indi- 
cated by his allegiance to the Republican party, 
and 111 a fraternal way he is prominently iden- 
tified with the time-honored Masonic order, 
m which he has risen to advanced degrees in 
the Scottish Rite. His Masonic affiliations 
are as follows: City of the Straits Lodge 
Free & Accepted Masons, of Detroit, Michi- 
gan ; King Cyrus Chapter, No. 133, Royal 
Arch Masons, Detroit; Damascus Command- 
ery, No. 42, Knights Templar, Detroit; Buf- 
falo Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish 
Rite, Buffalo, New York; and Moslem Tem- 
ple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of 
the Mystic Shrine, Detroit. He has held 
various offices in the several Masonic bodies 
and IS distinctively popular in the circles of 
the fraternity, being the first worshipful mas- 
ter of the blue lodge above mentioned. He 
and his wife are members of the Central 
Methodist church of Detroit. 

In 1902 Mr. Easter was united in marriage 
to Miss Mabel E. Fargo, daughter of the late 
Perry Fargo, of Erie, Pennsylvania, and a 
niece of James T. Fargo, treasurer of the 
American Express Company. 



CHARLES A. STRELINGER. 

As president and general manager of the 
Charles A. Strelinger Companv. of which he 
was the founder, the subject of this review is 
recognized as a representative business man 
of Detroit, and the success and prestige which 
he has gained are the more gratifying to con- 
template in an incidental way from the fact 
that he is a native son of the citv in which he 
has made this advancement. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



607 



The Charles A. Strelinger Company dates 
its inception back to the year 1884, when Mr. 
Strehnger initiated business upon a somewhat 
modest scale, in a building on the corner of 
Woodward avenue and Larned street. He 
brought to bear excellent business experience, 
marked energy and progressive ideas, so that 
the success of the enterprise was cumulative 
and it eventually attained to such proportions 
as to demand wider facilities. He conducted 
the business individually until 1897, when the 
present stock company was organized, being 
incorporated under the laws of the state with 
a capital stock of one hundred thousand dol- 
lars, which was later increased to its present 
fi^^,i-e,_one hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars. The company does a general wholesale 
and retail business in the handling of all kinds 
of tools, machinery and mechanics' supplies, 
and the concern now ranks as one of the fore- 
most of the kind in the United States, con- 
trolling a large and substantial trade and hav- 
ing unrivaled facilities. The headquarters of 
the company are established at Bates and Con- 
gress streets, where about forty thousand 
square feet of floor space are utilized. 

Charles A. Strelinger was born in Detroit, 
on the 4th of May, 1856, and is a son of Julian 
and Bertha (Schultz) Strelinger, both of 
whom were born in Austria. The father was 
reared and educated in his native land, where 
he remained until 1848, when he came to 
America, taking up his residence in Detroit in 
the same year. For some time he was here 
engaged in the manufacturing of vinegar and 
later he became identified with other lines of 
enterprise, including the ownership and opera- 
tion of a brewery. He continued to reside in 
Detroit until 1897, when he removed to Chi- 
cago, where he passed the remainder of his 
life. He died in that city in 1906, at the ven- 
erable age of eighty-three years. 

The subject of this sketch was reared and 
educated in Detroit, where he was afforded the 
advantages of the public schools, and his first 
business experience was as errand boy in the 
hardware establishment of Glover & Powell, 



with which concern he remained until T. B. 
Rayl & Company succeeded them, in 1875. 
after which he remained with the latter con- 
cern until 1884. He was advanced to a po- 
sition of distinctive responsibility and gained 
an intimate knowledge of all details of the 
business, so that he was well fortified for the 
successful management of his own allied en- 
terprise, which he founded at the expiration 
of that period, or in 1884, as has already been 
stated. He was also one of the founders of 
the Leland & Faulconer Company, later 
merged with the Cadillac Motor Car Com- 
pany, and was secretary and treasurer of the 
company for a number of years. 

Though never an active factor in the arena 
of practical politics, Mr. Strelinger at all times 
manifests a loyal interest in public affairs of a 
local nature and observes his civic duties by 
exercising his franchise in support of the prin- 
ciples and policies of the Republican party. 
He is a member of the Board of Commerce 
and the Detroit and Boylston Clubs, and both 
he and his wife are members of Westminster 
Presbyterian church, of which he is a trustee. 
On the 1 6th of September, 1884, he mar- 
ried Miss Mary Penfield, a daughter of Willis- 
ton S. Penfield, of Detroit, and they have two 
sons,— Gilbert Penfield and Seth Williston. 



WILLIAM L, CASWELL. 

Through technical ability and distinctive ad- 
ministrative talent Mr. Caswell has exerted a 
most potent influence in building up one of the 
successful industrial enterprises of Detroit, — 
that conducted by the Peninsular Milled Screw 
Company, concerning which detailed record is 
made on other pages of this publication. He 
is vice-president of the company and general 
manager of its manufactory, being recognized 
as one of the alert and progressive business 
men of the Michigan metropolis. 

Reverting to the nativity of William L. Cas- 
well, it is to be noted that he was born in the 
city of Rochester, New York, on the 22d of 
December, 1854. He is a son of Joseph and 



608 



DETROIT AND WAYNE CX)UNTY 



Emma (Lang) Caswell, both of whom were 
likewise born in the old Empire state of the 
Union, where they were reared to maturity 
and where the father became a prosperous 
farmer and cattle-raiser. He later followed 
the same vocation in Perth county, province 
of Ontario, Canada, whither he removed 
when the subject of this sketch was about 
twenty years of age. 

William L. Caswell, the immediate subject 
of this sketch, secured his early educational 
discipline in the public schools of Mitchell and 
Stratford, Ontario, and in 1870, at the age of 
sixteen years, he entered upon an apprentice- 
ship to the machinist's trade, in Mitchell. He 
made good use of the opportunities afforded 
and in due time became a skilled artisan in 
the trade mentioned, serving a full apprentice- 
ship of four years. As a journeyman ma- 
chinist he was employed by the firm of Thomp- 
son & Williams, of Stratford, Ontario, from 
1877 until 1879; this concern was engaged 
in general mill work and in building locomo- 
tives. In 1879 Mr. Caswell took up his resi- 
dence in Detroit, where he entered the employ 
of William Rodda, who conducted a general 
machine shop at the corner of Antoine and At- 
water streets. He remained thus engaged 
until 1 88 1, when he secured a position in the 
shops of the Detroit Locomotive Works, but 
before the close of that year he became a 
machinist in the E. T. Barnum Wire Works, 
another of the representative industrial con- 
cerns of Detroit. In 1885 Mr. Caswell secured 
a responsible position in the Detroit Screw 
Works, and before the close of the year he was 
promoted to the foremanship of the machine 
shop. In 1887 still further recognition and ap- 
preciation of his ability and fidelity were given, 
since he was then made general superintendent 
of the plant, of which office he remained in- 
cumbent until 1901, when he became one of 
the organizers of the Peninsular Milled Screw 
Company, which was incorporated in Jan- 
uary of the following year and of which he has 
been vice-president since the reorganization, 
in 1903. From the inception of the business 



he has had charge of the practical details of 
manufacturing, and his wide experience and 
splendid technical knowledge of mechanics 
have been effective agencies in conserving the 
upbuilding of a flourishing and substantial en- 
terprise, as the article descriptive of the com- 
pany clearly indicates. Mr. Caswell has in- 
vented many valuable mechanical devices and 
special machinery used in the manufacture of 
screws, and the plant of the Peninsular Milled 
Screw Company has in service many such ma- 
chines and accessories perfected by him. He 
also devised and constructed much of the ma- 
chinery used in the Detroit plant of the Ameri- 
can Radiator Company, which likewise is made 
the subject of special mention in this volume. 
He has gained no little prestige as an inventor 
and mechanician and is well known in local 
manufacturing circles. 

In politics Mr. Caswell is found aligned as 
a supporter of the principles and policies for 
which the Republican party stands sponsor, 
and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with Zion 
Lodge, No. I, Free & Accepted Masons. 

In 1884 was solemnized the marriage of Mr, 
Caswell to Miss Amelia S. Saenger, who was 
born and reared in Detroit, being a daughter 
of Ernest S. Saenger, who is a native of Ger- 
many and who has been for many years a resi- 
dent of Detroit, where he is still living and 
where he followed the vocation of bookbinder 
for fifty years. Mr. and Mrs. Caswell have 
no children. 



JERE C. HUTCHINS. 

In the matter of public utilities Detroit can 
justly claim to possess essentially metropolitan 
facilities, and of these those afforded by the 
Detroit United Railway easily take precedence 
of all others. The fine modem system is one 
that will compare more than favorably with 
those of other cities throughout the Union, and 
the full appreciation of the efficiency of the 
service can be understood only by those who 
have been able to make comparison between the 
same and those employed in other cities of the 
same class and of even far greater population. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



609 



In the present connection it is not demanded 
that detailed mention be made of this system, 
including the best of modern provisions, both 
urban and interurban, for on other pages of 
this volume is given a review of the history of 
the controlling company and its operations. 
At the head of this great corporation stands 
one whose administrative and directing pow- 
ers have proven equal to every emergency and 
contingency, and his generalship has done 
much to further the growth and material pros- 
perity of Detroit and to offer to its citizens 
the present admirable facilities for transpor- 
tation within and without the gates of the 
fair "City of the Straits." The executive head 
of the Detroit United Railway Company is 
Jere C. Hutchins, and it is but consonant that 
in this publication be entered a brief review of 

his career. 

Mr. Hutchins was born in Carroll parish, 
Louisiana, on the 13th of October, 1853. and 
is a son of Anthony W. and Mary B. (Cham- 
berlin) Hutchins, the former of whom was 
born in Mississippi, of stanch old Southern 
stock, and the latter of whom was a native 
of the state of Pennsylvania. The father was 
a successful planter in Louisiana for many 
years, and there he continued to reside until 
about 1853, when he removed with his family 
to Lexington, Missouri, where he continued 
in the same Hne of enterprise. 

Jere C. Hutchins was afforded the advan- 
tages of the public schools of Lexington, Mis- 
souri, and thereafter he continued his higher 
academic studies under the direction of a pri- 
vate tutor. At the age of seventeen years he 
began the study of civil engineering, under the 
direction of Major Morris, one of the leading 
civil engineers of Missouri, and he bent his 
energies to gaining a thorough knowledge of 
the technical and practical details of this pro- 
fession in which he was destined to gain a 
high reputation. He assisted in the construc- 
tion work on the Missouri division of the Gulf 
& Lexington Railroad and was later connected 
with engineering work on the Kansas Pacific, 
the Kansas & Texas, and the Texas Pacific 



Railroads, for each of which he Served as con- 
struction engineer. 

In 1876 Mr. Hutchins removed froai Mis- 
souri to Waco, Texas, and there he made a 
diametrical change in his vocation, by becom- 
ing a member of the reportorial staff of the 
Waco Examiner, of which he later became 
editor. He also acted as political correspondent 
in Texas for New York and New Orleans pa- 
pers, and he proved distinctively versatile and 
successful in the field of practical journalism. 
In 1881 Mr. Hutchins again identified himself 
with the work of his profession, and for the 
ensuing thirteen years he continued to be en- 
gaged in railroad engineering work. He was 
connected in turn with the New Orleans & 
Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the 
Louisville, New Orleans & Texas, and the Il- 
linois Central Railroads. 

In 1894, at the expiration of the period 
noted above, Mr. Hutchins came to Detroit, 
where he became vice-president of the Citi- 
zens' Street Railway Company, in which he 
had become a large stockholder. He also be- 
came president of the Detroit, Fort Wayne & 
Belle Isle Railway Company, and vice-presi- 
dent of the Detroit Electric Railway Company. 
These three companies represented at the time 
the principal street-railway interests of De- 
troit. In his executive capacities Mr. Hutch- 
ins did much to inaugurate improvements in 
facilities and service, and his policy has ever 
been of the most progressive order, yet tinc- 
tured with due conservatism. Upon the con- 
solidation of the various street-railway inter- 
ests of the city, coincident with the organiza- 
tion of the Detroit United Railway company, 
in 1 901, Mr. Hutchins was elected vice-presi- 
dent of the company, and in January, 1902, he 
was chosen president, an office which he has 
since continued to fill and one in which he 
has accomplished a great work in extending 
and perfecting the complex system controlled 
by the company and duly noted in the article 
specifically descriptive of the same. He has 
been animated by distinctive public spirit and 
has done all in his power to conserve the in- 



610 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



terests of the stockholders of the company, 
while advocating liberaHty in all extension and 
equipment work. The citizens of Detroit and 
other points touched by the system have a full 
appreciation of the facilities afforded, and ad- 
verse criticism can come only from those 
moved by political motives or lack of knowl- 
edge. 

Mr. Hutchins has never had aught of am- 
bition for public office of any order. He is a 
member of the Detroit Board of Commerce 
and is in full sympathy with its high civic 
ideals. He is identified with leading clubs of 
Detroit, is a member of the American Society 
of Civil Engineers, and is affiliated with the 
Knights of Pythias and the Masonic fraternity, 
in which latter he has completed the circle of 
the Scottish Rite. He is a member of Detroit 
Commandery, No. i. Knights Templar, in 
Detroit. 

In April, 1881, Mr. Hutchins was united in 
marriage to Miss Anna M. Brooks, of Waco, 
Texas, and she was summoned to the life eter- 
nal in July, 1900. In June, 1903, Mr. Hutch- 
ins wedded Miss Sarah H. Russel, daughter of 
the late Dr. George B. Russel, of Detroit, to 
whom a memorial tribute is dedicated in this 
publication. 



DANIEL T. McNIEL. 

As president of the Detroit Steel Pulley 
Company, of which adequate description is 
given in the industrial and commercial depart- 
ment of this publication, Mr. McNiel is num- 
bered among the representative business men 
who are pushing forward the wheels of prog, 
ress in the Michigan metropolis and bringing 
to the city ever increasing prestige as a metro- 
politan distributing center. 

Mr. McNiel is a native of the state of In- 
diana, having been born in the city of Logans- 
port, Cass county, on the 7th of December, 
1847, and being a son of Daniel and Penina 
(Stumbaugh) McNiel. Daniel McNiel was 
bom in the state of Virginia, whence he re- 
moved to Indiana and became one of the pio- 
neers of Cass county, where he took up his 



residence about the year 1825 and where he 
died in 1848, when the subject of this sketch 
was less than a year of age. The father re- 
claimed a farm from the virgin forest and was 
one of the prominent and influential citizens of 
the pioneer community. 

Daniel T. McNiel gained his early education 
in the public schools of Logansport and Ko- 
komo, Indiana, in the high school of which 
latter city he completed a thorough course. 
From 1866 until 1 871 he was a successful and 
popular teacher in the district schools of his 
native state, and he then secured employment 
in the Logansport office of the freight depart- 
ment of the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago 
Railroad, now a part of the Lake Erie & 
Western system. Later he was employed in 
the general freight office of the same road, in 
Indianapolis, where he remained until 1875, 
when he became associated with Nathaniel 
Bell and leased the gas plant in the city of 
Kokomo. He had charge of the plant and 
business until 1885, when he engaged in the 
hardware business in the same city. In 1887 
he became one of the stockholders in the Reeves 
Pulley Company, of Columbus, Indiana, of 
which he was a traveling representative for 
seventeen years. In 1897 he was elected vice- 
president of the company, of which office he 
has since remained incumbent. The trade of 
this representative concern extends throughout 
the United States, Canada and Mexico, and 
also into all of the leading countries of Europe. 
In 1904 Mr. McNiel came to Detroit, where 
he effected the organization of the Detroit 
Steel Pulley Company, of which he has been 
president from the time of its incorporation. 
Of his connection with this company, the 
largest of the sort in the world, due informa- 
tion is given in the aforementioned article de- 
scriptive of the same. For many years he 
represented the Reeves Pulley Company in the 
Manufacturers' National Association. 

In politics Mr. McNiel gives his allegiance 
to the Republican party, as do also his sons, 
and both he and his wife hold membership in 
the First Presbyterian church. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



611 



In October, 1879, Mr. McNiel was united 
in marriage to Miss Sarah Pickett, whose 
father, Nathan Pickett, now eighty-nine years 
of age (1908), has for many years been presi- 
dent of the Howard National Bank, of Ko- 
komo, Indiana. From 1895 until 1904 Mr. 
and Mrs. McNiel resided in the city of Ann 
Arbor, where their sons were attending the 
University of Michigan. They have two sons, 
—Paul C. and Walter C. 

Paul C. McNiel was born in Kokomo, In- 
diana, on the 8th of March, 1883, and after 
completing the curriculum of the public schools, 
including a course in the Ann Arbor high 
school, he entered the literary department of 
the University of Michigan, where he remained 
a student during the years 1902-3. He then 
assisted his father in the organizing and in- 
corporating of the Detroit Steel Pulley Com- 
pany, of which he has been secretary and 
treasurer from its inception. He has proven 
himself a discriminating and progressive young 
business man, and enjoys marked popularity 
in the social circles of his home city. He is 
identified with the Detroit Golf Club and is a 
member of the First Presbyterian church. 

Walter C. McNiel was born at Kokomo, 
Indiana, on the 30th of July, 1881, and is like- 
wise a stockholder in the Detroit Steel Pulley 
Company. After leaving the public schools he 
continued his academic studies in the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, and in 1905 he was grad- 
uated in the law department of this great in- 
stitution, from which he received his degree 
of Bachelor of Laws. He is now following 
the work of his profession in Detroit, where 
he is connected with the law office of the well 
known firm of Kenna, Lightner & Oxtoby. 



JAMES L. LEE. 

It is one of the principal functions of this 
publication to give recognition to those com- 
mercial and industrial enterprises which stand 
as indices of the pre-eminence of Detroit as 
a manufacturing and distributing center and 
also to make brief record concerning the lives 



and labors of those citizens who have contrib- 
uted to or are assisting in the upbuilding of 
the "Greater Detroit." Based upon such 
premises, there is eminent propriety in ac- 
cording consideration to the progressive busi- 
ness man and loyal citizen whose name heads 
this article and who is vice-president of W. 
M. Finck & Company, manufacturers of over- 
alls, working jackets, suits, etc. A descrip- 
tion of the company and its business appears 
in this volume and further review is redundant. 
Mr. Lee was born in the village of Brigh- 
ton, Livingston county, Michigan, on the 25th 
of July, 1859, and is a son of James B. and 
Samantha (Chadwick) Lee, both of whom 
were born and reared in Penn Yan, New 
York, in which state the Lee family was 
founded in the early pioneer epoch. Thomas 
Lee, great-grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch, was born at Fishkill, New York, No- 
vember 15, 1739, and died January 22, 1814. 
He rendered gallant service in behalf of the 
cause of independence, having risen to the 
rank of colonel in the Revolutionary war, in 
which he served with marked distinction. His 
son James, grandfather of him whose name 
initiates this article, was born in 1780 and 
died in 1868, at Penn Yan, New York. James 
B. Lee came to Michigan in the early '50s 
and became one of the prominent and influen- 
tial citizens of Brighton, where he was en- 
gaged in the general merchandise business for 
many years. He and his wife are now living 
in Detroit. 

The subject of this sketch was given the ad- 
vantages of the public schools of his native 
town, and there initiated his business career as 
clerk'in his father's store. In 1876, at the age 
of seventeen years, he came to Detroit, where 
he entered the employ of James Nail & Com- 
pany, dealers in carpets, remaining with this 
concern about one year and then taking a po- 
sition in the stock room of the wholesale dry- 
goods house of Charles Rott & Company. He 
was soon promoted to the sales department, 
in which he made so excellent a record 
that in 1878 he was given a position represent- 



612 



DETEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ing the house as a traveling salesman. In this 
capacity he still farther proved his value, as he 
in 1880-81 surpassed all other salesmen of the 
house in the volume of business secured. He 
was the first representative of his concern to 
introduce its goods in Ohio territory, where he 
met with distinctive success, his efforts in this 
connection constituting practically the wedga 
- which opened Ohio trade to the various whole- 
. sale dry-goods houses of Detroit. In 1884 Mr. 
Lee was promoted to the responsible position 
of general house salesman, and soon afterward 
he also became one of the buyers for his house. 
In 1888 he was admitted to partnership in the 
business, and shortly afterward Charles Rott, 
the head of the concern, died, whereupon the 
firm of Strong, Lee & Company was organized, 
as successors of the old firm. With Mr. Lee 
was associated in this new organization Will- 
iam H. Strong, and they continued operations 
under the title noted until 1893, when the stock 
and business were sold to the firm of Burnham, 
Stoepel & Company. 

As will be noted by reference to the article 
descriptive of the business of W. M. Finck & 
Company, Mr. Lee has been identified with 
the concern, in the capacity of vice-president, 
from the time of its incorporation, and his thor- 
ough business experience, his energy and his 
progressive ideas have been potent factors in 
the upbuilding of the fine business controlled 
by the concern. 

Mr. Lee is a staunch Republican in his po- 
litical proclivities, but has never sought the 
honors of emoluments of public office. He is 
an active and valued member of the Detroit 
Board of Commerce, is identified with the De- 
troit Club, the Detroit Boat Club and the 
Country Club, and is affiliated with Oriental 
Lodge, No. 240, Free & Accepted Masons. He 
and his wife hold membership in Westminster 
Presbyterian church. 

On the 2Sth of November, 1879, was solem- 
nized the marriage of Mr. Lee to Miss Mary 
F. Lawson, daughter of Benjamin J. H. Law- 
son, M. D., a prominent physician and sur- 



geon of Brighton, Michigan, and they have 
three children,— Edna M., Fannie L., and 
Howard B. 



CHRISTIAN LEIDICH, 

Of the various steamship agencies in De- 
troit the most important and far-reaching is 
that conducted by Mr. Leidich, who has gained 
distmctive prestige in his chosen line of effort 
and who controls a large and representative 
busmess: his offices are located at 174 Gris- 
wold street. He makes bookings for all the 
principal ocean steamship lines, as well as those 
of the Great Lakes, and his knowledge of the 
business is fortified by extensive personal travel 
and long and intimate experience. He is an 
official ticket agent for the Detroit & Cleveland 
Steam Navigation Company and the Detroit & 
Buffalo Steamboat Company; his connection 
with ocean lines is such that he is able to offer 
his patrons the most approved service and in- 
formation, providing passports and selling 
travelers' checks and drafts, payable every- 
where, while he also has the best of provisions 
in the issuing of accident insurance policies. He 
is Michigan representative of the famous De- 
Potter tours in the Old World, of which he was 
formerly tourist director. He is authorized 
agent for the following named ocean lines: 
Hamburg-American, North German Lloyd, 
French (Transatlantique), White Star, Amer- 
ican, Atlantic Transport, Red Star, Dominion, 
Leyland Cunard, Allan, Canadian Pacific Rail- 
way steamship lines. Anchor, Italian Royal 
Mail, La Veloce, Italian Lloyd, Fabre, Scandi- 
navian-American, Austro-American, and oth- 
ers. Mr. Leidich is Michigan passenger and 
ticket agent for the Ward Line, to Cuba, Nas- 
sau and Mexico ; is a ticket agent for the two 
lake lines previously mentioned, and also for 
the White Star, Anchor, Northern Navigation, 
Northern Steamship, and Star Cole lines, of 
the Great Lakes system. He represents all pas- 
senger lines to the West Indies, South Amer- 
ica, Egypt, Africa, Mediterranean and the Pa- 
cific ocean; and in addition to the DePot- 
ter tours he also represents the Clark, the Ray- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



613 



mond & Whitcomb, and the Collver tours and 
the Hapag cruises. All information offered by 
Mr. Leidich is reliable, because it is based on 
many years' experience in foreign travel. He 
is a member of the law firm of Leidich & Kos- 
cinski, which makes a specialty of attending to 
all legal matters relevant to the probate of es- 
tates, collections, settlement of estates in for- 
eign coimtries, military matters, etc. 

Christian Leidich was bom in Giessen, Hes- 
sen. Germany, on the 19th of January, 1868, 
and is a son of Christian and Elizabeth (Lei- 
dich) Leidich. Though his parents bore the 
same name before marriage they were of differ- 
ent family lines. The father, who was a mer- 
chant tailor, died when the subject of this re- 
view was but five years of age, and the mother 
is still living in Germany. Mr. Leidich re- 
ceived his educational discipline in the excellent 
schools of his native land, and was graduated 
in Giessen Friedberg College as a member of 
the class of 1888. In the following year he 
came to America, for the purpose of visiting 
relatives in New York city. He was so favor- 
ably impressed with America and its institu- 
tions that he decided to remain in this country, 
and he became secretary and professor of the 
German language in the Gastineau School of 
Languages, in New York city ; this institution 
is a well known and ably conducted collegiate 
preparatory school for boys. Mr. Leidich was 
connected with the institution from 1889 to 
1893, in which latter year he became director 
and manager of the DePotter tours, to which 
reference has already been made. He estab- 
lished an office in the city of Paris, and as tour- 
ist director delivered lectures on point of his- 
toric, scenic and artistic interest. In 1899 he 
returned to America and took up his residence 
in Detroit, the former home of his wife, and 
here, at the urgent importunity of the leading 
New York steamship offices, he opened his 
present agency, which he has developed along 
normal lines until it takes precedence of all 
others in the state. In 1902 Mr. Leidich com- 
pleted a course in the Detroit College of Law, 
from which he received the degree of Bachelor 



of Laws, and he was forthwith admitted to the 
bar of the state. In the law department of his 
business he is associated with Leopold A. Kos- 
cinski, under the firm name of Leidich & Kos- 
cinski. He is a member of the Wayne County 
Bar Association, is non-partisan in his polit- 
ical views, is a member of the Detroit Board of 
Commerce, and holds membership in the De- 
troit Transportation Club, the Fellowcraft 
Club, the Harmonic Society and other social 
organizations of representative order. He is 
a cultured musician and an able linguist, speak- 
ing several languages. While a resident of 
New York city he was conductor of several 
German singing societies of prominence, and 
he still maintains a deep and appreciative inter- 
est in musical affairs. On the 30th of Septem- 
ber, 1897, Mr. Leidich was united in marriage 
to Miss Olga C. Dohmstreich, daughter of the 
late Louis F. Dohmstreich, of Detroit, where 
he died in 1887. 

ALBERT B. LYONS, M. D. 

Among the distinguished representatives of 
the medical profession in Detroit Dr. Lyons is 
numbered, and he is well known in professional 
and scientific circles in the Union. He is at 
the present time incumbent of the position of 
supervising chemist and secretary of the exten- 
sive pharmaceutical manufacturing house of 
Nelson, Baker & Company, of Detroit. 

Dr. Lyons is a native of the Hawaiian 
Islands, where he was born on the ist of Aprd, 
1841, a son of Lorenzo and Lucia (Smith) 
Lyons, both of whom were natives of the state 
of Massachusetts and both of whom were early 
missionaries in the Hawaiian Islands. Lor- 
enzo Lyons was a valued member of the Amer- 
ican Board of Foreign Missions and was as- 
signed to service on the islands mentioned, in 
1830. He there continued his labors for many 
years and there his death occurred in 1886, 
his wife also having died there. Their mar- 
riage was solemnized on the islands, whither 
Mrs. Lyons had gone as a missionary, hav- 
ing previously been a missionary among the 
Indians in New York state. 



614 



DETEOIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



In the schools of his native place Dr. Lyons 
secured his early educational discipline, and he 
prosecuted his studies for some time in Oahua 
College, in Honolulu. Upon leaving that in- 
stitution he was matriculated in Williams Col- 
lege, Massachusetts, where he was graduated 
in 1865, with the degree of bachelor of arts. 
In 1868 he was graduated in the medical de- 
partment of the University of Michigan, from 
which he received his degree of Doctor of 
Medicine. The doctor has attained to distinc- 
tion in the more purely scientific phases of his 
profession and has long maintained a high rep- 
utation as a chemist. For a period of twelve 
years he was professor of chemistry in the De- 
troit Medical College. In 1881 he became con- 
sulting chemist for the extensive pharmaceuti- 
cal concern of Parke, Davis & Company, of De- 
troit, retaining this incumbency until 1887. For 
two years he was editor of the Pharmaceutical 
Era. 

In 1888 Dr. Lyons was appointed govern- 
ment chemist for the Hawaiian islands, serv- 
ing in this capacity until 1895, and also being 
professor of chemistry in Oahua College, where 
he also taught physics. While in Hawaii he 
made a special study of volcanic soils, making 
valuable contributions to the American Jour- 
nal of Science and also important contribu- 
tions to the geological history of the islands. 
For two weeks in 1895 the doctor was a mem- 
ber of the citizens' guard of Honolulu. In 
1897 he returned to the United States and took 
up his residence in Detroit, where he has since 
had charge of the chemical department of the 
laboratories of Nelson, Baker & Company. 

In 1900 Dr. Lyons was chosen one of the 
committee of twenty-five for the decennial re- 
vision of theUnited States Pharmacopoeia, the 
work being completed in 1906. He was also 
an assistant editor of the nineteenth edition of 
the United States Dispensatory. In 1887 the 
doctor published a manual of pharmaceutical 
assaying, and this he issued in revised edition 
twelve years later, the same being entitled 
"Practical Assaying of Drugs and Galenical 
Preparations." He has also contributed scien- 



tific articles of much value to various medical 
and pharmaceutical journals. He has also 
compiled a very complete history of the Lyons 
families of America. The doctor is a member 
of the American Medical Association, the 
American Pharmaceutical Association, the 
American Chemical Society and various other 
professional and scientific organizations. He 
is a member of the First Congregational church 
of Detroit, and is a deacon in the same, as was 
he formerly of the church of this denomination 
in Honolulu. His political allegiance is given 
to the Republican party. 

In the city of Detroit, in 1878, was solem- 
nized the marriage of Dr. Lyons to Miss Edith 
Malvina Eddy, a daughter of Rev. Dr. Zachary 
Eddy, who was a prominent clergyman of De- 
troit and who was a descendant of John Alden 
and Miles Standish, of colonial fame. Dr. 
Lyons has two children. Miss Lucia E. Lyons, 
who is a missionary of the American Board in 
China, located at Pang Chuang; and Bert E. 
Lyons, graduate of the University of Michi- 
gan (A. B. ), and post-graduate student in 
Har\'ard University. 



KONRAD E. KOPPITZ. 

In a department devoted more specifically to 
a consideration of the representative industrial 
concerns of the city of Detroit the pages of 
this work contain a brief review of the his- 
tory of the Koppitz-Melchers Brewing Com- 
pany, of which Mr. Koppitz is president, and 
to the article in question the reader is referred 
for details concerning the enterprise. Mr. 
Koppitz is one of the representative business 
men and popular citizens of Detroit, where he 
has attained to definite success and precedence 
through his own well directed efforts, and he 
is known as an authority in all details of the 
industry with which he is now so prominently 
identified. 

Mr. Koppitz was born in Nieder Hillersdorf, 
Schlesien, Austria, on the i8th of March, 
1854, and is a scion of one of the old estab- 
lished families of that section of Austria. He 
is indebted to the excellent schools of his na- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



615 



tive land for his early educational training, 
and in 1868 he went to Yanowitz-Mahren, 
Austria, where he entered upon an appren- 
ticeship at the brewer's trade, serving three 
years and familiarizing himself with all de- 
tails of the business and the technical scien- 
tific principles involved. From 1871 until 1873 
he was employed at his trade in the beautiful 
old city of Vienna, and in the latter year he 
severed the ties which bound him to home and 
fatherland and set forth to seek his fortunes in 
America, having been nineteen years of age 
at the time. Soon after his arrival in the port 
of New York he made his way to Chicago, 
where he remained about three years, within 
which interval he was in the employ of lead- 
ing brewing concerns of the western metropo- 
lis, including those of Bemis & McAvoy and 
P. Schoenhofen. In the centennial year of 
our national independence, 1876, Mr. Kop- 
pitz removed to the city of Philadelphia, where 
the Centennial exposition was in progress, and 
there he secured a position in the brewery of 
Bergdoll & Psotta. Within the same year he 
went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he re- 
mained for a short time, and he passed the 
winter of 1876-7 in Belleville, Illinois. Dur- 
ing the greater portion of the following year 
he was again in the employ of the Schoenhofen 
brewery, in Chicago, resigning his position in 
the fall of 1878 and going to Worms, Ger- 
many, where he became a student in the famous 
school for brewers, greatly amplifying his 
scientific and practical knowledge of the brew- 
ing business and being graduated as a mem- 
ber of the class of 1879. He holds a diploma 
from this institution, recognized as one of the 
best in the world. Soon after his graduation 
Mr. Koppitz returned to Chicago, where he 
secured a responsible position in the brewing 
department of the McAvoy Brewing Com- 
pany, then, as now, one of the largest in that 
city. After a few weeks he was promoted to 
the position of first cellar man, in which ca- 
pacity he continued to be employed until 1884, 
when he resigned, to accept the position of 
brewmaster for the Stroh Brewing Company, 



of Detroit. With this well known company 
he remained as a valued and popular employe 
until December i, 1890, when he resigned to 
engage in an independent business venture 
along the line to which he had been so thor- 
oughly trained. At this time he became one 
of the organizers and incorporators of the 
Koppitz-Melchers Brewing Company, of 
which he became vice-president and general 
manager of the manufacturing department. 
He still retains his general superintendency 
and since April, 1907, he has been president 
of the company, whose distinctive success has 
been in a great degree due to his ability both 
in a technical and administrative way. Mr. 
Koppitz is a charter member of the United 
States Brew Masters' Association, and was 
first treasurer of the same, taking a deep in- 
terest in the work and conferences of the or- 
ganization. He is a member of the American 
Insurance Union and is affiliated with Schiller 
Lodge, No. 263, Free & Accepted Masons. 
He and his wife hold membership in St. Mat- 
thew's church, a German-Lutheran parish. 

On the 3d of May, 1881, Mr. Koppitz was 
united in marriage to Miss Emilie Esche, a 
daughter of Albert Esche, who was at the 
time engaged in the retail meat business in 
Chicago, and they have three children. 



WILLIAM R. KALES. 

One of the talented mechanical engineers 
and progressive young business men of De- 
troit is Mr. Kales, who is vice-president and 
engineer of the Whitehead & Kales Iron 
Works, of which mention is made on other 
pages of this work. 

Mr. Kales is a native of the city of Chi- 
cago, where he was born on the 8th of August, 
1870, being a son of Francis H. and Ellen 
(Davis) Kales, the former of whom died in 
1883 and the latter in 1882. The father was 
a prominent lawyer. The subject of this re- 
view prosecuted his studies in a preparatory 
school at Exeter, New Hampshire, and after 
leaving the same he entered the Massachusetts 



616 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Institute of Technology, in Boston, from 
which institution he was graduated as a me- 
chanical engineer in the spring of 1892. He 
was for three years engaged in engine de- 
signing and erecting and in 1895 became a 
member of the corps of designing engineers 
in the works of the Brown Hoisting Machinery 
Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, with which im- 
portant concern he remained four years, gain- 
ing valuable experience in the technical and 
practical work of his chosen profession. 

In 1899 Mr. Kales came to Detroit, where 
he became associated with James T. Whitehead 
in the organization of the firm of Whitehead 
& Kales, of which the Whitehead & Kales 
Iron Works represents the immediate succes- 
sor. Concerning the upbuilding of this suc- 
cessful industrial institution adequate data are 
given in the article descriptive of the same, 
and in the connection can readily be under- 
stood the strong influence which Mr. Kales 
has wielded in bringing the company up to its 
present high standard and pronounced success. 
Mr. Kales is identified with the Detroit 
Board of Commerce and the Detroit public- 
lighting commission. He also holds member- 
ship in the University Club, Detroit Boat Club, 
Detroit Engineering Society and the American 
Society of Mechanical Engineers. 

On the ist of October, 1895, Mr. Kales 
was united in marriage to Miss Alice Gray, 
daughter of the late John S. Gray, who was a 
member of the firm of Gray, Toynton & Fox, 
one of the representative wholesale concerns 
of Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Kales have two 
children, — Margaret and Robert Gray. 



JOSEPH BOYER. 

No slight distinction is that appertaining to 
Mr. Boyer through his executive connection 
with one of the greatest industrial enterprises 
of Detroit, and it is further to his credit that 
this industry was secured to the city primarily 
through his influence and efforts. He is dis- 
tinctively one of the representative "captains 
of industry" in the Michigan metropolis, a 



firm believer in the larger and greater Detroit, 
and a citizen of unalloyed progressiveness and 
public spirit. He is president of the Bur- 
roughs Adding Machine Company, of which 
splendid concern adequate mention is made on 
other pages of this volume, and to the article 
in question reference should be made for in- 
formation definitely supplemental to that of 
fered in the review at hand. 

Mr. Boyer was born on a farm about thirty 
miles east of the city of Toronto, Canada, on 
the 19th of September, 1848, and is a son of 
David and Modlany (Brown) Boyer, both of 
whom were likewise natives of the dominion 
of Canada, where they passed their entire lives 
and where the father followed the vocation of 
farming. 

Joseph Boyer was reared to maturity in his 
native province and is indebted to its common 
schools for his early educational training. At 
the age of eighteen years he entered upon an 
apprenticeship to the machinist's trade, in the 
town of Oshawa, Ontario, and in due course 
of time he became a thoroughly skilled artisan. 
He continued to follow the work of his trade 
in Canada until 1869, when, shortly after at- 
taining to his legal majority, he came over 
to the United States. He made his way to 
California, where he arrived about two weeks 
after the completion of the Union Pacific 
Railroad to the western coast, — an accom- 
plishment which was celebrated with great and 
prolonged enthusiasm in the Golden state. He 
remained in San Francisco for a few months 
and then returned eastward as far as St. Louis, 
Missouri, where he eventually became the 
owner of a little machine shop, on Dickson 
street. It is worthy of record that in this 
little shop, through the kindness and consid- 
eration of the owner, it was made possible for 
William S. Burroughs, who was then in prac- 
tically indigent circumstances, to prosecute the 
experimentation which eventuated in the Bur- 
roughs adding machine as manufactured to- 
day. It is also significant that Mr. Boyer has 
been able to reap just profits from his asso- 
ciation with an enterprise built up on this 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



617 



great invention of his old-time friend, to whom 
he rendered material assistance while the lat- 
ter was struggling to perfect his valuable and 
unique mechanism. 

Mr. Boyer succeeded in building up a suc- 
cessful business in St. Louis, where he formed 
the Boyer Machine Company and continued 
to reside until 1900, when he came to Detroit. 
He had personally perfected the invention of 
various and superior types of pneumatic tools, 
and it was for the purpose of increasing the 
manufacture of these devices that he took up 
his location in Detroit, of whose commercial 
advantages he had become deeply appreciative. 
Under these conditions he was engaged in the 
manufacturing of his patented tools until he 
identified himself with the Burroughs Adding 
Machine Company, as noted in the article de- 
scriptive of the same. He has marked me- 
chanical talent and has gained no equivocal 
prestige as an inventor, but his administrative 
and initiative ability has been the force which 
has brought him to such distinctive prominence 
in the industrial and commercial world. 



PETER N. JACOBSEN. 

As a railway promoter and as an authority 
in the matter of transportation facilities the 
subject of- this sketch has attained to dis- 
tinctive prestige, having been concerned in 
many important ventures in the field of elec- 
tric and steam railway promotion and con- 
struction and having been unequivocally suc- 
cessful. He is essentially a self-made man, 
and none can more worthily bear this proud 
American title than this well known and pro- 
gressive citizen of Detroit. 

Mr. Jacobsen was born in the city of Que- 
bec, Canada, on the 31st of October, 1863, 
and is a son of Peter N. and Catherine (Fitz- 
gerald) Jacobsen, the former of whom was 
born in the picturesque old city of Christiania, 
Norway, and the latter of whom was a native 
of county Kerry, Ireland. In 1874 Peter N. 
Jacobsen, Sr., removed with his family from 
the Dominion of Canada to the city of De- 



troit and thereafter he served continuously as 
immigration agent of the Grand Trunk Rail- 
way, for the Detroit district, until 1887, when 
he permanently retired from active business. 
He was a man of superior intellectual force 
and business ability, and in the office men- 
tioned he accomplished valuable work, having 
been a potent factor in securing the immigra- 
tion and placing of the Scandinavian element 
which has proven so great and worthy a power 
in connection with the development of many 
sections of the west and northwest. A very 
large proportion of the Norwegian, Swedish 
and Danish immigrants who have settled in 
Wisconsin, Minnesota and the more western 
states were brought to America through the 
agency with which Mr. Jacobsen was identi- 
fied and have become respected and useful 
citizens of our republic, of whose advantages 
they are invariably appreciative. Mr. Jacob- 
sen continued to reside in Detroit until his 
death, which occurred on the 25th of April, 
1902. He was never active in political affairs 
or public Hfe, but was a man who gained and 
retained staunch friends in all classes. His 
integrity and honor ever assured him the con- 
fidence and esteem of his fellow men, and he 
was especially popular among his confreres in 
railway circles. His wife is still living and 
also their six children. 

Peter N. Jacobsen, Jr., the immediate sub- 
ject of this review, received his education in 
Assumption College, Sandwich, Ontario, hav- 
ing been about ten years of age at the time of 
the family removal to Detroit, where he was 
reared to manhood and where he has main- 
tained his home during the greater part of the 
intervening period. At the age of seventeen 
years he became office boy for James H. Muir, 
treasurer of the Detroit, Grand Haven & Mil- 
waukee Railroad Company, and through faith- 
ful and effective service he soon won promo- 
tion, being finally, in 1882, advanced to the 
position of assistant chief clerk of the auditing 
department of the railway just mentioned. 
This position he retained until 1885, when he 
resigned the same to accept that of chief clerk 



618 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



in the general freight department of the De- 
troit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Company. 
Upon the death of James H. Henderson, head 
of this department, in 1887, Mr. Jacobsen was 
advanced to the ofifice of freight claim agent, 
and in 1889 he became acting general freight 
agent of the line. The following year his 
headquarters were transferred from Detroit to 
Cleveland, where he maintained his home for 
three years, continuing incumbent of the office 
mentioned. 

While in Cleveland Mr. Jacobsen became in- 
terested in the promotion of a projected elec- 
tric railway from Toledo, Ohio, to Monroe, 
Michigan, and in 1902 he resigned his po- 
sition with the Detroit & Cleveland Steam 
Navigation Company to devote his entire at- 
tention to the interests of the Toledo-Monroe 
line, in which connection he was associated 
with Joseph Ainsworth, Edward Eaton and 
J. N. Beck. Later he found it expedient to 
interest other capitalists in the enterprise, and 
upon the reorganization he secured as his coad- 
jutors Waldo and William C. Johnson, of 
Detroit. Before the promotion of the new 
line had been brought to successful issue an- 
other financial and executive arrangement be- 
came necessary, and Mr. Jacobsen ably met 
the emergency by securing the co-operation 
of Eldredge M. Fowler, Albert E. F. White 
and Clarence Black, representative capitalists 
of Detroit. With these associates he vigor- 
ously pushed forward the work and the road 
was completed in the spring of 1903. 

Mr. Jacobsen next turned his attention and 
energies to effecting the building of the con- 
necting link between Monroe and Detroit. At 
this juncture he enlisted the co-operation of 
Charles W. Hannan, of Boston; Matthew 
Slush, of Mount Clemens, Michigan; and Hon. 
Cornelius J. Rielly, of Detroit, and the line 
was completed to Detroit. The two divisions 
now constitute what is known as the Detroit 
& Toledo Short Line. Mr. Jacobsen was the 
owner of a considerable block of the stock of 
each of the two companies concerned in the 



building of this important line, but he disposed 
of his holdings in the same. 

Long service in connection with the trans- 
portation business made Mr. Jacobsen familiar 
with the needs of the constantly expanding 
manufacturing industries of Detroit in the 
providing of eligible sites for plants, with suit- 
able rail facilities. Under these conditions he 
conceived and formulated the plans for an 
outer-belt line of railway to circle the city, 
and he presented his proposition in such a 
way as to secure the tangible support of such 
leading Detroit capitalists and business men 
as the late Theodore D. Buhl and Joseph H. 
Berry, Charles B. Warren and William B. 
Cady, besides others, and through such sub- 
stantial financial co-operation the noteworthy 
project was brought to successful completion 
in 1907. Thus through the progressive ideas 
and indefatigable efforts of Mr. Jacobsen, De- 
troit gains a system which is certain to bring 
about the development of a large outlying sec- 
tion, which will he built up with manufactur- 
ing plants and comfortable homes. In this 
one connection Mr. Jacobsen merits a place of 
distinction as one of those who have con- 
tributed greatly to the furtherance of the in- 
dustrial supremacy of the new and larger De- 
troit. The completed outer-belt line was sold 
in 1907 to the Michigan Central and Grand 
Trunk Railroad Companies. About one and 
one-half millions of dollars were expended in 
the securing of the right of way and the build- 
ing of the line, which runs from a point at the 
confluence of Conner's creek and the Detroit 
river around the outer circle of the city to a 
point on the same river in Ecorse. At the 
time of this writing, at the opening of the 
year 1908, Mr. Jacobsen is giving his atten- 
tion to the promotion of a union railway sta- 
tion to be located on Woodward avenue at the 
junction of the Michigan Central and Grand 
Trunk tracks, and is also working for the 
definite promotion of the proposed Bay City 
& Port Huron Railroad, a steam road, about 
one hundred and forty-five miles in length. 
His brilliant success in the past augurs well 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



619 



for the future of these two ventures. From 
his youth to the present time Mr. Jacobsen 
has been constantly engaged in or identified 
with the solving of transportation problems, 
and his technical knowledge and his keen dis- 
crimination in the foreseeing of demands in 
this line of undertaking have been demon- 
strated by the high-class financial co-operation 
he has been able to secure in the promotion 
of his several propositions. He is well known 
and highly esteemed in the business circles of 
Detroit and is recognized as one of the reli- 
able and successful promoters of the country. 
Strong and aggressive, and still in the very 
prime of life, his influence is certain to be 
felt in other important fields of promotive 
enterprise. 

In politics Mr. Jacobsen gives his allegiance 
to the Republican party, and he is a communi- 
cant of the Catholic church, being identified 
with the parish of the Church of the Annunci- 
ation. He was one of the organizers of the 
Detroit Wheelmen, and was secretary of this 
association for many years. He was also one 
of those concerned in the organization of the 
Detroit Curling Club, of whose directorate he 
is a member. He is also a director of the De- 
troit Boat Club and takes much interest in 
athletics and sports afield and afloat. Mr. 
Jacobsen is a bachelor. 



JOHN KELSEY. 

One of the progressive business men of the 
city of Detroit is Mr. Kelsey, who is secretary 
and treasurer of the Kelsey-Herbert Company, 
described on other pages of this work, and 
who has through individual effort and ability 
risen to prominence in connection with the 
industrial life of his native city. 

Mr. Kelsey was born in Detroit, on the 15th 
of March, 1867, and is a son of Frank and 
Jessie (Brobyn) Kelsey, natives respectively of 
America and London, England. The parents 
continued to reside in Detroit until their death. 

John Kelsey, the immediate subject of this 
review, was reared to maturity in Detroit, to 



whose public schools he is indebted for the 
educational discipline which he received in his 
youth. He initiated his business career when 
a lad of but fourteen years, entering the em- 
ploy of Barnes Brothers, who were engaged in 
the paper business. In 1887 he became asso- 
ciated with A. V. McClure in the wholesale 
and retail hardwood lumber business, under 
the firm name of McClure & Kelsey, and they 
had their business headquarters at 520 Frank- 
lin street, where they built up a most pros- 
perous enterprise. Mr. Kelsey retired from 
the lumber business in 1900, since which time 
he has given his attention to the affairs of the 
Kelsey-Herbert Company, of which he was 
the virtual founder. He is also president of 
the Detroit Bent Goods Company and the Kel- 
sey Hickory Company, and is vice-president 
of the Fox Brothers Company. 

Mr. Kelsey gives his political support to the 
Republican party and has been an active factor 
in the domain of practical politics. He is iden- 
tified with various fraternal and social organi- 
zations in his native city, takes a specially deep 
interest in athletics and is president of the 
Detroit Athletic Club. 

In the year 1893 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Kelsey to Miss Margarette 
Dallas, of Detroit, and they have one son, 
Dallas Sherrill Kelsey. 



A. MILTON HOLDEN. 

Associated with the firm of Fred S. Osborne 
& Company, stock brokers, Mr. Holden is one 
of the leading representatives of this line of 
enterprise in Detroit, where he is known as a 
progressive and reliable business man. 

Mr. Holden is a scion of old New England 
stock, and the name which he bears became 
identified with the annals of American history 
in the early colonial epoch. He was born at 
Frankfort, Will county, Illinois, on the i6th 
of April, 1857, and is a son of Dr. Newton 
P. and Caroline (Parrish) Holden, the former 
of whom was born in Vermont and the latter 
in the state of New York. Dr. Holden was 



620 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



graduated in Rush Medical College, Chicago, 
as a member of one of its early classes, and 
for many years he was engaged in the practice 
of his profession in Will county, Illinois, 
where he labored faithfully in ministering to 
suffering humanity and where he was loved 
and venerated by all classes of citizens, having 
been a man of prominence and influence in his 
community. He retired from active practice 
in 1880, and continued to reside in Frankfort 
until his death, which occurred in 1902. His 
wife died in 1899, and of their children only 
the one is living. Dr. Holden was a son of 
Phineas H. Holden, who was one of the ster- 
ling pioneers of Will county, Illinois, where 
he took up his residence in 1836, and where he 
became one of the founders of the village of 
Frankfort. 

The subject of this review gained his early 
educational discipline in the public schools of 
his native town and later continued his studies 
in the high school at Englewood, a suburb of 
the city of Chicago. From 1879 to 1882 he 
was employed in a stock-brokerage office in 
Chicago, and thereafter was similarly engaged 
in Jackson, Michigan, until 1885. In the year 
last mentioned Mr. Holden came to Detroit, 
where he formed a partnership with J. K. P. 
Norville and engaged in the stock-brokerage 
business, under the title of J. K. P. Norville & 
Company. With this firm he continued to be 
identified until July, 1890, when he sold his 
interest in the business. Within the same year 
he became a member of the brokerage firm of 
Williams & Holden, in which he was asso- 
ciated with Charles R. Williams until 1900, 
when he retired from the firm. In 1902 he lo- 
cated in Los Angeles, California, where he be- 
came identified with gold-mining enterprises, 
and in 1905 he returned to Detroit and entered 
into his present association with Mr. Osborne. 
The firm has built up a large and substantial 
business in the handling of stocks, bonds and 
other securities, and Mr. Holden gives his per- 
sonal attention largely to the grain and pro- 
vision department. He is a stockholder in the 
Mexican Crude Rubber Company ; the Coahuila 



Mining Company, of Mexico, which is inter- 
ested in the development of the zinc, copper 
and coal deposits of that country ; the Cresson 
Mining Company, of Cripple Creek, Colorado; 
and the Esperanza-Cobalt Mining Company, 
of Detroit, whose properties are located in the 
Cobalt mining district of Canada. 

In politics Mr. Holden maintains an inde- 
pendent attitude, and he is essentially progres- 
sive and public-spirited as a citizen. He is 
identified with the Detroit Golf Club, the 
Bankers' Club, and the Chicago Board of 
Trade and Chicago Mining Exchange. 

On the 30th of June, 1885, Mr. Holden 
was united in marriage to Miss Mary Nick- 
lisson, daughter of Charles Nicklisson. of 
Jackson, Michigan, and her death occurred in 
Los Angeles, California, on the 30th of No- 
vember, 1903. She is survived by three chil- 
dren, namely: Margaret, who is a graduate 
of the Girls' Collegiate School, of Los Ange- 
les, California, and of Mount Vernon Semi- 
nary, Washington, D. C. ; Carolyn, who was 
graduated in the Detroit Home & Day School ; 
and N. Parker, who is now a student in the 
public schools of Detroit. 



AUGUST KLING. 

The subject of this review is one of the rep- 
resentative business men of the younger gen- 
eration in Detroit and is one who has shown 
a distinctive interest in the promotion of all 
interests and projects which make for the up- 
building of the larger and greater industrial 
city. He is the elder of two sons of Philip 
Kling, an honored pioneer of Detroit, and is 
vice-president and general manager of the 
Philip Kling Brewing Company. A descrip- 
tion of the business of this corporation and 
also a sketch of the life of his father are given 
place in this publication, so that a further 
review is not demanded. 

Mr. Kling was born in Detroit in 1872, and 
after completing the curriculum of the public 
schools of his native city he entered the Michi- 
gan Military Academy, at Orchard Lake, in 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



621 



which well ordered institution he was grad- 
uated as a member of the class of 1887. Soon 
after his graduation he was admitted to part- 
nership with his father in the brewing busi- 
ness, and within the same year, 1887, the 
present Philip Kling Brewing Company was 
incorporated under the laws of the state. At 
this time August Kling was elected vice-presi- 
dent, of which office he has since continued 
incumbent, while he has also been general 
manager of the business since the retirement 
of his honored father, in 1899. He has had 
thorough and discriminating training in the 
line of enterprise with which he is identified, 
having learned the practical details of the 
brewing business in his youth, familiarizing 
himself with every department, and also be- 
ing specially disciplined for the responsible 
executive functions which he now so success- 
fully exercises. He is known as one of the 
ambitious and progressive young business men 
of his native city and his well directed efforts 
have exerted much influence in promoting the 
expansion of the enterprise of which he is the 
administrative head, as his mother is now 
president of the company and, as a matter of 
course, only a nominal executive. The sales 
department, in particular, receives his personal 
supervision, and he has greatly increased the 
trade of the concern within the past few years. 
Mr. Kling takes a loyal interest in all that 
concerns his native city. He is a popular and 
appreciative member of the Harmonic Society 
and the Detroit Motor Boat Club, and he 
finds his chief recreation in the latter club and 
the pleasurable sport for which it stands spon- 
sor. He commands the esteem of those who 
know him in both business and social circles, 
and is one of Detroit's representative business 
men. He is a bachelor. 



JERVIS R. HARBECK. 

Mr. Harbeck is treasurer of the Kemiweld 
Can Company, a description of whose unique 
and successful industry appears on other pages 
of this work, and he also has the general man- 
agement of the practical details of manufac- 



turing, besides being the inventor of a number 
of the machines and processes utilized in the 
finely equipped plant. To his ability and ap- 
plication has been in large measure due the 
upbuilding of the enterprise, which is repre- 
sented in the manufacturing of fibre cans and 
boxes for divers purposes, as shown in the 
specific article heretofore mentioned. 

Mr. Harbeck was born in the city of Battle 
Creek, Calhoun county, Michigan, on the 26th 
of March, 1878, being a son of Eugene and 
Emma Grey (Wattles) Harbeck, both of 
whom were born in the state of New York, 
where the respective families were early 
founded. Cornelius Harbeck, grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch, located in Battle 
Creek, Michigan, in an early day, and there 
engaged in the foundry business, doing prin- 
cipally a jobbing trade, and there passing the 
remainder of his life. Eugene Harbeck be- 
came one of the leading fire-insurance agents 
of that section of the state and finally removed 
to Chicago, where from 1885 to 1893 he was 
general manager of the business controlled 
from the Chicago office of the Michigan Fire 
& Marine Insurance Company, of Detroit, 
whose interests he greatly advanced through 
his able and persistent efforts. Later he was 
general manager of the Chicago office of the 
Phoenix Fire Insurance Company, of Brook- 
lyn, New York, and he continued to reside in 
the western metropolis until his death, which 
occurred in 1900. His widow now maintains 
her home in Detroit, Michigan, and of their 
children only one is living. 

Jervis R. Harbeck was afforded the advan- 
tages of the public schools of his native city 
and also those of Detroit, where the family 
resided for some time, and in 1895 he was 
matriculated in the University of Chicago, in 
which he completed a special three years' 
course, devoting his attention principally to 
the study of architectural draughting. He was 
employed at this profession by several well 
known firms of Chicago, and upon the death 
of his father he assumed the management of 
the latter's estate, which included some ex- 



622 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



tensive mining properties, with whose opera- 
tion he is still identified. He is a stockholder 
and director of the Cresson Consolidated Gold 
Mining & Milling Company, whose property 
is one of the three largest producers in the 
famous Cripple Creek district, and he served 
as treasurer and general manager of the com- 
pany from 1900 until 1903, when he resigned 
the offices. He became one of the chief stock- 
holders of the Gem Fibre Package Company, 
of Detroit, at the time of its organization, in 
1902, and was secretary and treasurer of the 
same until February, 1907, when the title was 
changed to the Kemiweld Can Company, the 
capital increased and a partial reorganization 
made. He was retained in the office of treas- 
urer and a secretary was elected, to meet the 
demands of the rapidly expanding business. 
He has, however, in addition to attending to 
the financial affairs of the company, continued 
to serve as general superintendent of the en- 
tire plant, to which he now gives the major 
portion of his time and attention. He is one 
of the progressive young business men who 
are proving potent factors in the development 
of the larger and greater Detroit and he is 
popular in both business and social circles in 
this city, where he has maintained his home 
since 1903. He is a member of the Detroit 
Board of Commerce, the Detroit Boat Club, 
the Detroit Club and the University Club. 

In 1903 Mr. Harbeck was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Marjorie Ewing, daughter of 
Adlai T. Ewing, a representative member of 
the Chicago bar, and the two children of this 
union are a winsome little daughter, — Kate 
Ewing Harbeck, and a son, Adlai Ewing 
Harbeck. " 



more than fifty years ago, the enterprise being 
specifically considered on other pages of this 
work. Kurt Kling was born in the family 
homestead, on Jefferson avenue, Detroit, and 
after duly availing himself of the advantages 
of the public schools he entered the University 
of Michigan, taking a special course in the 
chemical department, and later completing a 
course in the Schwartz Brewing Academy, in 
New York city, where he gained a most thor- 
ough and intimate knowledge of the scientific 
principles and methods utilized in the business 
with which he is now prominently identified in 
an executive and practical capacity. He was 
chosen secretary and treasurer of the Philip 
Kling Brewing Company soon after the com- 
pletion of his work in the institution last men- 
tioned, and he has since retained this dual ad- 
ministrative office, having charge of the finan- 
cial affairs of the company and general super- 
vision of the manufacturing department, from 
which statement it may well be understood 
that he finds ample demands upon his time and 
attention. 

Mr. Kling is well known and enjoys marked 
popularity in business and social circles. He 
is identified with the Detroit Club, the Detroit 
Yacht Club, and the Harmonic Society. 

On the 9th of October, 1902, was solemnized 
the marriage of Kurt Kling to Miss Olga 
Weidner, daughter of Paul Weidner, a promi- 
nent and influential citizen of Detroit, and they 
have one son, Philip Kling, named in honor 
of his paternal grandfather, and one daughter, 
Paula. 



KURT KLING. 

The younger of the two sons of Philip and 
Josephine Kling, pioneer citizens of Detroit, 
he whose name initiates this article is one of 
the popular young business men of his native 
city and is secretary and treasurer and super- 
intendent of the Philip Kling Brewing Com- 
pany, of which his father was the founder 



JAMES 0. GORDON. 

One of the definite and valuable functions 
of this publication is to accord recognition to 
those business enterprises in Detroit and 
Wayne county which stand representative in 
their line, and under these conditions there is 
marked consistency in giving a review of the 
Gordon-Pagel Bread Company and of the lives 
of those who have been the prime factors in 
building up the business of the concern. In 
another department of this volume may be 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



623 



found the description of the company men- 
tioned, and of the same the subject of this 
article is the president. 

Mr. Gordon is a young man of progressive 
ideas and marked initiative power. He has 
gained success and prestige as one of the alert 
and enterprising business men of his native 
county and has won this advancement through 
his own well directed efforts. He was born in 
Greenfield township, Wayne county, Michi- 
gan, on the 1 6th of February, 1873, and is a 
son of William and Christine (Campbell) 
Gordon, both of whom were born in Scot- 
land. They were married in the city of Glas- 
gow and shortly afterward came to America 
and the father eventually became one of the 
prosperous farmers and stock-growers of 
Wayne county, Michigan. He and his wife 
are now deceased. The early educational ad- 
vantages of the subject of this sketch were 
those afforded in the district schools, and when 
he was but thirteen years of age he went to 
Buffalo, New York, where he secured em- 
ployment with the Western Transit Company, 
by which he was later employed in Chicago. 
When about seventeen years of age he became 
an employe in the extensive baking establish- 
ment of Case & Martin, of that city, where he 
gained excellent technical knowledge of the 
line of business in which he is now successfully 
established. In 1882, when eighteen years of 
age, Mr. Gordon entered the employ of the 
Morton Baking Company, of Detroit, and he 
was engaged as salesman for this concern until 
1900, when he resigned his position and 
formed a partnership with William M. Pagel, 
under the firm name of Gordon & Pagel. They 
established a bakery at the corner of Chene 
and Hendricks streets and from a modest be- 
ginning have evolved the large and flourish- 
ing business now conducted under the corpo- 
rate title of the Gordon-Pagel Bread Com- 
pany. The growth of the enterprise led to 
the incorporation of the company, on the i6th 
of July, 1907, and Mr. Gordon has been its 
president from that time, besides having the 
direct supervision of the manufacturing de- 



partment. The establishment is thoroughly 
modern in its equipment and the success of 
the business is based on careful and honorable 
methods and upon the high grade of products. 
Mr. Gordon is a member of the National 
Bakers' Association and is thoroughly expe- 
rienced in the line of business to which he is 
giving his attention. He has never been ac- 
tive in the domain of practical politics but gives 
a loyal support to the Republican party. 

In the year 1895 was celebrated the mar- 
riage of Mr. Gordon to Miss Josephine Bidi- 
gare, daughter of Edward Bidigare, an old- 
time and popular resident of Detroit, where he 
has long been prominent in yachting circles. 
He has constructed a number of fine racing 
yachts and is an enthusiast in connection with 
marine sports of this order. He is the owner 
of valuable real estate in Detroit. 



THERON F. GIDDINGS. 

One of the able officials who is rendering 
effective service in maintaining and advancing 
the prestige of the Michigan Mutual Life In- 
surance Company, of Detroit, is Mr. Giddings, 
who is general superintendent of agents and 
who is a notable figure in the insurance field, 
having formerly served as state commissioner 
of insurance. 

Mr. Giddings is a native of Michigan, hav- 
ing been born in the city of Kalamazoo, which 
then retained the distinction of being a village, 
a claim in which it took pride long after it had 
assumed far greater proportions than the aver- 
age city. He was born on the 25th of De- 
cember, 1843, a"d is a son of Orrin N. and 
Harriet H. Giddings, both natives of the 
state of New York, whence they came to 
Michigan in 1836, the year prior to the ad- 
mission of the state to the Union. The father 
was a farmer and merchant and was one of 
the honored pioneers and influential citizens 
of Kalamazoo county. In 1853 he was elected 
treasurer of the county, of which office he con- 
tinued incumbent for eight consecutive years. 
During the civil war he served as state quar- 



624 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



termaster, having been appointed to this office 
by Hon. Henry H. Crapo, the governor of 
Michigan. He was one of the organizers of 
the RepubHcan party, having been a delegate 
to the historic convention "under the oaks" at 
Jackson, and he ever afterward continued an 
ardent supporter of the cause of the "Grand 
Old Party." He continued his residence in 
the city of Kalamazoo until his death, which 
occurred in 1898, and there his wife died in 
1877. Of the children the subject of this 
sketch is the only one living. 

Theron F. Giddings was reared to maturity 
in his native county and after duly availing 
himself of the advantages of the common 
schools of the locality and period he entered 
Kalamazoo College, where he continued his 
studies for some time, though not to the point 
of graduation. His first employment was as 
a clerk in a mercantile establishment in Kala- 
mazoo, and about 1867 he went to Kansas, 
where he remained until the late '60s, when he 
returned to Kalamazoo, where, in 1869, he 
engaged in the fire-insurance business. In 
1872 he was associated with Frank Hender- 
son, of the present Henderson-Ames Com- 
pany, of that city. 

In 1879, as candidate on the Republican 
ticket, Mr. Giddings was elected clerk of Kala- 
mazoo county, and the efficiency of his service 
and the extent of his personal popularity on 
his "native heath" are best vouched for in the 
fact that he continued in this office for the long 
period of twelve years. In 1891 he was ap- 
pointed receiver of the National City Bank of 
Marshall, Calhoun county, and made a splen- 
did record in straightening out the affairs of 
that institution, which eventually paid one 
htindred cents on the dollar, besides an inter- 
est of five per cent. In 1893 Governor John 
T. Rich appointed Mr. Giddings to the re- 
sponsible and exacting office of state commis- 
sioner of insurance, and he served in this ca- 
pacity until 1897, when he assumed his present 
position with the Michigan Mutual Life In- 
surance Company, in August of that year. In 
1893 he received the appointment to the office 



of United States marshal, but declined the 
position. His knowledge of the insurance 
business is intimate and profound, being spe- 
cially reinforced through his official service as 
insurance commissioner, and he has proven a 
most valuable official to the great company of 
which he is now an executive. 

In the year 1869 Mr. Giddings was united 
in marriage to Miss Julia E. D'Arcambal, 
daughter of Charles S. D'Arcambal, a leading 
druggist of Kalamazoo, and the only child of 
this union now living is Bessie, who is the 
wife of Frederick F. Brush, of Detroit. 



AARON A. PARKER. 

(Since the following article was prepared, 
has occurred the death of Mr. Parker, who 
passed away on the 13th of November, 1908.) 

One of the most prominent and influential 
capitalists and active business men of Detroit 
is Aaron A. Parker, whose interests are of 
wide scope and importance and who has been 
especially prominent in connection with lake- 
marine affairs, — a principal in the ownership 
and operation of many vessels, in both pas- 
senger and freight service. He is a man of 
broad mental grasp, is liberal and progressive 
as a citizen, and is well entitled to considera- 
tion as one of the leading captains of industry 
in the metropolis of Michigan. 

Near the city of Buffalo, in Erie county. 
New York, Mr. Parker was born on the ist of 
March, 1844, being a son of Horace and Vir- 
ginia (Whitaker) Parker, both of whom con- 
tinued to reside in the old Empire state until 
1 87 1, when they removed to Detroit, where 
they passed the residue of their lives. The 
father was a farmer by vocation and was a 
man of sterling character and strong men- 
tality. The subject of this review received but 
limited educational advantages in his youth, 
his privileges being confined to those offered 
by the district schools, and he early developed 
that self-reliance, energy and ambition which 
have so significantly characterized his entire 
career as a man of affairs. 





C/ Of C/ci-A^f^lr- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



625 



In 1 86 1, when but seventeen years of age, 
Mr. Parker associated himself with five other 
gentlemen in forming a company which pro- 
ceeded to Oil Creek, Venango county, Penn- 
sylvania, where petroleum oil had been found 
in small quantities. They bought out a well 
that had been started by persons who had no 
engine with which to operate the same, being 
thus compelled to sell the property, which the 
Parker company thus secured. The well was 
then drilled down to a depth of somewhat 
more than five hundred feet and when oil was 
finally struck a yield of eighty barrels a day 
was secured. About the same time there were 
other wells started up and down this same 
creek, and as the oil flowed from the wells it 
was found that there was no sale for the pro- 
duct in such large quantities, as developments 
had not as yet been carried forward sufficiently 
to determine the practical value of the oil for 
commercial and general domestic purposes. 
Certain persons had, however, learned how to 
treat the crude product and make from it the 
kerosene oil. Young Parker and another 
young man of his company devised a method 
of refining this oil, and soon erected a small 
refinery, which proved adequate to handling 
the oil from the company's well and get good 
results and returns from it. Most of those 
in the oil fields at that time became discour- 
aged and returned home, but young Parker 
was built of sterner stuff and determined to 
stay on the ground and see the project through. 
The resuh was that when, in the fall of 1862 
and continuing into the following year, there 
grew up such a demand for the oil, the prices 
for the crude product rapidly appreciated, 
reaching in 1864 as high a point as fourteen 
dollars a barrel. From the sale of oil under 
these conditions and through disposing of cer- 
tain of his oil interests Mr. Parker cleared up 
about sixty thousand dollars,— and this be- 
fore he was twenty-one years of age. Then, 
like some others who were flocking into the 
oil regions at that time, he put about thirty 
thousand dollars into some farms which he 
thought would develop good oil fields but 



which showed results to the contrary, thus 
involving the loss of his investment. His 
father, who was a very prosperous farmer, 
having one of the most complete dairy farms 
in western New York at the time, was a 
partner in the oil business of the son up to 
this time, and after the oil interests were sold 
the subject of this sketch came to Detroit, 
where he took up his permanent residence in 
1867. Here, in company with his maternal 
uncle, Byron Whitaker, he bought a half in- 
terest in two sailing vessels, his uncle at the 
time having been interested in the lake ship- 
ping and forwarding business. Very soon 
after his arrival in Detroit Mr. Parker made 
this transaction, by purchasing the interest of 
his uncle's partner, Mr. Olney, and the firm 
name was then changed to Whitaker & Parker. 
The firm owned its own vessels and engaged 
in a general forwarding and brokerage busi- 
ness in connection with lake-marine naviga- 
tion. In 1868 Messrs. Whitaker and Parker 
were prevailed upon to furnish the money with 
which to build a sawmill for the sawing of 
hard-wood lumber, secured from the river 
bank just above Detroit. This proved a very 
poor venture, and in addition to this misfor- 
tune Mr. Whitaker's health became impaired, 
and two of the vessels owned by the firm were 
lost within a period of ten days, both having 
been caught in severe gales, which they proved 
unable to weather. 

Under the conditions just noted, in the fall 
of 1869, Mr. Parker purchased his uncle's in- 
terest in the mill business, thinking it possible 
that, now that he had familiarized himself 
with the business, he might be able to make 
from it at least a living for himself. He 
struggled along under adverse circumstances 
which reached culmination in the financial 
panic of 1873, when he found himself, as he 
has expressed it, "down and out." He sold 
his mill and other incidental properties for 
what he could get, closed up the business, and 
found himself four thousand dollars in debt. 
He was not discouraged, however, and began 
selling Connellsville coke for Overholt & 



626 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Company, of West Newton, Pennsylvania, the 
father of the head of this concern having been 
the founder of the distillery in which was first 
manufactured the famous Old Overholt 
whisky. Mr. Parker continued to be thus en- 
gaged for one year and then bought the pro- 
duct of the ovens of the firm. The property 
later passed into the possession of Henry C. 
FricV, and Mr. Parker continued his connec- 
tion with the new concern, selling the coke 
prod'ict of the H. C. Frick Company in De- 
troit and Michigan for a quarter of a century. 
The first money that he made out of the coke 
business he invested in an old vessel, and from 
any money derived from the service of the 
latter he bought other vessels, eventually build- 
ing up a prosperous business. About 1877 he 
admitted to partnership his brother, Byron W. 
Parker, who was given a half interest, under 
the firm name of A. A. Parker & Brother. 
In 1879 they became associated with Hugh 
W. Dyar in the purchase of the schooner 
"John Wesley," and in the following year 
these same three principals also purchased the 
steamer "Anna Smith," such a steamer being 
needed to tow the schooners already owned. 
Operations were conducted under the title of 
the Parker Transportation Company, and 
Aaron A. Parker was president and general 
manager. Later the company purchased the 
schooner "J. C. King," and the steamers 
"Minneapolis," "Santiago," and "Redwing." 
The lake transportation business was good at 
that period and these vessels paid for them- 
selves within from three to six years after their 
purchase by the Parker Transportation Com- 
pany. 

In 1891 John Pridgeon, Jr., became one of 
the interested principals in the company, and 
under the name of the Pridgeon Transit Com- 
pany the steamer "A. A. Parker" and the 
barge "B. W. Parker" were brought out and 
put into efifective commission. The subject of 
this sketch was the prime mover, president and 
head of all these concerns. In 1880 The Par- 
ker Brothers formed also an alliance with Cap- 
tain James Millen, who was part owner and 



the manager of a fine fleet of steamers and 
other vessels, with headquarters in Detroit 
and the business of this concern was conducted 
under the firm name of Parker & Millen those 
mterested being the two Parker brothers and 
Mr. Millen. This firm did a marine insurance 
and brokerage business, together with wreck- 
ing of steamers and other vessels on the lakes 
havmg purchased a well equipped wrecking 
plant, which was operated under the title of 
the Swain Wrecking Company. This com- 
pany contmued operations for ten years at 
the expiration of which the Parker brothers 
purchased the interest of Captain Millen and 
changed the title of the concern to A A & 
B. W. Parker. In the meanwhile the two 
brothers had also purchased some interests in 
other boats and steamers, two of the latter 
benig the "B. W. Blanchard" and the "John 
Pridgeon, Jr." They chartered out these two 
steamers to run in connection with the Clover 
Leaf Railroad line from Toledo to Buffalo, 
Bufflfo ' ^™'" Gladstone, Michigan, to 

About 1892 the Parker brothers and John 
Pridgeon, Jr., bought the old steamer "Grey- 
hound and put the same into commission on 
the Detroit nver. After operating the same 
one year they also bought the "City of Tole- 
do which had been owned by Toledo men 
and this was put into service with the "Grev' 
hound," making the old river boats pool their 
interests with them. The company finally saw 
that in order to hold this river business they 
must put on some large, elegant boats before 
somebody else did it, so they contracted for 
and had built the steamer "Tashmoo," which 
was built by the Detroit Shipbuilding Com- 
pany, and this fine new passenger and freight 
vessel was put into service on the river in 
connection with the two boats already men- 
tioned. Later the company built the new 
"Greyhound," which took the place of the old 
one of the same name. This gave to the com- 
pany two of the finest steamers on fresh water 
each having a capacity for the carrying of 
four thousand persons. They have since' 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



627 



bought the steamer "Owana," so that they now 
have four staunch and beautiful steel boats. 

At the time of the purchase of the old 
"Greyhound" Mr. Parker could clearly see 
that it was necessary for his company to have 
adequate dock facilities in Detroit, and he 
forthwith became associated with his brother, 
Captain Millen, William C. McMillan and W. 
K. Anderson in the purchasing of the dock at 
the foot of Griswold street, buying the same 
from the Moses W. Field estate. They after- 
ward secured the vacant property at the lower 
side of Griswold street and thereon erected a 
building at a cost of fifty thousand dollars. 
This was all used by the White Star Line, 
but the Parker brothers and John Pridgeon, 
Jr., hold a controlling interest in both the 
steamers and the dock property. This is now 
regarded as one of the finest pieces of real 
estate in the city of Detroit, and the title of the 
White Star Line was adopted only in 1896. 
That line now has four of the best passenger 
steamers on the river and the best of dock fa- 
cilities at Detroit, Port Huron and Toledo. 

Mr. Parker was the promoter of all these 
important enterprises, and the practical con- 
solidation of interests is the result of his efforts 
and his keen discernment as to the best 
methods for the attaining of the best and most 
permanent returns. As early as 1902 he be- 
came convinced that the old wooden boats in 
which he was interested and which were util- 
ized in the carrying of heavy freight, including 
grain or ore, were destined to be superseded 
by the larger and more substantial steel vessels 
such as the ore and coal companies, as well as 
other concerns, were building, and he accord- 
ingly advised the different companies owning 
the old type of boats to dispose of the same to 
the best possible advantage, the companies in 
which he was interested in such properties 
taking his advice and being the gainers 

thereby. 

In the meanwhile the coal business of A. A. 
Parker & Brother had been established, under 
the management of Byron W. Parker, for the 



handling of all kinds of coke, coal, sand, fire- 
brick, foundry supplies, etc., and the A. A. & 
B. W. Parker marine insurance business had 
grown to large proportions. The result was 
that in 1903, primarily on account of the some- 
what impaired health of Aaron A. Parker, so 
long the executive head of these and other 
enterprises, it was decided to organize what 
is known as the Parker Brothers Company, 
Limited, into which were admitted as asso- 
ciates a number of young men who had long 
been faithful and trusted employes of the Par- 
kers, several of the number having been em- 
ployed by the brothers for a period of twenty- 
five years. These younger men were given a 
half interest in the business of the two con- 
cerns last mentioned, besides drawing good 
salaries, and the other half of the business is 
still owned by the Parker brothers. The en- 
terprise represented by the Parker Brothers 
Company, Limited, is now the largest of the 
kind in Detroit, marked advancement having 
been made under the new regime. 

In recapitulation it may be said that Aaron 
Parker has served as president of the White 
Star Line, the Parker Transportation Com- 
pany and the Peninsular Transit Company, 
was formerly president of the Detroit River 
Savings Bank, known as the Marine Savings 
Bank, which latter was finally merged into the 
present Dime Savings Bank, in which Mr. 
Parker is a director. His energy has been 
practically unswerving during all the long 
years of a signally active and successful 
career, and he is a broad-minded, liberal busi- 
ness man, known and honored as one of the 
sterling citizens who have done much to fur- 
there the progress of the city of Detroit. He 
is a staunch Republican in politics, and is 
identified with various social, fraternal and 
semi-business organizations in his home city. 
In 1868 Mr. Parker was united in marriage 
to Mrs. Mary (Dennis) Hayes, of Detroit. 
They have no children, but Mrs. Parker had 
one son by her previous marriage, — Harry, 
who died in 1907. 



628 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ARTHUR S. FETTERS. 

One of the representative enterprises of its 
kind in the city of Detroit is that conducted by 
the American Brewing Company, of which in- 
dividual mention is made in this pubhcation 
and of which the subject of this sketch is sec- 
retary. He is one of the alert and progres- 
sive young business men of his native city 
and is properly accorded recognition in this 
publication. 

Mr. Fetters was born in Detroit, on the 
26th of February, 1870, and is a son of Gus- 
tave and Augusta (Kees) Fetters, both of 
whom were born in the old country. Gustave 
Fetters was reared and educated in his native 
land, whence he came to America in 1859, 
soon afterward taking up his residence in De- 
troit. Here he became chief clerk in the retail 
grocery of Peter Henkel, and later he became 
manager of the business, which was eventually 
expanded into the wholesale trade. He con- 
tinued to be identified with this concern until 
1890, and thereafter lived virtually retired 
until his death, which occurred in 1896. In 
1890 he was one of the organizers of the Ex- 
position Brewing Company, of which he was 
chosen treasurer. Of this company the Ameri- 
can Brewing Company is the direct successor. 
Gustave Fetters was one of the representative 
German-American citizens of Detroit and was 
a man to whom was ever accorded unequivo- 
cal confidence and esteem. He became the 
owner of a large amount of valuable real es- 
tate in the city and through his well directed 
energies accumulated a competency. He was 
one of the charter members of Schiller Lodge, 
No. 263, Free & Accepted Masons, and serv'ed 
as its treasurer for many years. He was a 
Republican in his political proclivities and both 
he and his wife were members of the German 
Evangelical church. Mrs. Fetters' death oc- 
curred in 1899, and they are survived by 
six children,— Arthur S., Edward A., Anna, 
Bertha, Gustave W., and Emma. 

Arthur S. Fetters, the immediate subject of 
this sketch, attended the public schools and a 
German-American academy in Detroit, and in 



1887 lie was graduated in the Detroit Busi- 
ness University. Soon afterward he entered 
upon an apprenticeship to the printer's trade, 
in the office of W. S. Ostler, and he became a 
skilled artisan in this trade, whose discipline 
has been consistently pronounced equivalent to 
a liberal education. After the organization of 
the Ostler Printing Company Mr. Fetters be- 
came superintendent of its plant, and he con- 
tinued incumbent of this position until 1893, 
when he established a job-printing business of 
his own, opening an office on Congress street 
west, near Wayne street, and later removing 
to 72 Larned street east, where he continued 
in successful business until 1902, when he sold 
out to the Gregory, Mayer & Thom Company. 
In the same year he was elected secretary of 
the American Brewing Company, of which his 
father was one of the organizers, and he has 
since held this executive office, whose duties 
he has discharged with signal ability and dis- 
cretion, having general charge of the office 
affairs of the company and also of the sales 
department. 

Mr. Fetters is a Republican in politics, is 
identified with various social and fraternal 
organizations and enjoys distinctive popularity 
in his native city. 

On the 14th of June, 1899, Mr. Fetters was 
united in marriage to Miss Lillian M. Ortwine, 
daughter of Captain Peter Ortwine, a promi- 
nent and popular officer of the Detroit fire 
department. The children of this union are : 
Margaret, Arthur, Helen and George. 



FRED A. GOODMAN. 

Among the well known and distinctively 
popular native sons of the fair "City of the 
Straits" is numbered the subject of this sketch, 
who is incumbent of a clerkship in the office 
of the treasurer of Wayne county and who 
was long identified with hotel interests in his 
native city. 

Mr. Goodman was born in Detroit, on the 
i6th of October, 1871, and is a son of Alfred 
and Ulenna H. (Bradley) Goodman, the for- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



629 



mer of whom was born in London, England, 
and the latter in Michigan. Alfred Goodman 
took up his residence in Detroit in the early 
'50s and here passed the residue of his long 
and useful life. In 1861 he purchased the 
hotel known as the Grand River House, at the 
corner of Griswold street and Grand River 
avenue. This hotel had been established in 
1846, by M. Salter, a pioneer boniface of the 
city. In 1868 Mr. Goodman erected a new 
hotel building on the site of the old house 
and designated the same the Goodman House. 
Under this title it was conducted by him indi- 
vidually until 1890, when he admitted to part- 
nership his son, Fred A., subject of this sketch, 
and they continued to be associated in the man- 
agement of the hotel until June i, 1895, when 
the father leased the property to Fred Postal 
and retired from active business. In 1897 he 
built an annex at the rear of the building and 
later added two stories to the original struc- 
ture, which was four stories in height. The 
building is now one of the leading commercial 
hotels of Detroit, having two hundred guest 
rooms and being essentially modern in its 
appointments and equipment. Mr. Postal 
adopted the title of Griswold House at the 
time of assuming control and he and his asso- 
ciate, A. E. Morey, now conduct the hotel 
under that name. This has become a valuable 
property and represents a large portion of the 
estate left by Alfred Goodman at his death, 
which occurred on the i8th of June, 1903. 
He was a man of distinctive business acumen, 
was genial and kindly and had a host of friends 
not only in Detroit but among the traveling 
public. He was a loyal and liberal citizen and 
merits a place of honor as one of the popular 
and successful hotel men who have aided in 
maintaining the prestige of Detroit. His 
widow is still living, and of their children the 
only survivor is the subject of this sketch. 
The daughter, Nellie Jean, became the wife 
of George C. Waldo, former treasurer of 
Wayne county, and her death occurred on the 
I2th of September, 1905; she is survived by 
two children, — Ulenna H. and Nellie G. 



Fred A. Goodman was reared to manhood 
in Detroit, where he has ever maintained his 
home. He duly availed himself of the advan 
tages of the public schools and was graduated 
in the Central high school as a member of the 
class of 1889. In the following year, as 
already noted, he was admitted to partnership 
with his father in the hotel business, and there- 
after he was for the greater portion of the time 
active manager of the Goodman House until 
the same was leased to Mr. Postal. His 
father's health became seriously impaired and 
from 1898 until the death of the latter, in 
1903, he had the management of the estate, 
in which capacity he has since continued to 
serve. "'"''I 

In April, 1905, Mr. Goodman became a 
clerk in the office of the county treasurer; his 
brother-in-law, Mr. Waldo, was county treas- 
urer at the time, having been elected to the 
office in the preceding January. After the re- 
tirement of Mr. Waldo Mr. Goodman con- 
tinued to serve under his successor, and he has 
since held the clerkship, being one of the able 
and valued employes identified with the ad- 
ministration of the county's affairs. In poli- 
tics he is unwavering in his allegiance to the 
Republican party, in the promotion of whose 
cause he has been an efficient worker. 

Mr. Goodman was one of the charter mem- 
bers of the Detroit Wheelmen, and served 
two years as a member of the direct- 
orate of this popular social organization. He 
is affiliated with the Detroit Lodge of the 
Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and 
has served as its organist since 1897. 
He is also identified with the Masonic frater- 
nity, including Moslem Temple of the Ancient 
Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine. He is affiliated with Kilwinning 
Lodge, No. 297, Free & Accepted Masons. 
His popularity in his native city is still further 
indicated by his membership in the Gi^osse 
Pointe Ice Yacht Club and the Detroit Mu- 
sicians' Club. He has much musical talent and 
is president and manager of the Schmemann 
military band, which is one of the best in the 



630 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



state and which has been the official band of 
the First Regiment of the Michigan National 
Guard since 1889. 

On the 3d of May, 1897, Mr. Goodman was 
united in marriage to Miss Catherine Mackay, 
daughter of Captain Jrhn Mackay, of Good- 
rich, Ontario, who was for many years identi- 
fied with the marine service of the Great Lakes. 

Mr. and Mrs. Goodman have two children, 

Consuelo and Gwendolyn. 



AUGUST EKHARDT. 

A prominent representative of the brewing 
industry in Detroit and known as a loyal citi- 
zen and reliable and public-spirited business 
man, Mr. Ekhardt well merits consideration in 
this publication. 

August Ekhardt is a native of the kingdom 
of Bavaria, Germany, where he was born on 
the 24th of April, 1846, and is a son of John 
Ekhardt, likewise born in Bavaria. The sub- 
ject of this sketch was a mere child at the time 
of his mother's death, and when he was about 
eight years of age his father immigrated to 
America and settled near the city of Hamilton, 
province of Ontario, Canada, where he pur- 
chased land and engaged in farming. There 
he continued to reside during the remainder of 
his life, being a man of sterling integrity and 
having the esteem of all who knew him. 

August Ekhardt was reared to the sturdy 
discipline of the farm and such educational ad- 
vantages as the district schools could offer rep- 
resented the agencies through which he gained 
his early education. He continued to be identi- 
fied with farm work until 1864, when, at the 
age of eighteen years, he went to Cincinnati, 
Ohio, where he learned the brewing business 
in all its details, having been employed by 
different brewing companies in that city and 
having finally become brew master for the Lion 
brewery, owned by the firm of Weindish & 
Miilhauser. In 1872 Mr. Ekhardt took up his 
residence in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he 
and his brother Fredolin became proprietors 
and operators of the City Brewery, under the 



firm name of Ekhardt Brothers. In the fol- 
lowing year they sold the business, and the 
subject of this review then came to Detroit and 
accepted the position of brew master in the 
Phihp Kling brewery, with which he continued 
to be connected until 1877, when he entered 
the employ of the B. Stroh Brewing Company. 
He held a responsible position with this con- 
cern until 1881, when he and his brother 
Fredolin took up their residence in Toledo 
Ohio, where they entered into partnership with 
Robert Lehman, under the title of Lehman & 
Ekhardt Brothers, and assumed control of the 
Buckeye brewery. In 1882 August Ekhardt re- 
turned to Detroit, and here he has since main- 
tamed his home. He was one of the organizers 
of the Ekhardt & Becker Brewing Company, 
and has been president of the same from the 
tmie of its incorporation. He is now one of 
the pioneers in his particular line of business 
m Detroit and as a business man and citizen his 
reputation has ever been unassailable. He is a 
member of the United States Brewers' Asso- 
ciation, as well as of the brewers' associations 
of Michigan and Detroit. In 1886 he served 
as treasurer of the first named organization. 
He is a stockholder in the Peninsular Bank and 
also in the Michigan Fibre Company, a pros- 
perous Detroit institution. He is generically a 
Republican in politics, supporting the party 
cause in national and state affairs, but main- 
taming an independent attitude in respect to 
local politics, where no dominating issue is in- 
volved. He and his family are members of St 
John's German Lutheran church, and he is 
Identified with the Harmonic Society and with 
Schiller Lodge, No. 263, Free & Accepted 
Masons. 

In 1 87 1 Mr. Ekhardt was united in marriage 
to Miss Matilda Hiller, daughter of Joseph 
Hiller, who was a prosperous farmer at Harri- 
son, Indiana. Concerning the children of this 
union the following data are incorporated- 
Bertha is the wife of Joseph Drolshagen, clerk 
of the Wayne county probate court, in Detroit • 
Emma is the wife of Frederick Ekhardt, who 
IS engaged in the grocery busines.^ in this city; 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



631 



Matilda is the wife of Louis Becker, who is 
one of the stockholders and directors in the 
Ekhardt & Becker Brewing Company ; Amelia 
is the wife of Herman Bruckner, who is musi- 
cal director of the Harmonie Society and is 
well known in Detroit musical circles; August 
H. is brew master of the Ekhardt & Becker 
Brewing Company ; Edmund is shipping clerk 
for the Detroit Oak Belting Company; and 
Otto is assistant paying teller in the Peninsular 
Bank of Detroit. 



JACOB C. DANZIGER. 

It is a matter of gratification to the edi- 
tors and publishers of this work to accord 
within its pages representation to those men 
and agencies which have contributed or are 
now contributing to the material and civic ad- 
vancement of the city of Detroit, and in the 
premises there is all of propriety of giving such 
consideration to Mr. Danziger, who is secre- 
tary and treasurer of the corporation of 
Cowles & Danziger, manager of the Detroit 
Motor Castings Company, and secretary and 
treasurer of the Manufacturers' Power Build- 
ing Company, of each of which noteworthy 
industrial institutions specific mention is made 
on other pages of this work, so that a reca- 
pitulation of the data is not here demanded. 
Mr. Danziger is a native of the old Buckeye 
state, having been born in the city of Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, and being a son of Abraham and 
Marriane Danziger. Abraham Danziger, who 
was born in Baltimore, Maryland, was reared 
and educated in his native commonwealth, 
where he continued to reside until 1855. when 
he took up his abode in Cincinnati, where he 
became an extensive manufacturer of cigars 
and leaf tobacco, with which line of enter- 
prise he continued to be actively identified un- 
til 1882, when he retired from business. He 
continued his residence in the "Queen City" 
until his death, in 1893. at the age of seventy 
years. His wife passed away in 1908.^ The 
Danziger family was founded in America by 
Benedict Danziger, who came from Germany 



and located in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1820, 
there becoming a successful manufacturer of 
malt and a business man of prominence and 
influence. He was the grandfather of the sub- 
ject of this sketch. 

Jacob C. Danziger is indebted to the public 
schools of his native city for his early educa- 
tional training, which was later most effective- 
ly supplemented by a thorough course in the 
engineering department of the Stevens Insti- 
tute of Technology, at Hoboken, New Jersey, 
in which admirable institution he was grad- 
uated as a member of the class of 1889, receiv- 
ing the degree of Mechanical Engineer. After 
his graduation Mr. Danziger secured a posi- 
tion as engineer for the Philadelphia branch 
of the Standard Oil Company, holding this in- 
cumbency in 1889-90, in which latter year he 
resigned the office to assume charge of the phy- 
sical laboratory of the Bethlehem Iron Com- 
pany, of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with 
which concern he remained for four years, 
having been night superintendent of the blast 
furnaces of the company during the last two 
years. He resigned his position in 1896 and 
opened an office in the Chamber of Commerce 
building, where he engaged in the private work 
of his profession, as a consulting engineer. 
In 1900 he became associated with Arthur A. 
Cowles in a series of experiments in the man- 
ufacturing of steel barrels, for use in the oil 
and gasolene trade, and in the following year 
they formed the firm of Cowles & Danziger, 
which later was reorganized as a stock com- 
pany, under the title of the Cowles & Danzi- 
ger Company, and they commenced the man- 
ufacture of their steel barrels in Detroit. As 
before stated, this company and its business are 
mdividually described elsewhere in this work. 
In addition to the other companies with which 
Mr. Danziger is identified, as noted in the open- 
ing paragraph of this article, he is also a stock- 
holder and director of the American Smelt- 
ing Works, of Detroit, and the Clark Wireless 
Telegraph Company, of this city, and a stock- 
holder in the Gies Gear Company, another 
local concern. Mr. Danziger is a member of 



632 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the Detroit Board of Commerce, and was a 
charter member of the Detroit Engineering 
Society. He is a member of the Detroit Golf 
Club and other local organizations of a so- 
cial order, and is a Republican in his political 
proclivities. Mr. Danziger is a bachelor. 



CHARLES A. DEAN. 

A representative business man and a popu- 
lar citizen of Detroit, where his entire life has 
been passed, Mr. Dean is president of the 
Pittmans & Dean Company, dealers in coal 
and ice, and also has other important business 
interests in his native city. 

Mr. Dean was born in Detroit, March 26, 
1855. and is a son of Joseph and Harriet 
(Head) Dean, both natives of England, the 
former having been born in Birmingham and 
the latter in Hull. The father immigrated to 
America and took up his residence in Detroit 
in 1848, and for many years he was associated 
with the late Frederick and Christian Buhl in 
the hat and fur business. He became one of 
the successful merchants of the city and here 
continued to reside until his death, which oc- 
curred in 1880. He was greatly interested 
in athletics, in which he was an adept, and 
was one of the founders of the first gymnasium 
in Detroit. His wife died in 1892, and of 
their two surviving children the subject of this 
review is the younger, his sister, Harriet 
Emma, being the widow of Major John W. 
Powell, of Washington, D. C. 

Charles A. Dean was afforded the advan- 
tages of the excellent public schools of Detroit, 
including the high school, and in 1871 he se- 
cured a position as messenger boy in the Sec- 
ond National Bank, with which he continued 
to be identified for a period of ten years, with- 
in which he rose to the position of discount 
teller in the institution. In 1881 he estab- 
lished himself in the coal business, with which 
line of enterprise he has since continued to be 
prominently and successfully identified. In 
1885 he became associated with James E. and 
Lansing M. Pittman in forming the Pittmans 



& Dean Company, which now controls a large 
wholesale and retail coal business as well as 
an extensive ice trade, the latter department 
of the business having been founded about 
i»87. Mr. Dean is vice-president of the De- 
troit Savings Bank and is a director of each 
of the following named corporations: Old 
Detroit National Bank, Detroit Fire & Marine 
Insurance Company, Detroit Trust Company 
and William H. Elliott & Company. Mr.' 
Dean holds membership in the Detroit Club 
and other organizations, and is aligned as a 
supporter of the principles of the Republican 
party, though not active in the arena of prac- 
tical politics. 

In 1878 Mr. Dean was united in marriage 
to Miss Carrie Esselstyn, whose father was a 
prominent ship-builder in Detroit in an early 
day. Mr. and Mrs. Dean have two children, 
—Gertrude A. and Charles A., Jr. 



GEORGE WILLIAMS BATES. 

For thirty-five years has George Williams 
Bates been engaged in the practice of law in 
Detroit, and he has long held precedence as 
one of the leading members of the bar of his 
native city and state. His lineage touches 
many old and representative families of our 
great republic, where the Bates family was 
founded in the early colonial epoch. We of 
this twentieth century, representing the most 
electrical progress in all lines of material ac- 
tivity, are too prone not to give heed to those 
elemental valuations which touch upon the 
deeper essence of human life and human 
achievement. We can not afford to hold in 
light esteem those who have wrought nobly 
in the past, nor fail to accord honor to those 
who have given an heritage of worthy thoughts 
and worthy deeds, and who have aided in lay- 
ing fast the foundations of the greatest republic 
the world has ever seen. 

The Bates family in America was founded 
by three brothers, James, Clement and Ed- 
ward Bates, who came from England and iden- 
tified themselves with the founding of the Puri- 
tan settlement of the Massachusetts Bay col- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



633 



ony. Of these brothers the direct ancestor of 
the subject of this sketch was James Bates, 
who settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 
1634. Clement became a resident of Hingham 
and Edward of Weymouth, and descendants 
of these three are now found to be numerous 
not only in New England but in many other 
states of the Union. Robert Bates, son of 
James, went with the Connecticut contingent, 
under the leadership of Rev. Thomas Hooker, 
and became one of the landed proprietors of 
Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he remained 
until 1640, when he joined the colony that 
founded Stamford, that state. As a direct 
descendant of Robert Bates, the subject of this 
review is collaterally related to William Cross, 
who was a soldier in the Pequod Indian war 
and an active participant in the fight at Narra- 
gansett Swamp, and who later represented 
Wethersfield in the general court at Hartford. 
Mr. Bates is also connected with Robert Chap- 
man, one of the founders of Saybrooke, Con- 
necticut, a deputy to the general court, a com- 
missioner, and one of the largest landholders 
of Saybrooke. In the remote ancestral line is 
also found Gershom Lockwood, soldier, judge 
and legislator, of Greenwich, Massachusetts; 
Jonathan Selleck, a brave Indian fighter, a 
sagacious legislator and a liberal churchman; 
Richard Law, a distinguished jurist of early 
Connecticut ; David Smith, a distinguished sol- 
dier of the Revolution, under General Wash- 
ington; and the Weeds of Connecticut and 
New York. Through the Bucknam family 
Mr. Bates can claim relationship with Nicho- 
las Stowers, Captain John Sprague and Lieu- 
tenant Ralph Sprague, who were among the 
original settlers of Newtown, or Charlestown, 
Massachusetts, in 1628, and the latter of whom 
was one of the first selectmen of the place. On 
the maternal side he is a descendant of Roger 
Williams, of Connecticut, who was a cousin 
of the Roger Williams who played so impor- 
tant a part in the settlement and public afifairs 
of Rhode Island. The Connecticut Roger 
Williams landed in America in 1635 and was 
one of the first settlers of the Connecticut col- 



ony; he was a deputy representative of Wind- 
sor at the general court, in Hartford, and he 
also served as selectman, besides having been 
a member of the Ancient & Honorable Artil- 
lery of Boston. 

George Williams Bates, whose name initi- 
ates this article, was born in the city of De- 
troit, on the 4th of November, 1848, and is a 
son of Samuel Gershom Bates and Rebecca 
(Williams) Bates, who were numbered among 
the honored pioneers of Detroit, where the 
father was for many years engaged in the mer- 
cantile business and where he was recognized 
as an influential and public-spirited citizen. 
Both he and his wife continued to reside in 
Detroit until their death. George W. Bates 
secured his early educational training in the 
public schools of Detroit and then entered the 
literary department of the University of Mich- 
igan, in which he was graduated as a member 
of the class of 1870, with the degree of Bach- 
elor of Arts; in 1875 his alma mater conferred 
upon him the degree of Master of Arts. 
Shortly after leaving the university Mr. Bates 
became a representative, in Detroit, of the pub- 
lishing house of James R. Osgood & Company, 
of Boston, and in the autumn of 1871 he be- 
came a student in the law offices of the firm of 
Newberry, Pond & Brown, one of the leading 
firms in practice at the bar of the state, as was 
also that of Meddaugh & Driggs, under whose 
preceptorship he later continued his technical 
reading. Mr. Bates was admitted to the bar 
in 1874, since which year his name has been 
enrolled on the list of practicing lawyers in the 
Michigan metropolis. He is known as a man 
of high attainments and of profound erudition 
and practical ability as a lawyer. He has 
achieved success in his profession because he 
has worked for it. His prestige at the bar 
stands in evidence of his ability and likewise 
serves as voucher for intrinsic worth of char- 
acter. He has used his intellect to the best 
purpose, has directed his energies in legiti- 
mate channels, and his career has been based 
upon the assumption that nothing save indus- 
try, perseverance, sturdy integrity and fidelity 



634 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



to duty will lead to success. The profession of 
law offers no opportunities except to such de- 
termined spirits. It is an arduous, exacting, 
discouraging vocation to one who is unwilling 
to subordinate other interests to its demands, 
but to the true and earnest devotee it offers a 
sphere of action whose attractions are un- 
equaled and whose rewards unstinted. It is 
needless to say that within the long years of 
his active work in his profession Mr. Bates has 
been identified with much important litigation 
in the state and federal courts, and as a coun- 
selor his services have been in demand in con- 
nection with the handling of large interests in 
multifarious lines. 

Mr. Bates has been an active factor in po- 
litical affairs in the state, though he has never 
held public office, except that of estimator at 
large for Detroit. His allegiance is given to 
the Republican party, and he has been a dele- 
gate to a number of its state conventions. At 
the state convention held in Grand Rapids in 
1894 he was a candidate for attorney-general 
of Michigan, but eventually withdrew his name 
in favor of another candidate. He is a mem- 
ber of the American Bar Association, as well 
as those of the state of Michigan and the city 
of Detroit, and he has the unequivocal confi- 
dence and esteem of his professional confreres. 
Mr. Bates has attained to the thirty-second de- 
gree in Scottish Rite Masonry, in which con- 
nection he is affiliated with Michigan Sover- 
eign Consistory. He is also identified with 
Oriental Lodge, No. 240, Free & Accepted 
Masons, and King Cyrus Chapter, No. 133, 
Royal Arch Masons. He was president of 
the Detroit Arclireological Society, a council- 
lor of the American Institute of Archaeology, 
treasurer and registrar of the Michigan So- 
ciety of the Sons of the American Revolution, 
historian-general of the National Society and 
also the first vice-president-general of the Sons 
of the American Revolution, and a delegate for 
many years to the national congresses of the 
society. He holds membership in the New 
England Society and the University Club, of 
Detroit; the University Alumni Association, 



and other social organizations of representa- 
tive character. He and his wife are members 
of the First Presbyterian church, of Detroit. 

On the 26th of April, 1887, Mr. Bates was 
united in marriage to Miss Jennie Marie Fow- 
ler, daughter of the late Richard Essyltyne 
Fowler, of Clayton, New York, and they have 
two children, — Stanley Fowler Bates, who is 
now nineteen years of age and a student at 
Cornell University; and Virginia Williams 
Bates, who is now eleven years of age. 



AUGUST H. EKHARDT. 

Numbered among the successful and popu- 
lar young business men of his native city, Mr. 
Ekhardt holds the responsible position of brew 
master of the Ekhardt & Becker Brewing 
Company, of which specific mention is made 
on other pages of this publication. 

Mr. Ekhardt was born in Detroit, on the 
30th of May, 1876, and is a son of August 
and Matilda (Hiller) Ekhardt. His early 
educational training was secured in the pub- 
lic schools of his native city, and he then con- 
tinued his studies in the German-American 
Academy, of this city. At the age of sixteen 
years he completed a commercial course in the 
Detroit Business University. In 1894-5 he 
held a clerical position in the office of the Ek- 
hardt & Becker Brewing Company, and in 
1896-7 he completed a thorough technical 
course in the United States Brewers' Acad- 
emy, in New York city. From 1892 to 1894 
he had been employed in the brewing depart- 
ment of the Ekhardt & Becker Brewing Com- 
pany's plant, and through his work in the 
same, supplemented by the technical knowledge 
gained in the academy mentioned, he became 
an expert in the business to which he has since 
devoted his attention and in connection with 
which he has gained a high reputation. In 
June, 1897, he was promoted to the office of 
brew master for the company, and he has since 
continued to serve in this capacity. He has 
done much to bring the product of the brew- 
ery to its present high standard and to advance 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



635 



the general interests of the business. At the 
time when he assumed his present office the 
annual output of the brewery was twenty- 
three thousand barrels, and in 1907, the out- 
put was forty thousand barrels. He has en- 
tire charge of the brewing department and of 
the bottling house, which latter was estab- 
lished in 1896. Mr. Ekhardt is a member of 
the United States Brew Masters' Association 
and also of the Peninsular State Brew Masters' 
Association. His political support is given to 
the Republican party, he is affiliated with 
Kilwinning Lodge, No. 297, Free & Accepted 
Masons, and both he and his wife hold mem- 
bership in St. John's German Lutheran church. 
He is fond of athletic sports and of hunting 
and fishing, in connection with which lines of 
recreation he is well known in Detroit. He 
gives his undivided attention to the interests 
of the brewery with which he has so long been 
identified and whose success is in so large a 
measure due to his indefatigable and discrim- 
inating efforts and effective supervision. 

On the 19th of June, 1901, Mr. Ekhardt 
was united in marriage to Miss Mary Reich- 
man, daughter of Edward Reichman, a suc- 
cessful business man of Detroit, and they have 
one child, Marguerite Marie, who was born 
December 28, 1906. 



HENRY 0. DIETZ. 

The standing of Mr. Dietz in connection with 
the business interests of Detroit is indicated in 
a measure by the office of which he is incum- 
bent,— that of the secretary of the C. Pfeiffer 
Brewing Company, one of the principal con- 
cerns of the sort in the city and one to whose 
interests he devotes the major portion of his 
time and attention. He is known as an enter- 
prising, progressive and reliable business man 
and as a citizen who is animated with much 
public spirit and loyalty. 

Mr. Dietz was born in Detroit, on the i6th 
of May, 1 861, and is a son of John and Cath- 
erine C. (Ebert) Dietz, both natives of Ger- 
many and representatives of staunch old fam- 



ilies of the great empire. John Dietz was born 
at Kercheim, kingdom of Wurtemburg, Ger- 
many, and was reared and educated in his 
fatherland, where he learned the blacksmith 
trade in his youth. He followed his trade in 
Germany until 1851, when he immigrated to 
America, making Detroit his destination. Here 
he secured employment at his trade, in the 
shops of John Patton, with whom he remained 
about twenty years, after which he passed 
about the same length of time in the employ of 
Hugh Johnson. He became well known in the 
city and was a man of such sterling integrity 
and honor that he ever commanded the respect 
and confidence of those with whom he came in 
contact in the various relations of life. He re- 
tired from active labors in 1894 and there- 
after had practically no connection with ac- 
tive business during the residue of his life, 
which terminated on the 12th of February, 
1904. His wife passed away in August, 1891. 
Concerning their children the following brief 
data are found pertinent in this connection : 
Henry C. is the immediate subject of this 
sketch; George J. is now a clerical assist- 
ant in the office of the treasurer of Wayne 
county; and Catherine, who became the wife 
of George Wenzel, of Detroit, died on the 9th 
of March, 1904, about one month after the 
death of her honored father, and she is sur- 
vived by two children, — George, an architect, 
engaged in the practice of his profession in 
New York city, and Hermina, who remains 
with her father. 

Henry C. Dietz was reared to maturity in 
Detroit and to him were here accorded the ad- 
vantages of the public schools, though he early 
initiated his association with practical busi- 
ness affairs. In 1874, when but thirteen years 
of age, he entered the employ of Stephen F. 
Smith & Company, retail shoe dealers, and 
with this concern he remained until 1878, when 
he secured a position in the shipping depart- 
ment of the establishment of the well known 
firm of Pingree & Smith, manufacturers of 
boots and shoes. In November of the follow- 
ing year, when but eighteen years of age, Mr. 



636 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Dietz entered into partnership with Frank 
Starke, under the firm name of Dietz & Starke, 
and engaged in the flour, feed and grain busi- 
ness, with headquarters at 224 Randolph street, 
from which location the business later removed 
to Nos. 15 and 17 Miami avenue, now known 
as Broadway. They built up a prosperous en- 
terprise, and Mr. Dietz continued to be active- 
ly identified with the same until 1885, when 
he disposed of his interest and located at Eras- 
er, Michigan, where he established himself 
in the general-merchandise trade. This busi- 
ness he conducted successfully until 1889, 
when he sold the stock and returned to De- 
troit, where he assumed the position of office 
manager in the brewei-y of Conrad Pfeiffer, 
also having partial supervision of the sales 
department. He continued to be actively iden- 
tified with the executive afifairs of the con- 
cern under the original regime and upon the 
incorporation of the C. Pfeiffer Brewing Com- 
pany, in 1902, he became a stockholder in 
the new coi^poration, of which he was elected 
secretary. In this office he has since continued 
to render most efficient service, having charge 
of accounts, correspondence and sales, in which 
last department his efforts have been most po- 
tent in forwarding the expansion of the busi- 
ness. When he first connected himself with 
the Pfeiffer brewery its annual output was for- 
ty-one hundred barrels, and the extent to 
which the business has increased since that 
time is indicated in the present average annual 
output, which reaches the noteworthy aggre- 
gate of forty thousand barrels. A description 
of the company's plant and business appears 
on other pages of this volume. 

Though never active in the domain of prac- 
tical politics, Mr. Dietz is a zealous supporter 
of the principles and policies of the Republican 
party, and all that pertains to the welfare and 
progress of his native city is a matter of vital 
interest to him. His chief relaxation from the 
onerous cares of business is found in his home 
and in his association with the Detroit Turn- 
verein. He has distinctive musical ability and 



finds much pleasure in connection with the 
classical art. 

On the 24th of June, 1885, was celebrated 
the marriage of Mr. Dietz to Miss Mary E. 
Lines, who was born in Woolwich, England, 
as was also her father, Alfred Lines, who came 
with his family to America when Mrs. Dietz 
was a child. He located in Detroit, where he 
passed the remainder of his life. Mrs. Dietz 
was summoned to the life eternal on the 9th 
of June, 1904, and is survived by three chil- 
dren, whose names and respective dates of 
birth are here indicated : Elizabeth, April 5, 
1886; Henry C, Jr., November 4, 1895; and 
Florence, March 29, 1897. 



ADOLPH A. CAILLE. 

In the industrial and commercial depart- 
ment of this publication is entered a review of 
this history of the Caille Brothers Company, 
whose business, in the manufacturing of coin- 
controlling slot machines, is the largest of its 
kind in the world, and of this company the 
subject of this sketch is the vice-president and 
secretary. He has been intimately associated 
with his brother, A. Arthur Caille, in the up- 
building of this magnificent enterprise, as well 
as in those preliminary operations which led 
up to its inception. The life records of the 
two brothers run essentially parallel and both 
have achieved noteworthy success through 
their own abilities and efforts. 

Adolph A. Caille was born in Detroit, on 
the 2d of April, 1863, and is the eldest of the 
three living children of Joseph M. and Cath- 
erine (Moret) Caille, both of whom are now 
deceased. The father, who was a native of 
Switzerland, came to Detroit in 185 1 and was 
here engaged in the furniture and cabinet-mak- 
ing business for a number of years, after which 
he followed the same line of enterprise in Sagi- 
naw, this state, until 1897, after which year 
he lived virtually retired until his death, which 
occurred in 1907. Adolph A. Caille is in- 
debted to the public schools of Detroit and 
Owosso for his early educational discipline, and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



637 



as a youth he learned the wood-working trade 
under the direction of his father. Like his 
brother he became a skilled mechanic, and 
both have gained marked prestige as inven- 
tors. Mr. Caille is known as a progressive 
and reliable business man and his success has 
been worthily won along legitimate lines of 
business enterprise. He has much civic pride 
and takes an interest in all that concerns the 
welfare of his native city. In politics he is in- 
dependent and in a fraternal way he is affili- 
ated with Detroit Lodge, No. 34, Benevolent 
& Protective Order of Elks. He has been 
vice-president and secretary of the Caille 
Brothers Company from the time of its incor- 
poration, in 1 90 1, and he also has the general 
supervision of the manufacturing department 
of the splendid industry controlled by his com- 
pany. 

In 1892 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Caille to Miss Margaret Mocksey of Saginaw, 
and they have two children, namely : Arthur 
and Catherine. 



HERBERT J. CONN. 

Mr. Conn has been identified with business 
afifairs in Detroit since 1891 and has proved 
himself a progressive and public-spirited citi- 
zen and a reliable and aggressive business man. 
He gives the major portion of his time and at- 
tention at the present time to the Peninsular 
Milled Screw Company, of which he is presi- 
dent and of which adequate description is 
given in another department of this publica- 
tion. 

Mr. Conn was born at Tyrconnel, Elgin 
county, province of Ontario, Canada, on the 
1 2th of June, 1869, and is a son of Meredith 
and Mary (Nixon) Conn, both of whom were 
likewise born in Ontario, where the respective 
families were early founded. Meredith Conn 
became a successful dealer in grain and wool 
and a citizen of prominence and influence in 
his community. As a Conservative, he was 
active in the political affairs of his district and 
served in various local offices. He and his 



wife are now living at 27 Victoria avenue, 
Windsor, Ontario. 

The subject of this review was afforded the 
advantages of the public schools of his na- 
tive town and effectively supplemented this 
discipline by a through course in the Chatham 
Business College. In 1891, at the age of twen- 
ty-two years, Mr. Conn took up his residence 
in Detroit, where he associated himself with 
William E. Currie in the buying and selling 
of cedar paving blocks, poles and posts. The 
firm also instituted a general contracting busi- 
ness, in the laying of cedar-block pavements, 
and built up a large and prosperous enterprise. 
Currie & Conn continued this business until 
1905, and within this period handled many 
large and important contracts. Fully ninety- 
five per cent of the cedar-block paving done in 
Detroit between the years 1892 and 1905 rep- 
resented contracts secured and effectively 
handled by this reliable and well known firm, 
whose dissolution took place in the year last 
mentioned. Mr. Conn was one of the organ- 
izers of the Peninsular Milled Screw Com- 
pany, which was incorporated in 1902, and 
he has been president of the company since 
1904. In this connection reference should be 
made to the article giving record of the com- 
pany. 

In politics Mr. Conn maintains an indepen- 
dent attitude, and he is a member of the De- 
troit Employers' Association and the Detroit 
Board of Commerce. He is affiliated with 
Alvinston Lodge, No. 323, Free & Accepted 
Masons, at Alvinston, Ontario, and he and his 
wife hold membership in the Church of Christ. 

On the 9th of November, 1892, Mr. Conn 
was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth A. 
Lamb, daughter of Robert Lamb, who was for 
many years a representative farmer at Alvins- 
ton, Ontario, and who died in Detroit, in 1908; 
he was a native of Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. 
Conn have one son, Clarence H., who was 
born on the 14th of May, 1894, and who is 
now a student in the Eastern high school of 
Detroit. 



638 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



THOMAS A. WADSWORTH. 

Detroit's pre-eminence as a manufacturing 
and commercial center is not based upon the 
pronounced industrial advancement of the past 
decade alone, but finds its source not less in 
those ably conducted enterprises which have 
long since passed the status of incipiency and 
have grown to extensive proportions. Such 
an industry, and the largest individually con- 
ducted concern of the sort in the west, is that 
represented in the Western Cigar Box Fac- 
tory, of which the subject of this review is 
the sole owner, having built up the splendid 
business from a nucleus of modest order. The 
enterprise was established nearly forty years 
ago and its growth has been consecutive and 
substantial, while Mr. Wadsworth has gained 
recognition as a thoroughly progressive busi- 
ness man and public-spirited citizen, contribut- 
ing a due quota to the development of the 
"Greater Detroit,"— the larger Detroit, both in 
civic and industrial lines. 

Thomas Abner Wadsworth is a native of 
the state of Michigan, having been bom in 
Redford, Wayne county, on the 26th of June, 
1844, and being a son of Thomas and Mariet- 
ta (Lee) Wadsworth, the former of whom 
was born at Farmington, Connecticut, in Oc- 
tober, 1805, a representative of a family es- 
tablished in New England in the colonial 
epoch, and the latter of whom was born near 
Utica, New York. Thomas Wadsworth was 
reared and educated in his native state, and 
learned the trade of ship carpenter. As a 
young man he came to Michigan and settled 
at Redford, becoming one of the pioneers of 
that section of Wayne county. There he took 
up a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of 
wild land, securing the same from the govern- 
ment. A large portion of this tract he re- 
claimed from the virgin forest, developing a 
productive farm. In addition to the work thus 
accomplished he long continued to follow 
his trade, in which line his able services were 
in di.stinctive requisition in connection with 
construction work on lake vessels. He took up 



his residence in Detroit in 1846, and for a 
number of years he was a valued employe at 
the local shipyards, being a skilled artisan 
and having done a large amount of important 
work as a ship-carpenter. His first place of 
residence in Detroit was on Antoine street 
near Congress, and later he erected for him- 
self a house on Riopelle street, near Monroe 
street, where the family home was maintained 
for a number of years. Finally he built an- 
other residence on the lot now designated as 
385 Monroe street, and the closing years of 
his life were passed in the family of his daugh- 
ter. Mrs. George W. Davis, of Saginaw, 
Michigan, where he died in January, 1890 at 
the venerable age of eighty-five years. He 
continued in the work of his trade until 1870 
and thereafter he lived practically retired un- 
til his demise. He was a man of steriing at 



tributes of character and ever commanded the 
confidence and esteem of all who knew him 
He espoused the cause of the Republican party 
at the time of its organization and ever after- 
ward continued a stalwart supporter of its 
principles and policies. He was a spiritualist 
and his wife a member of the Methodist 
church. They became the parents of eight 
children, of whom two are living, the subject 
of this sketch being the elder and his sister 
Henrietta R., being the wife of John Robinson,' 
a retired building contractor of Detroit. 

Thomas A. Wadsworth, whose name initi- 
ates this article, was afforded the advantages 
of the common schools of Detroit, and in i860 
at the age of sixteen years, he here entered 
the employ of H. S. Robinson, a manufac- 
turer of cigar boxes, in whose shop he learned 
the trade, becoming a competent mechanic in 
this line. Later he was in the employ of P. 
N. Kneeland, who was a manufacturing tin- 
smith. 

As a loyal son of the republic it was Mr. 
Wadsworth's patriotic spirit which impelled 
him to offer his services in defense of the Union 
when its integrity was placed in jeopardy 
through armed rebellion, and he subordinated 
all other interests when, in August, 1862, he 



DETROIT AKD WAYNE COUNTY 



639 



enlisted as a private in Company A, Twenty- 
fourth Michigan Vokmteer Infantry, which 
was assigned to the First Division of the Iron 
Brigade of the First Army Corps of the Army 
of Potomac, with which command he contin- 
ued in active service until April 29, 1863, 
when he was so severely wounded, at the bat- 
tle of Fitz Hugh's Crossing, Virginia, as to in- 
capacitate him for further field service. While 
in the hospital at Point Lookout, Maryland, 
he was appointed to a clerical position in the 
office of the medical director of this hospital, 
and he thus continued to serve until the close 
of the war, having been mustered out, under 
general orders, in May, 1865, and having duly 
received his honorable discharge. 

After the close of he war Mr. Wadsworth 
returned to Detroit, where he again entered 
the employ of H. S. Robinson, by whom he 
was sent to Chicago as superintendent of the 
branch cigar-box manufactory which the for- 
mer had there established. In 1867 he came 
again to Detroit and engaged in business for 
himself. In 1868 he associated himself with 
John Ballard and engaged in the manufactur- 
ing of cigar boxes, under the firm name of 
Wadsworth & Ballard. In the following year 
he purchased his partner's interest in the busi- 
ness and formed a similar alliance with Le- 
land B. Cook, under title of Wadsworth & 
Cook. In 1870, however, he again assumed 
sole control of the business, by purchase of 
Mr. Cook's interest, and since that time he has 
individually continued the enterprise, which, 
under his effective management, has grown to 
be one of broad scope and importance. The 
first location of the little factory was on Jef- 
ferson avenue, between Randolph and Bates 
streets, and in the initial stages employment 
was given to only three men. In 1870 he 
erected a two-story factory at 385 Croghan 
street (now Monroe avenue), and later he 
built on the same site a substantial brick struc- 
ture, three stories and basement and forty-five 
by one hundred and five feet in dimensions. 
In 1907 he completed another and adjoining 
building of the same height and lateral di- 



mensions, and the two constitute his present 
factory, which has an aggregate floor space of 
thirty-nine thousand square feet. The me- 
chanical equipment and all accessories of the 
plant are of the most modern approved type, 
and the factory is a model in every particular, 
with the best and most ample facilities for 
handling the great volume of business de- 
manded by its trade. Employment is given 
to a force of one hundred and fifty persons and 
the pay roll represents the annual expenditure 
of one hundred thousand dollars, — a fact of 
significance aside from the commercial im- 
portance of the enterprise. The factory is the 
largest of the sort in the west, and in an in- 
dividual sense Mr. Wadsworth is the leading 
cigar-box manufacturer in the Union ; all other 
factories of comparative scope being controlled 
by corporations or firms of two or more in- 
dividuals. The output of the plant in 1907 
was nearly one hundred and ninety thousand 
boxes, and the products of the establishment 
have ever maintained a high reputation for 
superior excellence in material and construc- 
tion. The trade of the factory is principally 
confined to Michigan, and the major portion 
of the large output is utilized by Detroit cigar 
manufacturers, this city being recognized as 
one of the most extensive cigar marts in the 
Union. In the executive affairs of the busi- 
ness Mr. Wadsworth has an able assistant in 
the person of John A. Campbell, who has 
charge of accounts, correspondence and sales. 
Mr. Wadsworth has been an energetic, enter- 
prising and progressive business man and has 
achieved success through his own well directed 
efforts. He has other capitalistic interests of 
important nature and is the owner of a con- 
siderable amount of valuable realty in Detroit. 
For the past fifteen years he has been a mem- 
ber of the directorate of the Michigan Mutual 
Life Insurance Company, is a stockholder in 
the Home Savings Bank, and in Parke, Davis 
& Company, manufacturing chemists, besides 
having interests in other local industrial con- 
cerns. For three years he was a director of 
the Union National Bank* retaining this posi- 



640 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



tion until the institution was merged with the 
Dime Savings Bank. 

In poh'tics Mr. Wadsworth has ever given 
an unquaHfied allegiance to the Republican 
party, and he is at all times observant of civic 
duties, though he has never sought or desired 
public office. He is one of the appreciative and 
valued members of Detroit Post, No. 384, 
Grand Army of the Republic, of which he 
served as commander in 1894. He is extreme- 
ly fond of fishing, boating and motoring, and 
finds much of pleasure and diversion along 
these lines, while he has also enjoyed the ad- 
vantages of extensive travel. He is a thorough 
business man, democratic and affable in his in- 
tercourse with his fellow men, and he is held 
in high esteem in the business and social cir- 
cles of the city in which he has passed the 
major portion of his life. 

On the 15th of November, 1891, Mr. Wads- 
worth was united in marriage to Miss Jennie 
Roehl, daughter of the late Charles J. Roehl, 
who was a prominent wholesale dealer in meats 
in Detroit for many years. Mr. and Mrs. 
Wadsworth have one son, Harold Lee, who 
was born April 20, 1893, and who is now a 
student in the Detroit University School 
(1908). The beautiful family home, notable 
for its gracious hospitality, is located at 741 
Jefiferson avenue. 



GEORGE TAYLOR MOODY. 

Success in any line of occupation, in any 
avenue of business, is not a matter of spon- 
taneity ; but represents the result of the applica- 
tion of definite subjective forces and the con- 
trolling of objective agencies in such a way as 
to achieve desired ends. Mr. Moody has 
realized a large and substantial success in the 
business world and his career has well exem- 
plified the truth of the foregoing statements. 
He occupies to-day a large place in the com- 
mercial life of Detroit, the city in which he 
was born, and is best known to the public at 
large from his connection with the corporation 
of the Newcomb, Endicott Company, of which 
he is first vice-president, and with which he 



has served in various capacities since the 
founding of the business in 1868. 

George Taylor Moody was born in Detroit 
on the 1 6th of September. 1851, and is a soii 
of Robert and Elizabeth (Broadley) Moody. 
As a boy and youth he availed himself of the 
advantages of the public schools, and his 
initial service in connection with the practical 
activities of business life was that rendered in 
the position of errand boy in the retail dry- 
goods house of James W. Farrell, one of De- 
troit's leadmg merchants at that time and a 
citizen of prominence and influence. Then 
and later the business training of young 
Moody was secured under most favorable 
auspices, for the interested principals in the 
concerns with which he was thus identified in 
the formative period of his business life were 
men of sterling integrity and distinctive ability, 
and he learned only correct principles and 
methods. In 1868 Messrs. Cyrenius A. New- 
comb and the late Charles Endicott purchased 
the stock and business of Mr. Farrell and es- 
tablished the firm of Newcomb, Endicott & 
Company. This title has since been retained 
and within the long period of years that the 
business has been conducted under such title 
the history of the concern has been one de- 
noting continuous growth and expansion, while 
Its reputation has ever been unassailable. Mr. 
Moody was seventeen years of age at the time 
of the organization of the firm and had suf- 
ficiently proven his value in the original es- 
tablishment to be assured of a position under 
the new regime. It is interesting to note that 
in the forty years in which he has been asso- 
ciated with the business of this corporation he 
has filled every position from that of clerk to 
that of first vice-president. When he entered 
the employ of the original firm its corps of em- 
ployes numbered about twelve persons, and 
what has been wrought in the intervening 
period may well be imagined when it is stated 
that at present employment is given to some 
six hundred and fifty persons, and the business 
has grown to be the most extensive conducted 
by any wholesale and retail dry-goods store in 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



641 



Michigan, while the firm name is as well known 
throughout the state, practically, as Detroit 
itself. In the sketches of the lives of the found- 
ers of the enterprise, Messrs. C. A. Newcomb 
and Charles Endicott, appearing on other pages 
of this work, is given sufficient description of 
the growth and development of the business, 
so that repetition of the data is not here 
demanded. 

In 1887 Mr. Moody was admitted to a part- 
nership in the firm and on the incorporation 
of the business in 1903, he was elected first 
vice-president, of which office he has since re- 
mained incumbent. He is one of the foremost 
executives in the active management of the 
business. With a thorough knowledge of stock 
values in the manifold lines carried in the great 
establishment, and with an admirably devel- 
oped and reinforced executive talent, Mr. 
Moody may well look with satisfaction upon 
the results of his labors in connection with the 
business with which he has been connected since 
his boyhood days. Since the commencement 
of his career he has bent his energies definitely 
to the work in hand and became one of the 
most valued and trusted employes of the firm 
while still a youth. The appreciation of his 
efforts was shown in his advancement through 
the various grades of promotion, and he event- 
ually gained a tenacious grasp upon the mani- 
fold details of the business in all its depart- 
ments, thereby making himself indispensable. 
Such loyalty and zeal never fail of tangible 
recognition, and his career is one that offers 
both lesson and incentive to the young men of 
the present generation. It is ever essentially 
true that "labor conquers all," and that con- 
secutive industry is the master key which opens 
the door of success. He whose vanity or 
apathy holds him aloof from persistent effort 
will never make for himself a place in connec- 
tion with the productive energies and activities 
of life, and this fact can not be too often im- 
pressed upon the minds of the young men en- 
tering business or professional careers. 

In the work necessary to the building up of 
the local Young Men's Christian Association, 



Mr. Moody has given liberally of his means 
and time. His first employer, James W. Far- 
rell, was the first president of the Detroit or- 
ganization. Mr. Moody was finally elected 
president of the same organization and served 
for six years. He has been a member of this 
association since a boy and has served as a 
member of its board of directors for over 
twenty years. He is also a member of the 
Michigan state committee of the association. 
His efforts in behalf of the organization have 
been productive of most satisfactory results. 
He was one of the most active factors in pro- 
moting the movement for the erection of the 
new association building, now in course of con- 
struction, and which it is expected will be com- 
pleted within the year 1908, and in all phases 
of the work he maintains an abiding interest. 
A history of the local organization was written 
by him and a copy of the same is enclosed in 
the strong box which was sealed by Hon. Will- 
iam C. Maybury, mayor of Detroit, January i, 
1901, on the occasion of the two hundredth 
anniversary of the founding of the city and 
which is to remain unopened until a century 
from the date mentioned. Many other inter- 
esting documents were likewise placed in this 
historic receptacle. 

No citizen of Detroit is more distinctively 
loyal, enthusiastic and public spirited than is 
George T. Moody, and this fact is emphasized 
in his active association with the work of that 
well ordered and progressive body, the Detroit 
Board of Commerce, through whose agency 
has to a large extent been conserved the rapid 
industrial advancement of the city within the 
past few years. He has been especially active 
in the work of this organization and his labors 
received due recognition in his election to the 
office of first vice-president on April 9, 1907. 
He is president of the organization in 1908. 
He has been a life-long Republican. Essen- 
tially a business man, he has neither the time 
nor inclination for office, though he never neg- 
lects his civic duties and obligations. He is a 
member of the Detroit Club, and of its direc- 
torate; a life member of the Detroit Boat Club 



642 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



and the Fellowcraft Club; is vice-president and 
director of the Harbor Beach Association of 
Harbor Beach, Michigan; a member of the 
Merchants' Central Club and the Aldine Asso- 
ciation of New York City, the latter a literary 
and social club, and a member of the Detroit 
Country Club and the Detroit Automobile 
Club. He is a member of Corintliian Lodge, 
F. & A. M., of Detroit. He and his wife are 
valued and zealous members of the Woodward 
Avenue Baptist church, of which he is a trustee, 
and he is also a member of the board of trus- 
tees and of the finance committee of Kalamazoo 
College, an institution conducted under the 
auspices of the Baptist church. 

Mr. Moody is well known to the citizens of 
Detroit, where his circle of friends is coinci- 
dent with that of his acquaintances, as he is 
thoroughly democratic, genial and social. 
Progressiveness and energy have ever marked 
his management of the various affairs in which 
he has been concerned; he has the finesse of the 
intuitive business man, being diplomatic and 
ever maintaining control of himself, so that he 
is able the more effectively to direct and control 
the work of others. He holds a secure position 
in the confidence and esteem of the community 
and has contributed in large measure to the 
advancement and development of the city in 
whose still greater commercial and civic pres- 
tige he is a firm believer. 

Mr. Moody married on the 13th of August, 
1879, Miss Lena C. Riker, daughter of James 
Riker, a prominent citizen of Clintonville, 
Michigan. To them have been born two 
daughters,— Olive R., who was graduated from 
the Detroit Home & Day School and who fin- 
ished at Miss Cooper's School, New York city. 
She married, in June, 1906, George A. Wor- 
den, of Detroit. Marjorie E., the second in 
order of birth, was also educated in the Detroit 
Home & Day School and attended for a time 
Dana Hall at Wellesley, Massachusetts. 

The family have long been prominent in the 
best social circles of the city and the attractive 
home on Elliot street is known for its gracious 
hospitality. 



ALFRED E. COUCH. 

One of the leading restaurateurs of Detroit 
IS Alfred E. Couch, who successfully caters to 
an appreciative and extensive patronage 
through his fine system of restaurants. 

Mr. Couch was born in the city of Toronto, 
province of Ontario, Canada, on the 17th of 
May, 1876, and is a son of Dr. Walter J. and 
Harriet J. (Kane) Couch, who are natives of 
Ontario, Canada, and who have been residents 
of Detroit since 1891. The father is a rep- 
resentative physician and surgeon of this city, 
where he has a large practice and where he 
is held in high esteem by his professional con- 
freres. The subject of this sketch attended the 
public schools of his native city until the re- 
moval of the family to Detroit, at which time 
he was fifteen years of age. For the ensuing 
two years he continued his studies in the De- 
troit schools, and he then, in 1893, secured a 
clerical position in the establishment of L. 
Black & Company, the well known and pioneer 
opticians and dealers in optical goods. With 
this concern he remained until 1896, and there- 
after he was in the employ of Traub Brothers, 
jewelers, 118 Woodward avenue, until 1898.' 
In the year last mentioned Mr. Couch initiated 
his connection with the line of enterprise in 
which he has attained to so noteworthy suc- 
cess and prestige. He at that time became 
manager of the store and restaurant of J. C. 
Kuhn, and in the following year assumed the 
practical management of the restaurant con- 
ducted by the Morton Baking Company in the 
Loyal Guard Building, at the corner of Grand 
River avenue and Griswold street, where he 
gained still wider experience. 

On the 1st of October, 1899, Mr. Couch 
leased a room twenty-five by forty-five feet in 
dimensions at the corner of Rowland and State 
streets and there opened a popular-priced res- 
taurant. He made this first independent ven- 
ture practically without capitalistic reinforce- 
ment, but his technical knowledge, his energy 
and discrimination, and the effective service 
which he instituted and maintained, soon 
brought to his place a most desirable class of 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



643 



patronage. He began operations with only 
six employes and his receipts for the first day 
were summed up in eighteen dollars and thirty- 
five cents. He has since continued in the same 
location, having enlarged and otherwise im- 
proved the quarters from time to time, to meet 
the ever increasing demands of his trade, and 
at this location he now has a seating capacity 
for the accommodation of two hundred guests. 
This is distinctively one of the best equipped 
and most popular restaurants conducted at 
moderate prices to be found in the city, and 
every detail of the service is made as immacu- 
late as possible, while the cuisine is maintained 
at a particularly high standard. In this res- 
taurant employment is now given to forty-two 
persons. In 1904 Mr. Couch purchased of 
the Morton Baking Company the equipment of 
the restaurant in which he himself had pre- 
viously been employed, in the Royal Guard 
building, and in this eligibly located place he 
has since conducted a very successful business, 
as adjunct to the restaurant previously men- 
tioned. He refitted the new place in most attrac- 
tive style and here employment is now given to 
fifteen persons, Mr. Couch has given constant 
and scrupulous attention to every detail of his 
business, and the result is seen in the large 
trade controlled and in the high standing which 
is his in this line of enterprise. 

In politics Mr. Couch is independent, and 
in the Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with 
the following named bodies in Detroit : Kil- 
winning Lodge, No. 297, Free & Accepted 
Masons; King Cyrus Chapter, No. 133, Royal 
Arch Masons; Monroe Council, No. i. Royal 
& Select Masters ; Detroit Commandery, No. 
I , Knights Templars ; and Moslem Temple, 
Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the 
Mystic Shrine. He is also identified with De- 
troit Lodge, No. 34, Benevolent & Protective 
Order of Elks; the Knights of Pythias; Har- 
monic Society, and the Detroit Golf and De- 
troit Automobile Clubs. He is one of the loyal 
and appreciative member of the Detroit 
Board of Commerce, in whose promotive work 
he is emphatically interested. 



On the 1st of January, 1900, Mr. Couch 
was united in marriage to Miss Helen Andrew 
Morton, daughter of Robert Morton, presi- 
dent of the Morton Baking Company, of De- 
troit, and they have two children, — Margaret 
Phyllis, and Alfred Walter. Mrs. Couch is a 
member of the First Presbyterian church, and 
is prominent in its work and in the social life 
of the city. 

RALPH B. WILKINSON. 

A representative member of the bar of 
Michigan and senior member of the well known 
legal firm of Wilkinson & Younglove, was 
born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, on the 
28th of September, 1868, and is a son of Hon. 
Albert H. and Elvira M. (Allen) Wilkinson. 
Personal mention of his father appears in this 
work and contains a brief record of the family 
in Michigan. 

Ralph B. Wilkinson acquired his early edu- 
cation in the public schools of the city of De- 
troit and was graduated from the high school 
in 1887. Subsequently he entered the law 
offices of Wilkinson & Post, of which his father 
was senior member, as clerk, and during his 
service in this capacity read law. In 1888 he 
was appointed deputy clerk of the United 
States circuit court, under Walter S. Harsha, 
continuing his law studies meanwhile, and he 
was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1890. 
From 1890 until 1895 he was again associated 
with the firm of Wilkinson & Post, his duties 
being the care of the real-estate business of 
that firm. From 1895 ""til 1898 he practiced 
his profession on his individual account, mak- 
ing a specialty of real-estate law and meeting 
with success. In 1898 he formed with Lyle 
G. Younglove the firm of Wilkinson & 
Younglove, and they have since engaged in 
general practice. The firm is recognized as 
one of the most representative among the 
younger ones of the city and numbers among 
its clients several of the important insti- 
tutions of the city. They are attorneys for 
the Commercial Milling Company, Louis 
Peters & Company, Detroit Show Case Com- 



644 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



pany, Grace Harbor Lumber Company, C. W. 
Restrick Lumber Company, Lowrie & Rob- 
inson, H. H. Harding Lumber Company, and 
the Bradstreet Agency, Detroit district. 

Mr. Wilkinson has attained no little prom- 
inence in his profession, and has appeared in 
connection with important litigations in both 
the state and federal courts. His methods are 
clean and forceful and his knowledge of the 
law broad. He is interested in a number of 
manufacturing enterprises, in two of which 
he is a member of the board of directors, and 
he has been identified with the development of 
his native city. He is a Scottish Rite Mason, 
a member of Detroit Commandery, the Detroit 
Bar Association and the Detroit Credit Men's 
Association. 

Mr. Wilkinson married, on the nth of 
April, 1893, Miss Isabelle Leadley, daughter 
of the late Hon. John Leadley, who for manj 
years was prominent in the mercantile and 
civic life of Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkin- 
son are the parents of two children — Ruth and 
Albert G. 

JACOB COTNER, JR. 

On other pages of this work appears a re- 
view of the career of William C. Sprague, 
founder of the Sprague Correspondence 
School of Law and the Sprague Publishing 
Company, of both of which he is the head and 
of the same corporations the subject of the 
present sketch is secretary and treasurer. Mr. 
Cotner has proved an able coadjutor of Mr. 
Sprague, and his genius and initiative have 
helped make possible the upbuilding of these 
two splendid Detroit institutions, so that his 
work and personality demand recognition in 
this publication. 

Like his two executive associates in the en- 
terprises mentioned, Mr. Cotner is a native of 
the old Buckeye state, having been boi-n on a 
farm near the city of Mansfield, Richland 
county, Ohio, on the 14th of September, i860. 
He is a son of Jacob and Katherine (Hartman) 
Cotner, natives of Bavaria, Germany. They 
came to America as children and were early 



settlers and pioneers of Ohio. His father was 
a farmer by vocation and on retiring was an 
honored and influential citizen of Mansfield, 
where he continued to reside until his death, 
as did also his devoted wife. The subject of 
this review is indebted to the public schools of 
his native city for his early educational dis- 
cipline, and when fourteen years of age he 
left high school and initiated his business ca- 
reer by securing employment in a hardware 
store in Mansfield. With characteristic energy 
he applied himself to the duties which devolved 
upon him and made the most of the experi- 
ence gained, so that his advancement was as- 
sured. For five years he was in the employ of 
the firm of Wagner & Forney, of Mansfield, 
jobbers in hardware, and at the age of seven- 
teen years he became a traveling salesman for 
the firm, being thus engaged for two years and 
making for himself a record that gained to 
him similar employment with the wholesale 
hardware house of the McLitosh-Huntington 
Company, of Cleveland, Ohio. He was trav- 
eling representative for this concern for a 
period of two years, at the expiration of which 
he severed his connection with the same and 
organized the Mansfield Bolt & Nut Com- 
pany, which was incorporated with a capital 
stock of twenty thousand dollars and which 
engaged in the manufacturing of bolts and 
nuts, by an improved process. Mr. Cotner was 
the first president of this company, but re- 
tired after being its head for one year, hav- 
ing disposed of his interest in the enterprise. 
After his retirement from this company Mr. 
Cotner was employed for one year as travel- 
ing salesman for the Warren Packard Com- 
pany, of Warren, Ohio, wholesale iron deal- 
ers. During the succeeding two years Mr. 
Cotner represented the Simmons Hardware 
Company, of St. Louis, Missouri; the next 
year he devoted to the Baxter Stove Company, 
of Mansfield, Ohio, for which he was a trav- 
eling salesman; and later, for two years, he 
was similarly engaged with t"he Fletcher-Jenks 
Hardware Company, of Detroit, and the Pen- 
insular Stove Company, of Detroit. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



645 



In 1889 Mr. Cotner made a radical change 
in occupation, — one which has inured to his 
success and prestige in no insignificant degree. 
He identified himself with the educational and 
publishing interests of William C. Sprague, in 
Detroit, and was made secretary and treasurer 
of the Collector Publishing Company, the 
nucleus of the extensive business now conduct- 
ed by the Sprague Publishing Company, which 
now publishes in Detroit The American Boy, 
the American Legal News, the Law Students' 
Helper, and a list of technical books compris- 
ing nearly one hundred titles. Since the in- 
corporation of this company Mr. Cotner has 
continued as its secretary and treasurer, and 
this dual office he likewise holds with the 
Sprague Correspondence School of Law. 

From an article published in the Detroit 
Free Press and written by that honored and 
veteran journalist, John H. Greusel, are taken 
the following pertinent extracts: "J- Cotner, 
Jr., secretary and treasurer, has for eighteen 
years been in charge of the school and the pub- 
lishing company. He deals with their patrons 
in all money and business matters. His busi- 
ness experience has been wide, his fitness for 
the work is unquestioned. He began life as a 
chore boy in a hardware store. His pay for 
the first year was $75.00, but by diligence and 
adaptability he advanced from one depart- 
ment to the other until he went on the road. 
He was known as one of the best salesmen in 
the hardware and stove industry. He early 
learned to handle an immense amount of de- 
tail, and carries himself with the ease of a 
man who does large things well. Mr. Cot- 
ner's knowledge of advertising has been of im- 
portance in building up the 'American Boy.' 
He traveled throughout the country, met and 
convinced many agency men who were skep- 
tical of the field for a boy's paper. Cotner is 
a dynamo of industry, and his ideas are safe 
and sane. The columns of the American Boy 
reflect many of his plans for attracting and 
keeping the interest of young America." 

In political matters Mr. Cotner is found ar- 
rayed as a stalwart supporter of the principles 



and policies for which the Republican party 
stands sponsor, and as a citizen he is intrinsi- 
cally loyal and public-spirited. For eight years 
he was a director of the Detroit Young Men's 
Christian Association, in whose work and ob- 
jects he maintains a deep interest, and for the 
past eight years he has also been a member 
of the board of trustees of the First Congre- 
gational church of Detroit. He was one of the 
active factors in effecting the organization of 
the Ohio Society of Detroit, was its first sec- 
retary and treasurer, and was the third to be 
called to the presidency of the society. He is 
fond of out-door sports and is an enthusiastic 
golfer, being a member of the Detroit Golf 
Club. 

In the year 1889 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Cotner to Miss M. Etta Trow- 
bridge, daughter of Demetrius N. and Dor- 
othy M.Trowbridge, of Toledo, Ohio. Mrs. Cot- 
ner died in Detroit, in 1899, and is survived by 
three children, — Emerson Trowbridge, Dor- 
othy Katherine, and Russell Murray. In No- 
vember, 1 90 1, Mr. Cotner contracted a second 
marriage, being then united to Miss Cecilia L. 
Burke, daughter of William Burke, during his 
life a representative citizen of Ann Arbor, 
Michigan. 



HARRY F. CHIPMAN. 

To have attained to success and prestige in 
a profession which has been dignified and hon- 
ored by the services of his ancestors in at least 
three generations, either on the bench or in the 
active practice of law, or even in both, cannot 
be other than a satisfaction to the subject 
of this review, who is a son of one of Michi- 
gan's most honored jurists and legists, the 
late Hon. J. Logan Chipman, of Detroit, who 
presided on the bench of the superior court in 
this city for eight years and who laid aside the 
judicial ermine only when called upon to rep- 
resent his native state in congress, of which he 
was a member at the time of his death. A 
memoir on other pages of this volume briefly re- 
views the life history of this distinguished citi- 
zen, offering also data concerning the family 



646 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



genealogy, and thus it is not demanded that 
such subject matter be again touched upon in 
this sketch of the Hfe of his son, who is well 
upbearing professional and civic honors of the 
name. 

Harry F. Chipman was born in Detroit, on 
the 29th of June, 1859, and he has never fal- 
tered in his allegiance to and love for his na- 
tive city, which has been his home thus far in 
his life and which is hallowed to him by the 
gracious memories and associations of the past. 
He is indebted to the public schools of De- 
troit for his early educational discipline and 
in 1878 he assumed a position with the Paris, 
Cumberland Gap & Southern Railroad. When 
he returned to Detroit he began the study of 
law, having as his preceptors his father and 
the Hon. Don M. Dickinson. Mr. Chipman 
was admitted to the bar of his native state in 
1880, and a few months later, within the same 
year, he was elected to the office of circuit- 
court commissioner, of which position he re- 
mained incumbent for two years, gaining val- 
uable experience and proving a most satisfac- 
tory official. He has since that time been 
called to other positions of public trust and re- 
sponsibility, and in each has been faithful and 
efficient. In 1894 Governor Pingree appoint- 
ed him a member of the board of police com- 
missioners of Detroit and in 1896 he resigned 
this office to become the Democratic candidate 
for sheriff of Wayne county. He was elected 
to the shrievalty by a gratifying majority and 
held the office during 1897-8, giving a force- 
ful, diligent and successful administration and 
making a splendid record in a field of labor 
far removed from that for which he had tech- 
nically trained himself. In 1900 he was made 
the candidate of his party for the office of cir- 
cuit judge, but met defeat, as did the other 
candidates on the Democratic ticket. He now 
gives his undivided attention to the work of 
his profession, being recognized as a strong 
trial lawyer and safe and conservative coun- 
sel, and having been retained in many impor- 
tant cases, with a regular counsellor clientage 
of distinctively representative character. He 



IS an active worker in behalf of the cause of 
his political party and is one of the leaders in 
Its local ranks. He is identified with various 
professional organizations, as well as those of 
fraternal and social order, and is a communi- 
cant of the Protestant Episcopal church, both 
he and his wife being members of St. Paul's 
church. 

In 1891, was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Chipman to Miss Rose C. Copeland 
daughter of David Copeland, of Detroit, and 
they have three children.— Etole, Dorothy 
and Helen. 

It is scarcely necessary to state that Mr. 
Chipman has a wide acquaintanceship in his 
native city, where his popularity is of the most 
unqualified order, and no citizen views with 
greater pride and satisfaction the effective 
manipulation through which the advancement 
of the "Greater Detroit" is being promoted 
with so decisive assurance. In this connection 
there is almost prophetic wisdom in the words 
uttered by his honored father in a public ad- 
dress in this city a number of years ago, and 
these words merit reproduction here, as do 
they, indeed, in other contemporarypublications 
which make note of the magnificent progress 
which the city is making : "There are many 
young men present in this hall to-day who are 
not aware of the fact that there is a Detroit 
ahead of them which they do not at present 
dream of. They have not given the future of 
this great city serious thought, and even if 
they had, but few are gifted with power to ap- 
preciate what she is destined to become. Time 
will be when Detroit will be one of the most 
populous cities in the country, favored in lo- 
cation, beautiful in architecture, and extensive 
in commerce." 



FLOYD G. ARMS. 

As one of the representative business men 
of the younger generation in Detroit, consid- 
eration is consistently given in this publication 
to Mr. Arms, who is secretary of the Hugh 
Wallace Company, of whose business a de- 
scription is given on other pages, so that a 
recapitulation is not here necessary. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



647 



Floyd G. Arms takes due satisfaction in 
claiming the fine old Wolverine state as the 
place of his nativity. He was born at South 
Lyon, Oakland county, Michigan, on the 28th 
of January, 1879, and is a son of Edwin I. 
and Alice M. (Gready) Arms, both likewise 
natives of this state and representatives of hon- 
ored pioneer families. The Arms family was 
founded in America in the early colonial epoch, 
by William Arms, who was a native of the 
Isle of Man and who immigrated to the new 
world in 1660, settling near Conway, Massa- 
chusetts, in which state the name has contin- 
ued to be one of prominence in the several 
succeeding generations. In the old Bay state 
to-day are numerous descendants of this co- 
lonial ancestor, and representatives of the 
name are also found in many other states of 
the Union. Israel Arms, who was a native of 
Conway, Massachusetts, was the founder of 
the family in Michigan. He came to this state 
in the early pioneer days and secured a tract 
of government land, on a portion of which 
the village of Webster is now located. He 
developed a considerable portion of his land, 
reclaiming the same from the forest wilds 
and later removed to Brighton township, Liv- 
ingston county, where he continued in agri- 
cultural pursuits and also did a profitable busi- 
ness in the manufacturing of the old-time 
cradles, utilized in the harvesting of grain in 
the pioneer days. He died in 1856, one of 
the honored pioneers and influential citizens of 
the county to whose development and prog- 
ress he contributed most materially. His 
youngest son was Edwin I. Arms, father of 
the subject of this review. 

Edwin I. Arms was born on the old home- 
stead in Livingston county, Michigan, in 
1840, and was reared to the sturdy discipline 
of the farm, in whose work he early began to 
assist. His educational advantages were those 
afforded in the district schools of the locality 
and period. Upon the death of his honored 
father he became manager of the estate and the 
chief support of his mother and sisters. Later 



he became a successful contractor, and in pur- 
suance of his business in this line he passed 
some time in the state of Illinois. In 1868 
was solemnized his marriage to Miss Alice M. 
Gready, daughter of James Gready, who was 
a native of Bristol, England, and who settled 
in Wayne county, Michigan, in 1835, — about 
two years prior to the admission of the state 
to the Union. The section in which he then 
established his pioneer home is now included 
in Oakland county. Mr. Gready purchased a 
large tract of government land and reclaimed 
a valuable farm, to which he continued to give 
his supervision until his death, which occurred 
in 1869. His estate was then placed under 
the control and management of Edwin I. Arms, 
whose wife was the principal heir, and with 
the passing of years the property greatly ap- 
preciated in value, receiving the attention of 
Mr. Arms until he was summoned to the life 
eternal: his death occurred on the 21st of 
April, 1907. He was a man of forceful in- 
dividuality and sterling integrity, exerted 
much influence in his community and ever 
commanded the uniform confidence and es- 
teem of his fellow men. He is survived by his 
widow and their four children, — Anna V., wife, 
of Lucius B. Rodger, of Detroit; Louise L., 
wife of Hugh Wallace, of Detroit; Nellie A., 
who remains with her widowed mother at their 
home in South Lyon; and Floyd G., who is 
the immediate subject of this sketch. 

Floyd G. Arms secured his early education- 
al disciphne in the public schools of his native 
village, where he completed a course in the 
high school, in which he was graduated as a 
member of the class of 1895. In the same 
year, at the age of sixteen years, he initiated 
his business career by assuming the position of 
shipping clerk in the establishment of the Acme 
Heating & Ventilating Company, of Detroit. 
This company was soon afterward succeeded 
by the Detroit Cold Storage Company, of 
whose plant Mr. Arms was superintendent 
from 1896 until 1898, inclusive. He then en- 
tered the Central high school in Detroit, in 
which he was graduated as a member of the 



648 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



class of 1899. After leaving the high school 
he became a traveling salesman for the West- 
ern Robe Company, of Detroit, and with this 
institution he has since been identified. In 
1904 he became superintendent of the com- 
pany's plant, and in 1906 was elected secretary 
of the company, having shown much execu- 
tive ability and contributed materially to the 
advancement of the enterprise. In May, 1907, 
the business was incorporated under the pres- 
ent title, — the Hugh Wallace Company, and 
he has since continued incumbent of the office 
of secretary, whose duties receive careful and 
discriminating attention, while he also has gen- 
eral supervision of the manufacturing depart- 
ment and of the purchasing of supplies. Mr. 
Arms is an alert and progressive young busi- 
ness man and is loyal and public-spirited as a 
citizen. In politics he gives his support to the 
principles and policies for which the Republic- 
an party stands sponsor, and he and his wife 
are member of the Central Methodist Episco- 
pal church. 

In April, 1905, Mr. Arms was united in 
marriage to Miss Henrietta G. Swan, daugh- 
ter of John Swan, who is a native of Scot- 
land and who is numbered among the repre- 
sentative citizens of Chatham, province of On- 
tario, Canada. Mr. and Mrs. Arms have two 
children, — Wallace Gilbert, born on the loth 
of May, 1906, and Virginia, born January 24, 
1908. 

CHARLES B. WARREN. 

As one who stands a splendid type of the 
progressive and loyal men of the younger gen- 
eration who have caused the city of Detroit to 
make such magnificent industrial and civic ad- 
vancement within the last decade, Mr. Warren 
is specially entitled to recognition in this work. 
He is one of the leading members of the Michi- 
gan bar, being engaged in the practice of his 
profession in the city of Detroit. His finan- 
cial interests are of wide scope and im- 
portance and enlist his services as an executive 
in a number of the great industrial and financial 
concerns of the city and state. 



Mr. Warren was born in Bay City, Michi- 
gan, on the loth day of April, 1870, and is a 
son of Hon. Robert L. and Caroline (Beecher) 
Warren, both of whom were born in the state 
of Michigan. Robert L. Warren was reared 
and educated in Flint, and is a graduate of the 
University of Michigan. He had much to do 
with the development and upbuilding of the 
Saginaw valley. He has attained distinction 
as a newspaper man in Michigan and as a citi- 
zen of great ability, wielding much influence 
in civic and political affairs. He was the 
founder of both the Bay City Journal and Sagi- 
naw Daily Enterprise, and was one of the first 
to publish a daily paper in the Saginaw valley. 
He was in the state legislature in the early days 
and has long been president of the board of 
trustees of the Michigan School for the Deaf, 
at Flint. He is now a resident of the city of 
Ann Arbor, and is editor of and controls the 
daily newspapers of Ann Arbor, all of which 
he has recently consolidated into one company. 
The Second district of Michigan selected him 
as one of its delegates to the national Repub- 
lican convention in 1908. 

Charies B. Warren passed his boyhood and 
youth in Bay City and Albion, Michigan. He 
prepared for college at the preparatory school 
of Albion College, and continued his studies 
for a time in Albion College. He was president 
of his freshman class and was elected managing 
editor of the college paper in his sophomore 
year, but left Albion College and entered the 
junior class of the University of Michigan in 
1889 and was graduated in 1891, receiving the 
degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. During his 
two years in Ann Arbor he gave especial at- 
tention to the study of history, philosophy and 
constitutional law. His class founded the lit- 
erary magazine of the University, "The In- 
lander," and Mr. Warren was elected by his 
class as the first editor-in-chief. After grad- 
uating he came to Detroit and entered the law 
office of Hon. Don M. Dickinson, under whose 
able preceptorship he continued his legal 
studies, being admitted to the bar of the state 
in 1893. To further fortify himself in the 





{au^-c^ . 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



649 



learning of his chosen profession, he entered 
the Detroit Law School, then under the able 
management of Prof. Floyd Mechem, who later 
became one of the University of Michigan's 
most valuable law professors, in which school 
he was graduated as a member of the class of 
1893, receiving his well earned degree of Bach- 
elor of Laws. He continued to be associated 
in practice with Mr. Dickinson until 1897, 
when he formed a closer relationship with the 
latter, being admitted to partnership as a mem- 
ber of the firm of Dickinson, Warren & War- 
ren, one of the strongest law firms in the state 
at that time. He remained thus associated 
until January, 1900, when the firm of Shaw, 
Warren & Cady was organized, his associates 
in the same being Messrs. John C. Shaw and 
William B. Cady and later Herbert K. Oakes. 
This professional alliance still obtains and the 
firm is one of the large, strong law firms of the 
state, doing a very extensive business. 

In 1896 Mr. Warren was appointed associate 
counsel for the United States before the Joint 
High Commissioners who adjudicated the 
claims of Great Britain against the United 
States in the historic controversy involving the 
rights of the two nations in the Behring sea. 
This was a great honor and a most important 
work and immediately gave Mr. Warren a 
prominence in his profession and a standing in 
the front of the younger members of the Mich- 
igan bar. He is a member of the executive 
committee of the American Society of Inter- 
national Law, of which Hon. Elihu Root is 
president. The only other member from Mich- 
igan is Hon. James B. Angell, president of the 
University of Michigan. The calling of Mr. 
Warren to this position indicates the estimate 
placed upon his ability and his knowledge of 
the science of jurisprudence and of diplomatic 
procedure. For two years Mr. Warren served 
as counsel for the legal committee of the De- 
troit Board of Commerce, and his services are 
constantly sought as counsel by important busi- 
ness interests. 

Notwithstanding the exactions of his large 
professional business, Mr. Warren is an active 



factor in various important corporations in 
which he is financially interested, and he is ever 
ready to lend his aid and influence in the fur- 
therance of enterprises which tend to ad- 
vance the upbuilding and material and civic 
prosperity of his state and home city. He 
is a member of the directorate of the Old 
Detroit National Bank and that of the National 
Bank of Commerce. He was chairman of the 
committee that organized the latter bank, and 
is now its general counsel. He is a director 
and president of the Michigan Sugar Company, 
one of the largest industrial factors in Michi- 
gan, having a capital stock in excess of ten 
million dollars. This corporation is a consoli- 
dation of some of the largest beet-sugar manu- 
facturing plants in the state, owned by some of 
Michigan's strongest financial men, and Mr. 
Warren was the legal adviser in the organiza- 
tion and having been financially interested in 
one of the early companies, was elected the 
first president of the new corporation. He is 
interested in other local industrial corporations. 
Though a staunch advocate of the principles 
and policies for which the Republican party 
stands sponsor, Mr. Warren has never sought 
political preferment. He was chosen one of 
Michigan's delegates-at-large to the Repub- 
lican national convention of 1908, which nomi- 
nated Hon. William H. Taft for the presidency. 
He is a member of the Detroit Club, the Coun- 
try Club of Detroit, the Yondotega Club, the 
University Club of New York city, the East 
Saginaw Club of Saginaw, the Huron Moun- 
tain Club, the Caledon Mountain Club, of 
Canada, and of various other social bodies in 
Detroit. He is also a valued member of the 
Detroit Board of Commerce. He was vice- 
president of the company which built the Outer 
Belt Line in Detroit, being associated in this 
enterprise with the late Joseph H. Berry and 
Colonel Hecker. He is vice-chairman of the 
alumni committee of the University of Michi- 
gan, which has charge of the erection of the 
beautiful memorial building on the University 
campus. 



650 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



On the 2d day of December, 1902, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Mr. Warren to Miss 
Helen Wetmore, a daughter of Charles Wet- 
more, of Detroit, and a niece of Senator James 
McMillan. They have three sons, — Wetmore 
Warren, Charles B. Warren, Jr., and Robert 
Warren. 

THOMAS E. CLARK. 

In no field of industrial enterprise has there 
been so marvelous development and progress 
within the past two decades as in that of ap- 
plied electricity, and among those who have 
contributed in no insignificant way to this ad- 
vancement is numbered the subject of this 
sketch, who has long been identified with prac- 
tical and scientific electrical work, and who has 
invented and brought out a large number of 
important devices and improvements connected 
with the electric-lighting, storage battery and 
street-railway motor work. His research work 
and the inventions and patents he has brought 
out in the wireless telegraph and telephone 
field have won for him international reputa- 
tion. He is at the present time president and 
general manager of the Clark Electrical En- 
gineering Company and vice-president and di- 
recting engineer of the Clark Wireless Tele- 
graph & Telephone Company, — two of the im- 
portant industrial concerns which are contrib- 
uting to the prestige of the "Greater Detroit." 

Mr. Clark was born in Tecumseh, Essex 
county, province of Ontario, Canada, on the 
loth of May, 1869, and is a son of Thomas 
and Mary (Mero) Clark, the former of whom 
was born in Detroit, of English parents, and 
the latter of whom was a daughter of Charles 
Mero, who was an honored early French set- 
tler and pioneer of Essex county, Ontario, 
where he was a prosperous farmer and influ- 
ential citizen. Thomas Clark was for thirty- 
eight years in the employ of the Grand Trunk 
Railway Company, having been roadmaster on 
the Great Western division of the system dur- 
ing the major portion of this long period. He 
and his wife are now living in Detroit, Michi- 
gan. 



Thomas E. Clark, the immediate subject of 
this review, is indebted to the public schools 
of Essex county for his early educational 
training, and as a youth he learned the art of 
telegraphy in the Tecumseh & Belle River of- 
fice of the Grand Trunk Railway. In 1884, 
when but fifteen years of age, he worked in 
the position of night operator at several points 
on the Grand Trunk Railway, and in the 
autumn of the same year he took up a position 
in the employ of the Detroit Electrical Works, 
his object being to acquire a practical knowl- 
edge of the manufacturing of electrical instru- 
ments and appliances. In the spring of 1885, 
he went to the "Soo," Michigan, where he be- 
came connected with the managers of the West- 
ern Union Telegraph and assisted in the man- 
agement of the Bell telephone exchange. He 
remained there for a period of five years. Dur- 
ing the year 1888 he assisted in the electrical 
installation of the local plant of the Edison 
Electric Light Company. In 1889 Mr. Clark 
returned to Detroit, where he entered the em- 
ploy of the Detroit Light & Power Company, 
being identified with the equipment department 
until the autum of 1892, when he accepted a 
position as electrical engineer in the electric- 
launch department of the General Electric 
Company, for which he appeared as electrical 
engineer in charge of this department in the 
exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition, 
Chicago, in the following year, having in his 
charge the largest collection of storage-battery 
boats ever assembled together up to that time. 
Mr. Clark followed up the electric-launch work 
with the Electric Launch Company. After the 
world's fair was over at Chicago, in 1893, ^e 
went to Tampa Bay, Florida, and installed a 
large electric power plant and eight electric 
launches in connection with the Tampa Bay 
hotel, in 1894, also installing the General Elec- 
tric Company's first charging stations and suc- 
cessful electric launches operated on the Erie 
canal at Schenectady, New York, placing 
charging stations and electric-lighting instal- 
lations (1894) at Haverhill, Massachusetts; 
Cleveland, Ohio; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Du- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



651 



luth, Minnesota; Rockford, Illinois, and Pueb- 
lo, Colorado. In September, 1894, he severed 
his connection with the General Electric Com- 
pany at Schenectady and took up electrical en- 
gineering and superintending of construction 
for the Buffalo Electric Company, at Buffalo, 
New York, remaining at Buffalo until Sep- 
tember, 1897. During his stay at Buffalo Mr. 
Clark had charge of some of the largest elec- 
trical isolated-plant installations in that city, 
as well as the complete electrical work in some 
of the largest and most noted residences on 
Delaware avenue. In September, 1897, he 
again took up his residence in Detroit, in con- 
nection with the Clark Electric Company, at 
176 Jefferson avenue, where he devoted him- 
self to developing a number of electrical patents 
and devices. In April, 1898, he severed his 
connection with the Clark Electric Company 
and took up special electrical-engineering work 
in the employ of the General Electric Launch 
Company, of Morris Heights, New York city. 
During the year 1898 he made some of the 
largest installations of electric-launch equip- 
ments that had ever been attempted up to that 
time, installing at Windsor, Connecticut; 
Mamaroneck, Long Island, and charging sta- 
tions and electric-launch installations at pomts 
on Long Island Sound. Mr. Clark was the 
first to make successful installations of elec- 
tric launches on Lakes George and Champlain, 
as well as on Upper Saranac lake, in the Adi- 
rondack mountains, devoting the whole year 
to the installation of charging stations and 
electric launches for some of the wealthy, 
large-island owners in these vicinities. 

While employed in this work Mr. Clark 
took up the study and investigation of high- 
frequency and high-tension alternating cur- 
rents, instituting many experiments along the 
line of wireless telegraph, or electrical-wave 
telegraph as it was then called. Mr. Clark was 
the first to show in New York city a small ap- 
paratus of this kind, in a lecture and talk given 
to the Electrical Society in New York city. 
In December, 1898, Mr. Clark again took up 
his residence in Detroit and engaged in busi- 



.:ess for himself, opening an establishment at 
166 Randolph street, under the title of the 
Electric Service & Appliance Company, 
and here carried on the manufacture of 
electrical devices, besides doing general elec- 
trical engineering and contract work. During 
the fall of 1899 and the spring of 1900 Mr. 
Clark brought out one of the first automobiles 
or electrical vehicles that ever operated suc- 
cessfully on the streets of Detroit, — the stor- 
age batteries, controllers and motors being all 
of his own design and manufactured by him- 
self. He tried to induce a number of the prom- 
inent men of the city to take up the automobile 
work but none of them at that time could see 
any future for the automobile business. In 
fact some of the men who have entered the 
field and made a success were approached at 
that time and predicted that the automobile 
would be of no commercial value. As the au- 
tomobile business developed in 1901, during 
that year and in the year 1902 Mr. Clark had 
the largest automobile garage in the city, in 
connection with his shop at 166 Randolph 
street, and took care of many of the first elec- 
tric vehicles that were brought to the city, in- 
stalling and manufacturing the charging ap- 
paratus and other equipments for such ve- 
hicles as were placed with customers here, be- 
sides having the care of these vehicles. While 
connected with the Electric Service & Appli- 
ance Company Mr. Clark made many large in- 
stallations of isolated electric-light plants, in- 
stalling all motors and generators as well as 
telephone systems, numbering among his cus- 
tomers some of the largest firms in Detroit 
and vicinity. 

In October, 1903, he disposed of the Elec- 
tric Service & Appliance Company's business. 
During this period, i. e., from 1898 to 1901, 
Mr. dark was continually engaged in experi- 
menting with and developing the wireless tele- 
graph, and in the spring of 1901 he began the 
manufacture of instruments for wireless tele- 
graph and telephone service, the same being 
principally for the use of universities, colleges 
and technical schools, and he was the first to 



652 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



manufacture such instruments for educational 
purposes. At the present time six hundred 
sets of his instruments are in use in educa- 
tional institutions of various grades. In 1903 
he sold apparatus of this order, as models, to 
the Japanese government, and in the year 1904 
he had a conference at Washington with Chief 
Signal Officer, General Greely, head of the 
United States signal corps, war department, 
through whose influence his instruments were 
secured for the use of the signal corps, — twelve 
complete sets being purchased immediately by 
the war department and installed on the forts 
and harbors surrounding New York ; one of 
the principle installations was at Fort Han- 
cock, at Sandy Hook, New York. Later the 
United States navy purchased a number of 
the Clark wireless-telegraph equipments for 
use in Cuba and on the Pacific coast and on bat- 
tle ships. 

The Clark Electric Engineering Company 
was organized and incorporated in 1903, with 
a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars, and 
of the same Mr. Clark has been president and 
manager from the start. In February, 1907, 
the Clark Wireless Telegraph & Telephone 
Company was incorporated under the laws of 
Arizona, with a capital of two and one-half 
million dollars, and this is the largest concern 
of the sort in the west. The officers of the 
company are here noted : Ruluff R. Sterling, 
president ; Thomas E. Clark, vice-president 
and directing engineer; N. A. Hawkins, sec- 
retary; and E. E. Collins, treasurer. These 
officers likewise constitute tlie board of direc- 
tors. More specific mention is made of this 
company on other pages of this work. The 
Clark Electric Engineering Company manu- 
factures electric specialties. This enterprise 
has become a large and substantial one. 

Mr. Clark is an associate member of the 
American Institute of Electrical Engineers 
and the National Electrical Contractors' As- 
sociation. He is a young man of marked en- 
ergy and business discrimination and his 
achievements in the domain of electrical science 
and especially in the wireless telegraph and 



telephone field, have won for him an interna- 
tional reputation, as his work accomplished 
in 1908 on the wireless telephone is rapidly be- 
ing recognized throughout the world of elec- 
trical science. This is especially creditable to 
him in view of the fact that his knowledge and 
advancement have been the diametrical results 
of his own efforts. As an inventor he has a 
high reputation and is recognized as an author- 
ity in all branches of practical electrical work. 

In politics Mr. Clark gives his allegiance to 
the Republican party, and he is prominently 
identified with the Masonic fraternity, in which 
he has attained to the thirty-second degree of 
the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. His Ma- 
sonic affiliations are here briefly noted : De- 
troit Lodge, No. 2, Free & Accepted Masons; 
Monroe Chapter, No. i, Royal Arch Masons; 
Damascus Commandery, No. 42, Knights 
Templars; Michigan Sovereign Consistory, 
Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite; and Moslem 
Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles 
of the Mystic Shrine. 

In June, 1894, Mr. Clark was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Agnes J. Laing, daughter of 
James M. Laing, a man prominent in the lum- 
bering interests of Bay City, Michigan, and 
the two children of this union are James H. 
and Thomas L. 



PRANK L. BROMLEY. 

The entire business career of Mr. Bromley 
has been in connection with industrial concerns 
of his native city, and the best voucher for his 
ability, integrity and progressiveness is that 
offered in the prestige he has attained as one 
of the representative business men of the 
younger generation in the Michigan metropo- 
lis. He is president and general manager of 
the Detroit Stoker & Foundry Company, and 
the Michigan Motor Castings Company, which 
company has its offices in Detroit with foundry 
located at Flint, Michigan. Description of 
these companies is given on other pages of this 
work. 

Mr. Bromley was born in Detroit, on the 
I St of January, 1866, being thus a welcome 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



663 



New Year's guest in the family circle of his 
parents, William and Caroline F. (Latham) 
Bromley, both of whom were born and reared 
in the state of Rhode Island, where the re- 
spective families were early founded and 
whence the father of the subject of this sketch 
came to Detroit in the '50s, here establishing 
himself in the retail furniture business, in 
which he continued for many years. He is 
now living retired in Detroit and holds a se- 
cure place in the esteem of the community 
with whose civic and business interests he has 
been so long and prominently identified. His 
cherished and devoted wife died in December, 
1900. Her ancestors were among the first 
settlers of Rhode Island, and she was a di- 
rect descendant of Roger Williams, whose 
name is so conspicuously linked with the his- 
tory of that smallest of the commonwealths of 
the American Union. 

Frank L. Bromley is indebted to the public 
schools of Detroit for his early educational 
discipline, which was supplemented by an ef- 
fective course in the Detroit Business Univer- 
sity. In 1884, 3t the age of eighteen years, 
he entered the employ of the Michigan Stove 
Company, starting in a minor capacity and 
winning promotion in turn to the positions of 
receiving clerk, paymaster, statistical clerk, 
traveling representative and sales manager, 
to which last oflice he was advanced in 1900. 
In 1902 he resigned this position to assume 
the management of the Detroit Foundry and 
Manufacturing Company, afterwards changed 
to the Detroit Stoker & Foundry Company, 
which organization he had effected in the pre- 
ceding year and of which he had been elected 
president at the time of incorporation. Since 
that time he has continued the executive head 
of the company and has so directed its policy 
and practical workings as to gain to the en- 
terprise a large and substantial business, which 
is constantly expanding in scope and impor- 
tance. 

Mr. Bromley is a Republican in his political 
proclivities, is a member of the Detroit Board 
of Commerce and the Detroit Boat Club, and 



is affiliated with Ashlar Lodge, No. 91, Free 
& Accepted Masons, and Peninsular Chapter, 
No. 16, Royal Arch Masons. Mr. Bromley 
holds membership in the Woodward Avenue 
Baptist church. 

On the 2nd of May, 1900, Mr. Bromley was 
united in marriage to Miss Kate A. Thomp- 
son, daughter of J. Wilfred Thompson, who 
is vice-president of the Detroit Stoker & Foun- 
dry Company, Michigan state agent for the 
Travelers' Life Insurance Company, of Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, and otherwise a figure of 
prominence in Detroit business circles. Mr. 
and Mrs. Bromley have three children, — Fran- 
ces, aged seven years; Katherine, aged four 
years; and Walter, aged two years (1908). 



JAMES W. AILES. 

Standing as the executive head of one of 
the pioneer picture-frame manufactories of 
the west, Mr. Ailes is one of the representa- 
tive business men of Detroit, being president 
of the corporation of C. D. Widman & Com- 
pany, of which specific mention is made in an- 
other department of this publication. 

Mr. Ailes was born in Alliance, Stark coun- 
ty, Ohio, on the 22d of April, 1858, and is a 
son of Amos Ailes, who was a native of Wash- 
ington county, Pennsylvania, and a descendant 
of Stephen Ailes, a French Huguenot who set- 
tled in Chester, Pennsylvania, in the pioneer 
epoch of that commonwealth, as did also two 
of his brothers. Amos Ailes was reared and 
educated in the old Keystone state and became 
an expert mechanic. For forty years he was 
foreman in the car shops of the Pittsburg, Fort 
Wayne & Chicago Railroad at Alliance, Ohio, 
where he continued to reside until his death, 
which occurred in 1895. His wife, whose 
maiden name was Mary Ann Allman, was 
born in the state of Pennsylvania and is now 
residing at Alliance, Ohio. 

The subject of this sketch is indebted to the 
public schools of his native city for his early 
educational discipline, and he has the distinc- 
tion of having been a member of the first class 



654 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



to be graduated in the Alliance high school, — 
that of 1874. He thereafter continued his 
studies in Mount Union College, in Alliance, 
but in 1875 he initiated his business career by 
taking charge of a department in the estab- 
lishment of W. R. Reid & Company, of Cleve- 
land, dealers in photographic materials and 
supplies. In 1876 he became a traveling rep- 
resentative for Teal & Sargent, of Cleveland, 
who were engaged in the same line of enter- 
prise, and in the following year he took up his 
residence in Detroit, where he has maintained 
his home for more than thirty years. Here he 
became a salesman for C. D. Widman & Com- 
pany, with which concern he has since been 
continuously identified. In 1882 he was ad- 
mitted to partnership in the business and upon 
the incorporation of the company, under the 
same title, in 1884, he became vice-president 
of the same. Of this office he continued in- 
cumbent until the retirement of J. C. Widman, 
in 1900, when he succeeded the latter in the 
presidency of the company, a position which 
he has since retained. To his well directed 
efforts and progressive administrative policy 
has been largely due the continued success of 
the extensive business now controlled by the 
company, and as a citizen he has ever been 
loyal and public-spirited. For nearly a third 
of a century Mr. Ailes was a traveling sales- 
man, and in this field he gained a high repu- 
tation and through his contact in a direct way 
with the customers of his own house he greatly 
advanced the prestige of the same. He is a 
member of the Detroit Board of Commerce, 
the Michigan Knights of the Grip, the Toledo 
Traveling Men's Association, the United Com- 
mercial Travelers, and the Masonic fraternity. 
In politics Mr. Ailes is aligned as a staunch 
supporter of the cause of the Republican party, 
and he and his wife hold membership in the 
Martha Holmes Memorial Methodist Epis- 
copal church, on whose official board he has 
served for a number of years past. His loy- 
alty to his native state is signified by his mem- 
bership in the Ohio Society of Detroit. 



In 1879 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Ailes to Miss Frances H. Bradley, daugh- 
ter of George Bradley, a representative mer- 
chant of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, and they 
have one son, Edgar R., sales manager of the 
Hugh Wallace Company, of Detroit. 



ROBERT HUBBERT. 

Numbered among the sterling pioneer citi- 
zens of Detroit, where he has maintained his 
home for more than sixty years, is Robert 
Hubbert, who has witnessed the development 
of the beautiful ''City of the Straits" from the 
status of a somewhat obscure western town to 
its present position as one of the important in- 
dustrial and commercial centers of the country. 
To both the civic and material progress of the 
city he has contributed his quota and now, in 
the quiet retirement of his attractive home, he 
may look back with satisfaction upon a career 
marked by well directed endeavor and suc- 
cessful enterprise. 

Mr. Hubbert was born at Marcham-le-fen, 
Lincolnshire, England, on the 12th of Feb- 
ruary, 1825, being the third son of Thomas 
and Sarah (Roberts) Hubbert, both of whom 
were natives of that same county, where the 
respective families had been established for 
several generations and where representatives 
are to be found in the present day. The father 
followed the vocation of linen draper in Eng- 
land, and was engaged in this line of mercan- 
tile enterprise in his native land until his immi- 
gration to America. His father had likewise 
been engaged in the same line of business. 

On the 5th of November, 1845, Thomas 
Hubbert, in company with his wife and their 
five children, set sail for America; arriving in 
New York in due course of time and coming 
thence to Detroit, where the new family home 
was established within the same month that 
marked the departure from England. The 
honored father was not long spared to his 
family, since his death occurred on the 8th of 
February, 1846, at which time he was fifty- 
two years of age. His wife survived him by 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



655 



a number of years, her death occurring in 
1 87 1. Of the five children our subject is the 
only one now living. 

Robert Hubbert had been afforded but little 
of the advantages of the schools of his native 
land, but he had gained considerable business 
experience prior to the removal of the family 
to America, at which time he was twenty years 
of age. Soon after the arrival in Detroit he 
secured employment on a farm now within the 
city limits, and later he assumed the position 
of fireman on the old-time steamboat "Nile," 
with whose operations he was identified for 
two years. With the money which he had 
saved from his meager wages he purchased a 
drove of sheep, from the sale of which he 
realized his first one hundred dollars. With 
this capital he opened a meat market, having 
a stall in the old Central Market, which re- 
mained one of the landmarks of Detroit for so 
many years, and later he opened a market at 
the corner of Abbott street and Michigan ave- 
nue, where in the course of time he built up a 
most successful enterprise, developing both 
wholesale and retail departments in his busi- 
ness. He continued operations at that loca- 
tion until about 1862, and in this way was 
laid the foundation of his success as an inde- 
pendent business man. Within the intervening 
years he made judicious investments of his sur- 
plus fund, by buying improved business prop- 
erty and other kinds of realty in the city. In 
the early '70s his health became so impaired 
as to cause him to retire permanently from 
active business, but he continued his real- 
estate operations, through which he gained a 
competency. His first purchase of what was 
then termed suburban real estate was a por- 
tion of the Peter Denoyer farm, on Woodward 
avenue, for which he paid at the rate of sixty- 
five dollars an acre. Later he effected the 
purchase of ten acres from the widow Cole, 
now in one of the most beautiful sections of 
the city, and upon a portion of the tract which 
he thus secured is located the residence prop- 
erty of the late Governor Hazen S. Pingree. 
The property is now valued at over two hun- 



dred dollars a front foot. About 1872 he pur- 
chased property at the intersection of Second 
avenue and Joy streets, a locality then consid- 
ered "far out." Here he built several fine 
dwelling houses, including his own, and here 
he has since continued to reside, having thus 
been one of those primarily instrumental in 
initiating the development of that beautiful 
section of the city. 

In politics Mr. Hubbert was originally an 
old-line Whig, and he united with the Repub- 
lican party at the time of its organization, 
having since continued a staunch advocate of 
its principles. He has never been active in 
political affairs, and in local matters has not 
been dominated by strict partisan lines, pre- 
ferring to exercise his franchise in support of 
men and measures meeting the approval of his 
judgment. He has never sought or held pub- 
lic office, but in a quiet way has done all in his 
power for the promotion of temperance, mor- 
ality and good citizenship. For more than 
half a century he has been a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, which represents 
the faith of his ancestors, as both his father 
and paternal grandfather were local preachers 
of this denomination. 

In 1853 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Hubbert to Miss Mary P. Simonson, of 
Royal Oak, Oakland county, Michigan. She 
was born in the Catskill mountains of New 
York, March 15, 183 1, being a daughter of 
Garret Simonson. She died in Detroit, Sep- 
tember 22, 1900, and thus came the great loss 
and bereavement of the life of her husband, 
to whom she had been a true companion and 
helpmeet. Of the seven children of this union 
only two are now living, — William Robert, of 
Detroit, and Charles S., of Rockford, Illinois. 
William R. Hubbert was graduated in the 
Michigan Agricultural College in 1881, with 
the degree of Bachelor of Science, and in i8!^5 
he was graduated in the Detroit Medical Col- 
lege, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. 
After some years of general practice in his 
home city he turned his attention more par- 
ticularly to the science of bacteriology, serv- 



656 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ing as director in biological laboratories for 
several years. For the past ten years he has 
been engaged in the manufacture of anti-toxin 
in Detroit. In 1885 he was united in marriage 
to Miss Emmeline E. Pilgrim. They Iiave had 
two children; a daughter, Emmeline E., who 
died in 1892, when about six years of age; and 
a son, Robert Hubbert, second, who is eighteen 
years of age and who is a student in the high 
school. 

JAMES D. HAWKS. 

For nearly two score of years has Mr. 
Hawks been identified with railway service, 
and his advancement has been consecutive and 
well merited, being the diametrical result of 
his ability as a civil engineer and as an execu- 
tive and administrative officer. He is now 
president and general manager of the Detroit 
& Mackinac Railway Company, with residence 
and official headquarters in the city of Detroit. 

Mr. Hawks claims the old Empire state of 
the Union as the place of his nativity, having 
been born in the city of Buffalo, New York, 
on the 13th of October, 1847. ^^ '^ a 
son of Thomas S. and Hester A. (Lay ton) 
Hawks, both of whom were likewise born and 
reared in the state of New York, and both of 
whom came from staunch Puritan stock, the 
founders of the respective families having 
come to America on the first voyage of the 
historic "Mayflower." In this connection it is 
worthy of note that the subject of this review 
was one of the founders of the Michigan or- 
ganization of the Mayflower Society, and that 
he served several years as its governor. The 
name which he bears has been long and promi- 
nently identified with the annals of New Eng- 
land, where was cradled so much of our na- 
tional history, and later representatives of the 
name became identified with the upbuilding of 
New York and other states of the Union, as 
the march of progress extended to the west. 
Thomas S. Hawks was for forty years en- 
gaged in the book and stationery business in 
Buffalo, and was one of the city's honored 
citizens and business men. 



James Dudley Hawks, the subject of this 
sketch, was afforded the advantages of the 
excellent public schools of his native city, 
and later was matriculated in the engineering 
department of the University of Michigan, 
where he continued his technical studies until 
he took a position in the engineering depart- 
ment of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern 
Railway. He fully qualified himself for the 
practical work of a civil engineer, and in con- 
nection with his profession has held many po- 
sitions of responsible order. In this brief ar- 
ticle it will be sufficient to designate in con- 
secutive line the various positions of which he 
has been incumbent. He entered the railway 
service on the ist of February, 1870, and soon 
became assistant engineer of the Buffalo di- 
vision of the Lake Shore & Michigan South- 
ern Railway; from 1875 to 1878 he was as- 
sistant engineer of the Erie division of the 
same system; from 1878 to September i, 1881, 
he was assistant engineer of the Lake Shore 
division, same road ; he then became superin- 
tendent of construction of the New York, 
West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, holding this 
office until July i, 1883, and thereafter he 
served until April of the following year as 
engineer of maintenance of way for the same 
road; from April, 1884, to October, 1892, he 
was chief engineer of the Michigan Central 
Railroad ; from tlie latter date until October of 
the following year he was manager of the 
Detroit Citizens' Street Railway; from No- 
vember, 1893, until February i, 1895, he was 
manager of the Detroit, Bay City & Alpena 
Railroad; from February i, 1895, until No- 
vember, i8g6, he was vice-president and gen- 
eral manager of the Detroit & Mackinac Rail- 
way, and since November, 1896, he has been 
president of this- company, as well as general 
manager. He has handled the affairs of the 
road with marked discrimination and ability 
and is one of the well known and popular rail- 
road officials residing in Michigan. With 
Mr. S. F. Angus, Mr. Hawks built the electric 
railway from Detroit to Ann Arbor and after- 
wards to Jackson. He was president of the 




^^-^^^-^ /C 



\ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



657 



company until the sale of the road to the De- 
troit United Railway, in February, 1907. He 
also owned and operated the Lansing City 
Railway, and was president of the Grand Rap- 
ids, Grand Haven & Muskegon Electric Rail- 
way during construction and for several years 
afterwards. Mr. Hawks has maintained his 
home in Detroit since 1884 and has valuable 
real-estate interests here and elsewhere. He 
is a member of the American Society of Civil 
Engineers and of the Institution of Civil En- 
gineers of Great Britain, standing high in his 
profession. His political allegiance is given 
to the Republican party and he is affiliated 
with the Masonic fraternity, besides various 
social organizations of representative charac- 
ter. 

October 7, 1875, Mr. Hawks was united in 
marriage to Miss Caroline A. Cooke, of Buf- 
falo, New York, and they have two sons and 
two daughters, whose names, in order of birth, 
are as follows: Alice Cooke Hawks (Mrs. 
H. S. Waterman), Edward Allerton Hawks, 
James Russell Hawks, and Marion Fitch 
Hawks. 

WILLIAM M. KLEIN. 

Among the well known and popular citi- 
zens of Detroit is the subject of this review, 
who has long been identified with railroad in- 
terests and who is now incumbent of the office 
of city ticket agent of the Michigan Central 
Railroad Company and the Lake Shore & 
Michigan Southern Railroad. He entered the 
service of the Michigan Central Railroad when 
a boy of thirteen years and has remained in its 
employ continuously since that time. 

In the old family homestead erected by his 
father at J'] Adams avenue east, where he still 
resides, Mr. Klein was born, the date of his 
nativity having been February 22, 185 1. He 
is a son of Karl A. and Mary E. (Ulrich) 
Klein, both of whom were born and reared in 
the kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, and the 
marriage of whom was solemnized in their 
native country. Karl Klein immigrated to 
America in 1844, because he believed that in 



the United States were to be had better op- 
portunities for attaining independence and 
success through personal effort. Soon after 
his arrival he took up his residence in Detroit 
and here he passed the remainder of his life, 
being held in unqualified esteem by all who 
knew him. He was a cap and glove maker 
by trade and as such was long employed by 
Frederick Buhl & Company. He became the 
owner of valuable realty in Detroit and was 
known as a loyal citizen and as a man of im- 
pregnable integrity in all the relations of life. 
He was independent in politics and both he 
and his wife held membership in the German 
Evangelical church. Mr. Klein died in 1855 
and is survived by his widow and three sons, — 
Charles A. Klein, a retail hardware dealer of 
Detroit; Wm. M. Klein, the subject of this 
review ; and Edward H. Klein, of Kansas City, 
Missouri. 

William M. Klein, the immediate subject of 
this sketch, is indebted to the public schools 
of Detroit for his early educational discipline, 
which has been effectively supplemented by 
extensive reading and by the valuable expe- 
rience gained through association with men 
and affairs. In 1864, at the age of thirteen 
years, he secured a position as messenger in 
the car department of the Michigan Central 
Railroad, and through his energy and fidelity 
he gained successive promotions in connection 
with the general operating department of the 
road. In 1878 he was promoted to the po- 
sition of assistant to Charles A. Warren, city 
passenger agent of the Michigan Central and 
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroads in 
Detroit, and he was the able and valued coad- 
jutor of Mr. Warren until the latter resigned 
to assume the position of cashier of the Dime 
Savings Bank, in 1890, after which he held a 
similar position under the late Captain James 
Rhines, until 1904, when he gained a well 
earned promotion, in being himself chosen to 
fill the office of which he has since remained 
incumbent,— that of city passenger and ticket 
agent. His long service has secured to him a 
very wide acquaintanceship with the traveling 



658 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



public and with the citizens of Detroit in gen- 
eral, and his unvarying courtesy has won for 
him unqualified popularity. His knowledge of 
transportation matters is extensive and inti- 
mate, and he is one of the valued local officials 
of the fine old railway system with which he 
has so long been identified. 

In politics Mr. IClein maintains an indepen- 
dent attitude, and while he has ever shown a 
loyal interest in all that concerns the welfare 
of his home city and state, he has never mani- 
fested aught of desire for public office or to 
enter the field of practical politics. He is af- 
filiated with Kilwinning Lodge, No. 297, Free 
& Accepted Masons ; Peninsular Chapter, Royal 
Arch Masons; Monroe Council, Royal & Se- 
lect Masters; Detroit Commandery, No. i, 
Knights Templars ; and Moslem Temple of the 
Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the 
Mystic Shrine, besides being a member of Star 
Council, Royal Arcanum, and Detroit Court, 
Independent Order of Foresters. 

On the 7th of June, 1881, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Klein to Miss Julia C. 
Rouff, daughter of Henry Rouff, who was 
for many years in the employ of R. H. Fyfe & 
Company, the well known shoe dealers of De- 
troit, and who is now living retired in this city. 
Mr. and Mrs. Klein have two sons, — William 
H., who is manager of the repair department 
of the Olds automobile works, in the city of 
Lansing, and who is prominent in connection 
with the automobile industry; and Warren C, 
who is at present engaged in manufacturing 
business in Detroit, being identified with the 
Detroit Regalia Company and acting in the 
capacity of its secretary. 



ALVAH F. MOORE. 

Elsewhere in this publication is given a re- 
sume of the upbuilding of one of the beneficent 
concerns of the state, the Michigan Mutual 
Life Insurance Company, and by reason of the 
appearance of the article in question it will be 
unnecessary to enter here into further details 
concerning the company, of which Mr. Moore 
is secretary, being an executive whose efforts 



have been prolific in furthering the progress of 
the institution. 

Mr. Moore is a native of the state of Ohio, 
having been born at Buckeye Cottage, Perry 
county, June 10, i860. He is a son of George 
W. and Harriet (Richards) Moore, both of 
whom were born in the state of Ohio. The 
father's principal vocation in life was that of 
farming and merchandising and he also filled 
various county offices. He died in 1871, and 
his wife is still living. The subject of this re- 
view secured his preliminary education in the 
public schools of his native commonwealth, 
after which he continued his studies in Madison 
Academy, at Mount Perry, Ohio. He soon 
put his scholastic attainments to practical test 
by engaging in teaching school, to which he 
devoted his attention for some time. Later 
he became identified with the newspaper busi- 
ness, finally becoming editor and publisher of 
the Independent, at New Lexington, Ohio. 
He retired from the journalistic field after 
about two years and thereafter was engaged 
in business in Chicago, Illinois, until 1892, 
when he came to Detroit and assumed a po- 
sition as clerk in the investment department of 
the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Com- 
pany, with which he has since been connected. 
Two years later he was made manager of the 
department to which he was first assigned, 
and since 1901 he has held his present re- 
sponsible position as secretary of the company. 
He is well known in the insurance field in this 
and other states and is an able and popular 
executive. He is a Republican in politics, but 
never sought or held public office. 

In 1881 Mr. Moore married Miss Sack Mar- 
tineau, of Roseville, Ohio. They have no 
children. 

HERBERT W. NOBLE. 

The subject of this brief sketch is one of the 
able and popular business men of the younger 
generation in Detroit and is the executive 
head of the well known firm of W. H. Noble 
& Company, dealers in stocks and bonds, — a 
concern of which adequate description is made 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



659 



on other pages of this work. He has gained 
precedence in the handling of high-grade se- 
curities and is one of llie staunch fiscal agents 
engaged in business in his native city. 

Mr. Noble was born in Detroit, on the 8th 
of February, 1867, and is a son of Garra B. 
and Eliza (Crosman) Noble, the former of 
whom was born in New York state and the 
latter in Scio, Washtenaw county, Michigan, 
where her parents took up their residence in 
the early pioneer days. Garra B. Noble was 
reared and educated in liis native state, and in 
1840 he came to Michigan and took up his 
residence in Dexter, Washtenaw county, where 
he engaged in the general merchandise busi- 
ness and also became the first postmaster of 
the little pioneer village. In 1856 he removed 
to Detroit and soon afterward became asso- 
ciated with the old Ward line of lake boats. 
He was later, and for many years, financial 
manager of the firm of K. C. Barker & Com- 
pany, long recognized as one of the most im- 
portant in the middle west. He did much to 
further the upbuilding of the enterprise, with 
which he continued to be actively identified 
until the firm was succeeded by the American 
Eagle Tobacco Company, after which he lived 
practically retired until his death, which oc- 
curred in Detroit, in 1897, at which time he 
was eighty-one years of age. He was a man 
of exalted integrity and great business acu- 
men, was broad-minded and public-spirited and 
ever commanded the confidence and esteem of 
the people of the community in which he so 
long maintained his home and with whose 
business and civic interests he was so promi- 
nently identified. His wife was summoned 
to the life eternal in 1892 and they are sur- 
vived by two sons, — Herbert W., who is the 
immediate subject of this sketch ; and Charles 
C, D. D. S., who is engaged in the practice of 
his profession in Los Angeles, California. 
Garra B. Noble was especially conspicuous in 
the time-honored Masonic fraternity, and he 
was grand master of the grand lodge of Michi- 
gan in 1865, commander of Detroit Command- 
ery, Knights Templar, in 1867, and grand re- 



corder of the grand council of Royal & Select 
Masters in 1868. The beautiful jeweled in- 
signia presented to him by the Masonic bodies 
are now in the possession of the subject of this 
review. It should be stated that the Noble 
family was founded in America in the early 
colonial era, the original progenitor having 
been Thomas Noble, who immigrated from 
England and located in Boston, Massachusetts, 
in 1640. Cyrenus Noble, grandfather of him 
whose name introduces this article, was born 
in Weathersfield, Connecticut, in which state 
he was reared to maturity. He eventually re- 
moved to Unadilla, New York, where he 
passed the residue of his life, having been one 
of the honored and influential citizens of his 
county. He married Hannah Weston, daugh- 
ter of Benjamin Weston, of Connecticut, who 
was one of the first to tender his services when 
the colonies took up arms against England. 
Benjamin Weston became a member of a Con- 
necticut regiment and took part in the battle 
of Lexington and many other engagements. 
He was promoted to the office of ensign, but 
resigned this position to enter the navy, in 
which he continued to serve until the close of 
the war. 

Herbert W. Noble attended the public 
schools of Detroit until he had attained to the 
age of sixteen years, when, in 1883, he became 
a clerk in the offices of Conely, Maybury & 
Lucking. He finally became bookkeeper for 
the firm and also had charge of the collection 
department, proving an able and popular em-, 
ploye. In 1887 he assumed a clerical position 
in the Third National Bank, in which he was 
promoted to the office of paying teller in 1893. 
In the following year he gained distinctive 
preferment in being elected assistant manager 
of the Detroit clearing house, under Clement 
M. Davison, and in 1896 he became manager 
of this important financial institution, — a po- 
sition which he has since retained and one in 
which his serv'ices have gained the unequivocal 
commendation of all the banking houses rep- 
resented in the clearing-house association. Of 
his successful operations as head of the firm 



660 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



of H. W. Noble & Company sufficient record 
is given in the specific article devoted to the 
firm. He is a member of the American Bank- 
ers' Association, as well as those of Michigan 
and Pennsylvania, is identified with the De- 
troit Board of Commerce and holds member- 
ship in the Detroit Club, Bankers' Club, De- 
troit Boat Club, Detroit Golf Club and De- 
troit Automobile Club. His political allegiance 
is given to the Republican party and he and his 
wife are communicants of St. Paul's church, 
Protestant Episcopal. 

On the 22d of April, 1891, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Noble to Miss Gertrude 
Delbridge, daughter of James B. Delbridge, a 
member of the firm of Delbridge, Brooks & 
Fisher, leading lumber manufacturers and 
dealers of Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Noble have 
two children, — Sheldon R., who was born in 
1892, and Irene, who was born in 1896. 



HENRY W. WALKER. 

The corporation designated as Walker & 
Company is a Detroit institution which exer- 
cises most important functions in the field of 
publicity and general out-door advertising, 
and a description of the same is given on other 
pages of this work, so that a further review is 
not here demanded. Mr. Walker has been the 
dominating force in the upbuilding of the 
business and is president and general manager 
of the company, while he has long been known 
as one of Detroit's representative business men 
and loyal and progressive citizens. He ren- 
dered gallant service in defense of the Union 
during the civil war and after the close of that 
great internecine conflict he continued in serv- 
ice as a member of the United States army for 
a period of seven years. 

Henry William Walker was born at West- 
field, Chautauqua county. New York, on the 
5th of April, 1835, being a son of John R. 
and Emily (Dickerson) Walker, the former of 
whom was born in Chautauqua county, New 
York, and the latter in Stillwater, Saratoga 
county, that state. The mother was a daugh- 



ter of Daniel Dickerson, the maiden name of 
whose wife was Seymour, and she was a first 
cousin of Hon. Horatio Seymour, one of the 
earl}' go\-ernors of the old Empire state. John 
R. Walker was a machinist by trade and be- 
came a prominent and influential business man 
in Chautauqua county. New York, where he 
owned and operated flour, plaster and saw 
mills and where he was also engaged in the 
general merchandise business for a number of 
years. He was a son of John Walker, who 
was one of the sterling pioneers of New York, 
having been one of the first three settlers to 
take up land in the section lying between the 
city of Buffalo, that state, and Erie, Pennsyl- 
vania. His landed estate, which he developed 
from the wilderness, was located about forty- 
five miles to the west of Buffalo. John Walker 
was a native of Rhode Island and was a valiant 
soldier in the war of 181 2. The founder of 
the Walker family in America came from Scot- 
land with Roger Williams and settled in Rhode 
Island, having been a personal friend of that 
historic figure in the history of the most 
diminutive state in the Union. 

Henry W. Walker, the immediate subject 
of this review, had such educational advan- 
tages as were afforded in the common schools 
of his native village of Westfield, and while 
still a boy he began to assist his father in his 
various business operations. In 1851, when 
sixteen years of age, he came to Michigan and 
first located in Detroit, where he found em- 
ployment at gardening, this work being taken 
up in order that he might recuperate his health, 
which had become much impaired. In the fol- 
lowing year he entered upon an apprenticeship 
at the trade of machinist, but shortly after- 
ward he found somewhat profitable requisition 
for his services in selling mill-machinery, in 
which connection he covered territory ex- 
tending between Detroit and Galena, Illinois. 
In 1858 he engaged in the lumbering business 
in Shiawassee county, Michigan, and with this 
line of industry, then and for many years 
thereafter one of the most important in the 
state, he continued to be concerned until the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



661 



integrity of the Union was thrown into 
jeopardy through armed rcljelHon. He was 
among the first to respond to President Lin- 
cohi's call for volunteers. In June, 1861, he 
enlisted in Company H, Second Michigan Vol- 
unteer Cavalry, as a private, and his command 
was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, 
with which command he saw much arduous 
service. The history of his gallant regiment 
offers the essential record of his career as a 
soldier during the war. In the early part of 
the year 1862 Mr. Walker was promoted to 
the rank of corporal and in the following year 
lie became regimental quartermaster's sergeant, 
being detailed as master of transportation 
under General Edward McCook, who was then 
maneuvering his forces in the Army of Cum- 
berland. In June, 1864, Mr. Walker was trans- 
ferred by General McCook to the Sixth United 
States Cavalry, with which he served, on the 
frontier, until June 11, 1872, when he received 
his honorable discharge, at Camp Supply, In- 
dian Territory. From the close of the war 
until his final discharge he was on detail duty 
in the transportation service, in which capacity 
he rendered most effective work for his di- 
vision. He saw much Indian service and was 
for varying intervals in the commands of Gen- 
erals Canby and Miles. Mr. Walker per- 
petuates the more gracious memories of his 
long military career by retaining membership 
in Fairbanks Post, Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic, and he has a secure place in the esteem of 
his old comrades in arms, whose ranks are 
being rapidly thinned by the one invincible foe. 
Upon his retirement from the army Mr. 
Walker returned to Michigan and located in 
Detroit, where he was for a time employed by 
his uncle, William Walker, the virtual founder 
of the fine business enterprise of which the 
subject of this sketch is now the head. He 
later became concerned in lumbering opera- 
tions in Lapeer county, and there continued 
until his mill, at Fish Lake, was destroyed by 
fire, in 1883. His active career in connection 
with his present line of business in Detroit 
dates from the year 1883, and for the details 



concerning the business of Walker & Company 
reference should be made to the article de- 
scriptive of the same, on other pages of this 
volume. Suffice it to say at this juncture that 
Mr. Walker has developed the enterprise into 
one of the most important of the sort in tlie 
Union. 

Though never ambitious for public office, 
Mr. Walker has ever been signally true to the 
duties of citizenship. He is a valued member 
of the Detroit Lodge, No. 34, Benevolent & 
Protective Order of Elks, while much of his 
social interest centers in his post of the Grand 
Army. 

In March, 1875, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Walker to Miss Eva Bassett, 
daughter of Rev. Philo Bassett, who was a 
clergyman of the Baptist church, at that time 
a resident of Ovid, Clinton county, Michigan. 
The great loss and bereavement of Mr. 
Walker's life came on the 28th of July, 1900, 
when his clierished and devoted wife was sum- 
moned to the life eternal. She is survived by 
one son, Harry C, who is secretary and treas- 
urer of Walker & Company and who is indi- 
vidually mentioned in this publication. 



FRED S. OSBORNE. 

In connection witli the promotion of capi- 
talistic enterprises of broad scope and impor- 
tance Mr. Osborne has been a potential factor, 
and he is now one of the leading stock brokers 
of Michigan, being the head and front of the 
firm of Fred S. Osborne & Company, of De- 
troit, and being recognized as one of the most 
progressive and public-spirited citizens of the 
metropolis of the state. 

Mr. Osborne claims as the place of his na- 
tivity the Badger state, since he was born at 
Bloomington, Grant county, Wisconsin, on the 
13th of May, 1867. He is a son of Aaron S. 
Osborne, producer and owner of extensive in- 
terests in Wisconsin, where he was a pioneer 
settler. His wife, whose maiden name was 
Virtue Sealy, was a representative of an old 
and honored family of the same state. 



662 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Fred Sealy Osborne attended the public 
schools of his native town until he had attained 
to the age of fifteen years, and he then initi- 
ated a business career which has been one of 
most significant success and prominence. At 
the age noted he entered the employ of George 
K. Sistare's Sons, general stock brokers, be- 
coming a clerk in the Detroit office of the firm 
and later being promoted to the position of 
cashier, of which office he remained incum- 
bent until 1888, when he resigned to accept the 
management of the brokerage business of J. V. 
Campbell & Company, of Detroit. Of this 
firm, which controls a very large and impor- 
tant business, Mr. Osborne still remains one 
of the interested principals, and it is largely 
due to his able efforts that its prestige is so 
secure and admirable and that its operations 
have been so successful. In 1897 Mr. Osborne 
was one of those interested in the purchase of 
the Baltic copper mine, at Houghton, Michi- 
gan. He has otherwise been identified with 
many important transfers and developments in 
connection with mineral properties in the upper 
peninsula of Michigan. In March, 1905, Mr. 
Osborne established his individual stock- 
brokerage business, under the title of Fred 
S. Osborne & Company, and to this en- 
terprise he has gained unmistakable priority, 
handling stocks and bonds of general order 
and controlling a very large business. He was 
a promoter of and is a stockholder in the 
Esperanza Cobalt Mines Company, organized 
in 1906, for the development of properties in 
Mexico and in Cobalt, Ontario, and incorpo- 
rated with a capital stock of one million dol- 
lars. He is also interested in copper, silver 
and other mining properties. — in Mexico, On- 
tario, Michigan and western states. His of- 
fices, in the Penobscot building, are the most 
commodious and sumptuously furnished of all 
similar offices in the city. Mr. Osborne holds 
membership in the Chicago Board of Trade, 
as well as the Chicago Mining Exchange. For 
a considerable period his firm was the only 
one in Michigan represented by membership 
in the New York Stock Exchange. He is a 



valued member of the Detroit Board of Com- 
merce and is a member of each the Detroit 
Club and the Fellowcraft Club, besides being- 
identified with the Masonic fraternity, in which 
he has attained to high degrees in the Ancient 
Accepted Scottish Rite. In politics he gives 
his allegiance to the Republican party. 

On the 22d of September, 1892, Mr. Os- 
borne was united in marriage to Miss Tessa 
A. Wight, daughter of Charles B. Wisfht, who 
was for many years a prominent hardware 
merchant of Holly, Michigan, and who died 
in Detroit in 1903. 



ALEXANDER A. BOUTELL. 

Manufacturer and man of affairs, president 
of the Detroit Graphite Company, of which he 
was the founder, and for the past thirty years 
prominently identified with the commercial ac- 
tivities of the city of Detroit, Alexander A. 
Boutell was born in Avoca, Steuben county. 
New York, on the 13th of January, 1840, and 
is a son of Samuel J. and Caroline (Billson) 
Boutell. Samuel Boutell, great-grandfather 
of Alexander A. Boutell, was a native of Mas- 
sachusetts colony, served as a soldier in the 
Continental line in the war of the Revolution, 
and later was a hotelkeeper and farmer near 
Bennington, Vermont. He served as justice 
of the peace and was a member of the Ver- 
mont legislature for thirty-three years. Sam- 
uel Boutell, Jr., father of Alexander A. Bou- 
tell, was born near Bennington, Vermont, in 
1801. In 1824 he married Caroline Billson, 
born near Albany, New York,, of Holland 
Dutch descent. In the latter years of the war 
of 181 2 he was a minute man. Four children 
were born to Samuel, Jr., and Caroline (Bill- 
son) Boutell, namely: Henry S. Boutell; 
Hiram S. Boutell, of Ypsilanti, died in 1908; 
Alexander A. Boutell, subject of this sketch; 
and John A. Boutell, retired agriculturist of 
Howard, Elk county, Kansas. 

Alexander A. Boutell received his early edu- 
cation in the schools of Monroe county. New 
York, and in 1853 removed with his parents 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



663 



to Oakland county, Michigan, settling in High- 
land township. He completed his student life 
in the Milford Academy. On completion of 
his course in the academy he became a teacher, 
and during the winters of 1860-3, inclusive, 
was engaged in this occupation. In 1861 he 
enlisted in the First Michigan Lancers, but 
never saw service, being mustered out in 1862. 
In October, 1864, he was appointed clerk in 
the transportation division of the quartermas- 
ter's department of the Union army and as- 
signed for duty in Nashville, Tennessee. On 
conclusion of the war he returned to Michi- 
gan, and resumed teaching in Milford, Oak- 
land county. In 1866 he entered the Eastman 
National Business College, at Poughkeepsie, 
New York, graduating in the fall of that year. 
On completion of his course in the institution 
he was offered and accepted a position as one 
of the faculty, serving in the various depart- 
ments of the college until 1867, when he 
resigned and returned to Michigan. 

Mr. Boutell initiated his commercial career 
in the city of Detroit in 1867, accepting a po- 
sition with the firm of I. Mowry & Company, 
manufacturers of tobacco. He was connected 
with this firm until 1874. first as manager of 
the sales department and in charge of cor- 
respondence, and upon the death of Mr. 
Mowry, as manager in closing out the busi- 
ness. In the latter year he became an inter- 
ested principal in the banking firm of Bowen 
& McGowan, of Cokiwater, Michigan, retiring 
in 1876 and returning to Detroit, where he 
entered the employ of Walker, McGraw & 
Company, tobacco manufacturers, and was 
given charge of the office. In 1878 the Globe 
Tobacco Company was incorporated, succeed- 
ing the firm of Walker, McGraw & Company, 
and Mr. Boutell was elected secretary of the 
Globe Tobacco Company, of Windsor, Cana- 
da, a subsidiary organization for handling 
the Canadian business of the Detroit corpora- 
tion. His success in the management of this 
branch and the development of the territory 
in Canada resulted in his election by the board 
of directors of the Detroit company to the 



office of secretary and treasurer and to his 
appointment as general manager. During his 
service with the company in these several ca- 
pacities he succeeded in developing a business 
which was one of the most extensive in the 
country and the company's name and prod- 
ucts were known throughout the United States 
and Canada. In 1888 Mr. Boutell became in- 
terested in the Baraga Graphite Company, 
owners of extensive graphite deposits in the 
upper peninsula of Michigan, and in order to 
protect his investments in this company he re- 
signed from the Globe Tobacco Company, and 
took charge of the affairs of the former com- 
pany, in which he was made secretary. In 
1892 he organized the Detroit Graphite Com- 
pany, of which he is the present executive 
head, and was elected its first treasurer. In the 
last mentioned year he was elected secretary 
of the Detroit Chamber of Commerce, an of- 
fice in which he displayed his loyalty and pro- 
gressiveness as a citizen and which he filled 
with credit to himself and the commercial in- 
terests of the city. In 1896 he resigned the 
latter office in order to effect a reorganization 
of the Detroit Graphite Company, of which he 
became general manager. To his initiation of 
new policies and inauguration of new methods 
of business operation the enterprise owes its 
present successful standing. In 1907 the de- 
mands of the business had so far outgrown its 
limited capitalization that a further reorganiz- 
ation was made and its capital increased to 
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Mr. 
Boutell was elected president and general 
manager and has since continued in these dual 
capacities. 

Political office has never appealed to hmi 
although he never neglects his civic duties and 
obligations, and while not an active partisan 
he takes a keen interest in the questions of the 
day and in the policies of the Republican 
party, of which he has been a life-long mem- 
ber. Mr. Boutell is president of the Mer- 
chants' & Manufacturers' Club of Detroit, and 
is a member of the Old Club, at St. Clair Flats, 



664 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



the Detroit Club, the Detroit Boat Chib and 
the Wayne Chib. 

On the 20th of July, 1868, Mr. Boutell mar- 
ried Miss Harriett Jane Carpenter, daughter 
of the late Horace Carpenter, of Ypsilanti. 
Mrs. Boutell died in Detroit, in December, 
1906. They were the parents of one daughter: 
Alice May Boutell, who is a graduate of the 
literary department of the University of Mich- 
igan, and who is a woman of broad education 
and refinement and of decided literary ability. 

In his business career, covering a period of 
some thirty years, and in the management of 
the various interests with which he has been 
connected, Mr, Boutell has by his fairness and 
courtesy advanced the prestige of those inter- 
ests, while through his foresight and indus- 
try he has constantly added to the value of the 
investment. He possesses initiative, construc- 
tive and executive talent of high order and his 
progressiveness and energy are in keeping. 



WILLIAM W. HANNAN. 

The interposition of the able, progressive and 
reliable real-estate dealer has greater influence 
than all other agencies in forwarding the ma- 
terial upbuilding and advancement of any city, 
and in this important field of operations no 
citizen of Detroit has to his credit greater ac- 
complishment and prestige than Mr. Hannan, 
who is general manager and treasurer of the 
Detroit Realty Company, which company owns 
and controls the following apartment houses: 
The Pasadena, the Lenox, and the Madison. 
Mr. Hannan's chief business for twenty-five 
years has been exclusive real-estate business. 
He is distinctively one of Detroit's representa- 
tive business men, and his standing in public 
confidence and esteem is of the most impreg- 
nable order. 

The old Empire state of the Union figures 
as the native heath of Mr. Hannan, since he 
was bom in the city of Rochester, New York, 
on the 4th of July, 1854. William W. Han- 
nan was about two years of age at the time 
when his parents took up their residence in 



Dowagiac, Michigan, in whose public schools 
he received his early educational discipline, 
including a course in the high school, in which 
he was graduated as a member of the class of 
1873. In 1876 he pursued a preparatory 
course in Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, after 
which he was matriculated in the literary de- 
partment of the University of Michigan, in 
which he was graduated as a member of the 
class of 1880, receiving the degree of Bach- 
elor of Arts. After thus completing his 
academic course he entered the law depart- 
ment of the university, and here he was grad- 
uated in 1883, with the degree of Bachelor of 
Laws. Within his college course he organ- 
ized excursions to various summer resorts in 
the state and through this means he realized 
considerable profit, using his funds to continue 
liis educational work. As collegian he was 
well known in athletic circles, and he made 
especially good record as a sprinter. 

In 1881-3 Mr. Hannan served as engrossing 
clerk of tlie house of representatives of the 
state legislature. In 1883, prior to his grad- 
uation in the law department of the university, 
he was admitted to the bar of the state, upon 
examination before the Washtenaw circuit 
court. After the close of the legislative ses- 
sion of that year Mr. Hannan came to Detroit 
and established himself in the practice of his 
profession, in which he associated himself 
with Judge William L. Carpenter, under the 
firm name of Carpenter & Hannan. This alli- 
ance continued for a year, at the expiration of 
which Mr. Hannan virtually withdrew from 
the work of his profession to enter the field of 
enterprise -in which he has since attained to 
splendid success and precedence. He formed 
a partnership with the late Herbert M. Snow, 
under the title of the Hannan & Snow Com- 
pany, and engaged in the real-estate business. 
Within the same year (1883), however, this 
partnership was dissolved and he then founded 
the Hannan Real Estate Exchange, through 
which he gave his attention principally to the 
handling of subdivision properties for a num- 
ber of years. This concern grew to be the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



665 



most important of its kind in the state, and its 
operations have been amplified to incKide a 
general fire-insurance and loan business. Mr. 
Hannan has continued the executive head of 
the Hannan Real Estate Exchange, has or- 
dered its affairs with consummate discrimina- 
tion and ability and is recognized as an au- 
thority on real-estate values in Detroit and its 
environs. The operations of the exchange have 
been of most extensive and important order, 
including the opening and improving of sev- 
eral subdivisions to the city and the erection of 
a number of the largest and finest apartment 
buildings in Detroit. In an individual way 
also Mr. Hannan has erected several apart- 
ment buildings, which he still owns. Not 
fewer than five of these great apartment build- 
ings have been erected by this firm, and the 
expenditure in this connection was more than 
a million dollars. Each year also have been 
erected a large number of houses, which have 
been sold on the installment plan. Mr. Han- 
nan's operations in the local real-estate field 
within the past twenty-five years have ex- 
ceeded in scope and importance those of any 
other individual, and he has been a leading 
factor in promoting the upbuilding of the 
larger and greater Detroit. From an attrac- 
tive brochure entitled "Detroit— Illustrative 
and Descriptive," issued in the spring of 1908, 
are taken the following appreciative statements 
concerning Mr. Hannan : 

"His onward march as a real-estate operator 
has been a veritable march of triumph, marked 
by the following achievements: The deal 
whereby the Ford interests of Toledo bought 
the land on the corner of Griswold and Con- 
gress streets and began the erection of the 
eighteen-story Ford building, which is now 
completed and is the finest office building in 
the city; the sale of the Hammond building; 
the sale of the Hodges building; the erection 
and management of the finest and best con- 
ducted group of apartment building's in the 
country,— the Pasadena, the Lenox and the 
Madison ; the handling of a score of subdivision 
properties in the north and northeastern sec- 



tions of the city, embracing Park Hill, the 
banner subdivision of Detroit; that more per- 
sons have secured the beginning of their homes 
through him than any other source; that he 
now ranks as one of the leading factors in the 
construction of apartment buildings west of 
New York ; and for all that, as an exponent of 
good in the uplifting or betterment of Detroit 
and her environments, he stands second to 
none. In brief, he is of that character that 
can not fail to make its impress upon whatever 
enterprise or community with which it comes 
in contact, and to the benefit of that enterprise 
or community." 

For eight years Mr. Hannan has served as 
a member of the Detroit board of estimates, 
holding the office of president during one term, 
with great credit to himself and entire satis- 
faction to the city's welfare. 

In politics Mr. Hannan is arrayed as a 
staunch supporter of the principles of the Re- 
publican party; he is identified with the Ma- 
sonic fraternity; and holds membership in the 
Detroit Club, the Country Club, and other so- 
cial and business organizations. His public 
spirit and progressive ideas have borne much 
fruit in connection with the advancement of 
Detroit along industrial and general material 
lines. , 

WALTER S. HARSHA. 

Success in any profession, in any line of 
occupation, is not a matter of spontaneity ; but 
represents the result of the application of 
definite subjective forces and the controlling of 
objective agencies in such a way as to achieve 
desired ends. As an official of the United 
States circuit court as well as a member of the 
legal profession, Mr. Harsha has enjoyed for 
many years a reputation which well exemplifies 
the truth of the foregoing statements. He is 
also an interested principal in several financial, 
industrial and commercial enterprises of the 
city and state and is one of the distinctively 
representative citizens of Detroit. Progressive 
and energetic in the conduct of his official du- 
ties and in the management of his varied com- 



666 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



mercial interests, loyal and public-spirited as a 
citizen, he holds a secure position in the confi- 
dence and esteem of the community and has 
contributed in large measure to the advance- 
ment of the city. 

Walter S. Harsha was born in Detroit, 
Michigan, on the 15th of June, 1849, and is the 
only surviving child of the late William and 
Mary Ann (Cook) Harsha, personal mention 
of whom precedes this article. Mr. Harsha 
received his early education in the schools of 
his native city, subsequently prepared for col- 
lege, and entered the literary department of 
the University of Michigan, in which he was 
graduated Bachelor of Arts in the class of 
1871. In 1875 he was further honored by his 
alma mater, which then conferred upon him 
the degree of Master of Arts. In June, 1871, 
he was appointed deputy clerk of the recor- 
der's court of the city of Detroit, retaining 
that position about two years. Upon the es- 
tablishment of the superior court of Detroit, 
on June 3, 1873, the county clerk being ex 
officio clerk of said court, Mr. Harsha was ap- 
pointed deputy clerk and vested with full power 
of organization of the court. During his in- 
cumbency of this position he read law with the 
late C. I. Walker, and he was admitted to the 
bar on the 5th of January, 1878. On the ist 
of January, 1879, he was appointed deputy in 
charge of the Wayne county clerk's office, a 
position which he filled with credit and in 
which he remained for two and one-half years. 
The systems originated by him for the conduct 
of the business of the Wayne circuit and the 
recorder's courts of Detroit are still in use and 
remain practically unrevised. 

On the 6th of June, 1882, Mr. Harsha was 
appointed to his present position, that of clerk 
of the circuit court of the United States for 
the eastern district of Michigan. During the 
twenty-six years in which he has filled this 
position the results of his labors have been 
such as would give precedence and reputation 
to any man, were they to represent the sum 
total of his achievements; but Mr. Harsha is 
a man of broad mentality, strong initiative and 



distinct individuality. He has found time, 
aside from his official duties, in which to take 
an active part in the commercial development 
of the city and state, and has also contributed 
much time and labor in the elaboration of a 
scheme of practice for courts and in the re- 
vision of legal forms. On the ist of April, 
1886, Mr. Harsha was appointed United States 
commissioner for the eastern district of Mich- 
igan, the appointment being made by Hon. 
Henry B. Brown, then United States district 
judge. Mr. Harsha served under this appoint- 
ment until 1905, when a change in the law 
relative to the appointments for this office was 
made and under thenew law he was appointed 
for a further term, by Judge Henry M. Swan. 
In his capacity as commissioner there are held 
before him all preliminary hearings in criminal 
cases for violations of the United States laws. 
Upon the establishment of the United States 
court of appeals, in 1891, he elaborated a 
scheme for practice with rules for its conduct, 
which were submitted to and approved by the 
United States supreme court, and upon rec- 
ommendation by this court were duly adopted 
by all of said courts of appeals throughout the 
country. A uniform system of practice was 
thus established and up to the present time it 
remains practically unchanged. In recogni- 
tion of this valuable service Mr. Harsha was 
appointed clerk of the United States circuit 
court of appeals for the sixth circuit, with 
clerk's office at Cincinnati, Ohio. He remained 
incumbent of this position, while still perform- 
ing the duties of clerk of the circuit court at 
Detroit, until October 2, 1894, when he re- 
signed the Cincinnati office. For a number of 
years he gave a large portion of his time to 
the revision of legal forms in use in Michi- 
gan, — the permanent value of which work is 
inestimable, — and to the annotating of some 
volumes of Michigan supreme-court reports, 
which work was subsequently completed by 
others. In 1886 he edited and published "An- 
notated Federal Court Rules," a work which 
has had a successful sale, its circulation being 
general throughout the United States, while 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



667 



the legal profession has extended to it the 
highest commendation. 

Mr. Harsha has valuable commercial inter- 
ests in St. Clair, Michigan, being president of 
the Oakland Hotel Company, the Oakland 
Heights Land Company, and the Salutaris 
Water Company, all of that city. He was one 
of the organizers of the Michigan Savings 
Bank of Detroit, in which he remained a stock- 
holder for thirty years. He is a director in 
Woodlawn Cemetery, of Detroit, and a stock- 
holder in a number of financial, industrial and 
commercial corporations of the city and state. 
Mr. Harsha is a Royal Arch Mason, a mem- 
ber of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the 
University Club, the Detroit Club, the Coun- 
try Club, the Detroit Boat Club, and Mich- 
igan Chapter of the Sons of the American 
Revolution. 

On the 1 8th of January, 1881, Mr. Harsha 
married Miss Isabella Mott, daughter of the 
late Asa Mott, of Montreal, Canada. Mrs. 
Harsha is a woman of broad culture and re- 
finement and the family residence, on Peter- 
boro street, is known for the gracious hospi- 
tality extended to a large circle of friends. 
The family have been long and favorably 
known in the best social circles of the city. 

Mr. Harsha is in all respects a high type of 
the conservative, unassuming American, dili- 
gent in his official duties and commercial 
affairs and conscientious in all things. 



FREDERICK P. SPRAGUE, M. D. 

One of the representative physicians and 
surgeons of Wayne county is Dr. Frederick P. 
.Sprague, who is engaged in the practice of his 
profession in Detroit and Wyandotte, and who 
has built up a large and important business in 
the work of his chosen and exacting vocation. 

Dr. Sprague finds no little satisfaction in 
that he is able to revert to the old Empire state 
of the Union as the place of his nativity. He 
was born at the city of Elmira, Chemung 
county. New York, on the 23d of May, 1868, 
and is the third son of Edward P. and Maxi- 



milia (Morris) Sprague. The Sprague family 
was founded in America by Francis Sprague, 
who was born and reared in England and who 
came to the New World in company with En- 
dicott, Miles Standish, John Alden, and others 
of the fine old Puritan stock which settled in 
New England and laid broad and deep the 
foundation for much of our national pros- 
perity and power. Francis Sprague was an 
intimate friend and associate of these historic 
characters and was a man of prominence and 
influence in his community, where he took a 
proper part in the administration of the affairs 
of the colony and lived a life of signal useful- 
ness and honor. 

Each generation since has played an impor- 
tant and useful part in the progressive devel- 
opment of the nation, both in public life and 
private business and professional pursuits. 
The family has been well represented in De- 
troit and its vicinity. The late venerable and 
loved Rev. Dr. Isaac Newton Sprague, grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch, was born 
in 1801, at Poultney, Vermont, the second son 
of Daniel Sprague, one of the state's solid men. 
Rev. Dr. Sprague preached almost contin- 
uously from 1822, the time of his graduation, 
until he retired, in 1886. He was one of the 
famous pulpit orators of his day and an untir- 
ing opponent of slavery during the troublous 
limes when the traffic in slaves was the para- 
mount national issue. It was through him that 
Henry Ward Beecher obtained his charge at 
Plymouth church. He was twenty times 
elected moderator of the Presbyterian synod 
of New Jersey, and in 1S76, intending to re- 
tire, he moved to Detroit, where he resided 
with his distinguished son, Colonel Thomas 
Spencer Sprague. But he did not long re- 
main inactive. At that time the Presbyterian 
church of Wyandotte was feeble and strug- 
gling, and he took charge of the pulpit, re- 
fusing a salary, and by his energy and good- 
ness he succeeded in building up a substantial 
parish, donating very largely of his own pos- 
sessions and building a parish house and 
chapel. The year 1886 marked his retirement 



668 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



from the toil he loved so well, and he pur- 
chased an estate in his native town in Ver- 
mont, where he died in 1896, aged ninety-six 



vears. 



Colonel Thomas Spencer Sprague, uncle of 
Dr. Sprague, of this review, long resided in 
the city of Detroit. He was in command of 
one of the Michigan regiments during the 
civil war, — a regiment equipped almost en- 
tirely from his private purse. Together with 
h.is brother, Charles H., he founded the Detroit 
Tribune, in the early '40s. For many years 
Colonel Sprague eminently conducted the prac- 
tice of law, and although he died nearly twenty 
years ago his memory still commands the 
esteem of his fellow citizens, while the law 
firm of which he was the head for many years 
still retains his name. The beautiful brass pul- 
pit in Emmanuel Episcopal church was his do- 
nation in memory of his deceased wife. 

Edward Payson Sprague, youngest son of 
Rev. I. N. Sprague, is the father of Dr. 
Sprague. He was born in New York city in 
1837 and graduated at the New York Col- 
legiate Institute at the age of fourteen. When 
about fifteen years old he came to Detroit to 
study architecture, and assisted in designing 
and erecting the city hall, and many other pub- 
lic buildings, churches and private edifices. 
During this time he had been making a care- 
ful study of the pipe organ. He soon became 
so proficient on this instrument that it brought 
him national fame. Soon afterward Mr. 
Sprague took up the study of the voice and he 
was later accorded the degree of Doctor of 
Music by a New York institution. He has 
been organist of Brooklyn Trinity and many 
other of the largest churches throughout the 
country. In Detroit he has officiated at the 
First Baptist, First Congregational, Wood- 
ward Avenue Congregational, and the Simp- 
son and Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian 
churches. He was one of the best known or- 
ganists in the east, and his fame as an har- 
monist and improvisor is widespread. For 
many years Mr. Sprague has been engaged in 
teaching voice, in which profession he has 



gained a broad reputation as the successful 
tutor of many famous stage singers. 

Not less prominent in its gifts to the prog- 
ress of ci\'ilization is the doctor's maternal an- 
cestry. His mother, Maximilia Morris, was 
born in Maiden, West Virginia, in 1845, O"^ 
of the beautiful daughters of William Morris, 
a business man of prominence and wealth and 
the inventor of the now indispensable artesian- 
well drill. The Morris family of Virginia has 
been conspicuous in its service to the nation 
ever since Robert Morris, the founder of the 
family in America, first stepped upon its beau- 
tiful shores as one of the Pilgrims of the May- 
flower. In the war of Independence and dur- 
ing the regeneration of the nation the Morris 
family has been prominently represented. 

Frederick P. Sprague, the immediate sub- 
ject of this review, was about ten years of age 
at the time of his parents' removal from New 
York state to Detroit, and in the schools of 
the Michigan metropolis he gained his early 
educational discipline. He was graduated 
from the Detroit schools as a member of the 
class of 1 88 1. In the same year he secured a 
clerical position in the ofiices of Hammond, 
Standish & Company, wholesale dealers in 
meats and provisions, and he continued in the 
employ of this well known Detroit concern 
until 1883. In the year 1884 he became an 
assistant in the office of the Germania Oil 
Company, of Detroit, of which his father was 
an interested principal, and in 1885-6 he was 
cashier in the wholesale jewelry establishment 
of Eugene Deimel, of Detroit. In 1888 Dr. 
Sprague made a radical change in his occupa- 
tion and brought into play his distinctive mu- 
sical talent. He engaged in teaching banjo 
music and also made a tour of the countiy as 
an expert performer on this instrument, being 
identified with star courses and visiting the 
principal cities of the Union. He became one 
"of the most widely known and popular public 
banjoists in the country, and he continued in 
musical work of the order noted from the year 
1888 to 1893. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



669 



Dr. Sprague began the study of medicine 
in 1890, in Cleveland, Ohio, where he had an 
able preceptor, Dr. Gustav C. E. Webber. In 
1893 he entered the medical department of the 
University of Wooster, Ohio, and in this in- 
stitution he was graduated as a member of the 
class of 1896, in which year he duly received 
his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. 
In June of the same year he located in Wyan- 
dotte, one of the prosperous suburbs of De- 
troit, and here his success in the work of his 
profession has been of unequivocal order, im- 
plying a support of representative character 
and a personal popularity of unmistakable sort. 
The Doctor is an appreciative member of the 
American Medical Association, the Michigan 
State Medical Society, and the Wayne County 
Medical Society. He is held in high esteem 
by his professional confreres in Wayne county 
and is a zealous devotee of his profession, of 
whose best literature he is a close student, 
keeping constantly in touch with the advances 
made in both medicine and surgery. He is a 
medical examiner for the Equitable Life In- 
surance Company, of New York ; is consult- 
ing surgeon for the Preferred Accident Asso- 
ciation, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ; is grand 
medical director of the Grand Lodge K. E. P. ; 
and is medical examiner for the Knights of 
Pythias and the Maccabees of the World. He 
is, as may be inferred, a member of each of 
the fraternal organizations- mentioned. The 
Doctor is also surgeon of the First Michigan 
Independent Infantry, with which he holds the 
rank of captain. In 1901 he was selected as 
surgeon for the contingent of Canadian troops 
to be sent to South Africa for service in the 
Boer war, but the war ended before the troops 
were ordered to the scene of conflict and he 
resigned his commission. The Doctor is fond 
of the automobile and the motor boat, and 
through these finds his chief diversion from 
the cares and exactions of his professional 
work. In politics he gives his allegiance to the 
Republican party. Dr. Sprague was early in 
life attracted to the Episcopal church. As a 
boy he sang in the choir of Trinity church. 



and in 1880 was confirmed in St. John's 
church, of Detroit. 

On the 25th of June, 1898, was solemnized 
the marriage of Dr. Sprague to Miss Cora 
Elsie Butts, and they have one daughter, Ethel 
Phoebe Ruth, who was born on the 22d day of 
June, 1899. 

Dr. Sprague is one of a family of nine, four 
of whom died in early youth. His four living 
brothers, two of whom were born in Detroit, 
have all achieved success in their various call- 
ings. The eldest, William Spencer, is now 
manager of a large retail store in Cincinnati, 
Ohio. Louis Waldemar is a celebrated pianist 
and teacher of piano and theory. He heads 
conservatories of music in Cincinnati, Dayton 
and Springfield, Ohio. Isaac Newton is sec- 
retary and treasurer of the Columbus Citizen, 
a Columbus daily newspaper. Richard Mal- 
lory is a well known lawyer, practicing at the 
Detroit bar. 



JAMES WILKIE. 

Of all the manifold agencies that have con- 
tributed to the industrial and commercial up- 
building of the city of Detroit and have car- 
ried her fame throughout the civilized world, 
none can claim precedence of Parke, Davis & 
Company, manufacturing chemists and phar- 
macists, whose institution is uniformly con- 
ceded to be the most extensive of its kind in 
existence and whose great home plant is a 
source of pride to Detroit and of interest to all 
who make a survey of the industrial concerns 
of the Michigan metropolis. Of this gigantic 
plant the subject of this sketch is mechanical 
superintendent, and as a skilled mechanician 
and versatile inventor he has done much to 
forward the success of the enterprise with 
which he is thus connected. 

Mr. Wilkie is a native son of the city of 
Detroit, where he was born on the 23d of No- 
vember, 1853, and he is a son of David and 
Elizabeth (Buick) Wilkie, both of whom were 
born and reared in Scotland, being representa- 
tives of sturdy old families of that historic 



670 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



land. They came to America in 1852 and 
soon after their arrival took up their residence 
in Detroit. David Wilkie had learned in his 
native land the trade of tinsmith, and in De- 
troit he readily found employment at this vo- 
cation, having been identified with various 
leading hardware establishments and finally 
having established himself in the same line of 
business on Gratiot avenue, where he built up 
a prosperous trade. He later removed to a 
more eligible location, on Michigan avenue, 
where he continued in business until about 
1898, when he retired. He died in July, 1907. 
His devoted wife passed to the life eternal in 
1888, and of their children five are living. 

James Wilkie gained his early educational 
discipline in the public schools of Detroit, and 
it is worthy of note that he entered the Bishop 
school on the first day that it was opened for 
school work. At the age of eleven years he 
entered upon an apprenticeship at the tinsmith's 
trade, under the effective direction of his 
father, and he became an expert artisan in this 
line. In 1869 he secured employment at his 
trade in the hardware establishment of Glover 
& Powell, and when this firm was succeeded 
by T. B. Rayl & Company, he continued with 
the latter well known concern, becoming fore- 
man and finally superintendent of its tin and 
sheet-iron department. In 1878 he was pro- 
moted to the position of salesman in the house- 
furnishing and stove department, and from 
1887 until 1891 he had charge of this depart- 
ment. He also acquired an interest in the 
business, and upon the incorporation of the 
T. B. Rayl Company he continued as one of 
its stockholders. He disposed of his interest 
in the business in 1897. 

In 1 89 1, in company with his father-in-law, 
John L. Warren, who had previously been 
connected with the pharmaceutical works of 
Frederick Stearns & Company, Mr. Wilkie 
became one of the organizers of the Warren 
Capsule Company. Prior to this he had be- 
come somewhat interested in the inventing of 
devices for the improvement of capsule-making 
machinery, and after the formation of the 



\\'arren Capsule Company he continued to 
make careful investigation and experimentation 
along the same line, with the result that he 
devised and put into practical use many im- 
proved appliances. This concern was event- 
ually consolidated with the Michigan Capsule 
Company and the National Capsule Company, 
of Indianapolis, under the title of the United 
Capsule Company. This amalgamation of im- 
portant interests occurred in 1893 and with 
the new concern Mr. Wilkie continued as a 
stockholder and held the office of superintend- 
ent and manager. In 1895 an arrangement 
was made with Parke, Davis & Company, who 
erected near their plant in Detroit a building 
in which the United States Capsule Company 
installed its machinery. The latter company 
operated the plant and twenty-five per cent, of 
the product was utilized by Parke, Davis & 
Company, while the remainder was sold to the 
general trade outside. Mr. Wilkie was not 
only a stockholder in the business but also 
assumed the office of superintendent of the 
plant, of which he became general manager in 
1901, as successor of Charles Stephens. In 
the autumn of the same year this plant and 
business were purchased by Parke, Davis & 
Company, and under the new regime Mr. 
Wilkie was retained in general supervision. 
In 1902 the plant of H. A. Hubel, the pioneer 
in the manufacturing of capsules in Detroit, 
was likewise purchased by Parke, Davis & 
Company, and in the following year the ma- 
chinery was removed from this plant and in- 
stalled in that of the company mentioned. It 
may be noted incidentally that at the present 
time the output of the Parke, Davis & Com- 
pany plant comprises seventy-five per cent, of 
all the capsules manufactured in the world. 

The machines utilized in the manufacture 
of these indispensable containers of medicine 
are all automatic, and one of the machines 
does a work which demanded the service of a 
number of operatives by the old hand methods. 
A great improvement is also made in the 
quality of the product, which is absolutely 
clean and antiseptic and free from any pos- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



671 



sible defect. One machine cuts and then joins 
the two sections of the capsules and counts 
them into boxes, ready for the market. An- 
other machine opens the two parts and throws 
out such as are defective, after which it pro- 
ceeds to fill them with the desired medicinal 
preparation, joints them together again and 
counts them into boxes, ready for the drug- 
gist. The latest improved machines in use 
in this department of the great industry of 
Parke, Davis & Company are the invention of 
Mr. Wilkie and were constructed under his 
direct supervision in the machine shops of the 
institution. These improvements have made 
possible a reduction of seventy-five per cent, in 
the selling price of capsules within the past 
twenty years, and have made Parke, Davis & 
Company the dominant manufacturers in the 
capsule trade. 

In 1907 Mr. Wilkie perfected and installed 
a process for the manufacturing of capsules 
during the warm months of the year, — a period 
during which the work had previously been 
necessarily brought to a practical standstill, 
the factory being shut down on account of the 
heat and humidity, which rendered it impos- 
sible to handle and form the gelatine, which 
could not be sufficiently dried. This caused 
the laying off of a valuable force of employes, 
many of whom could not be again secured 
when needed. Mr. Wilkie was allowed by the 
company to perfect and put in operation his 
new system, and he accomplished the work 
with unqualified success, — a work of inesti- 
mable value in connection with this depart- 
ment of manufacture. The gelatine room is 
sixty by ninety feet in dimensions and is arti- 
ficially maintained at a temperature of seventy- 
six degrees Fahrenheit, and with this provision 
the work can proceed without interruption 
during the entire heated term of the summer. 

The machine shops of the plant are also 
under the direct supervision of Mr. Wilkie, 
and in this department employment is given 
to twenty-five expert artisans and fifty regular 
mechanics. Here is constructed all the ma- 
chinerv utilized in the entire plant and here 



also all repairs are made. This is recognized 
as the model machine shop in the city of De- 
troit. Of the various other mechanical de- 
partments under the supervision of Mr. Wilkie 
it may be well to offer a brief review. In the 
printing department are employed one hun- 
dred persons, and the presses in use comprise 
five Mehle cylinders, one Optimus and one 
Cottrell cylinder, and fifteen jobl>ers. Here 
are printed three medical journals, all the labels 
used by the company, price lists, stationery and 
all the advertising matter. This department 
uses thirty tons of paper monthly. Every 
known language is employed in the prepara- 
tion of the advertising matter, which goes to 
all sections of the world. In the box factory 
employment is given to one hundred and 
twenty-five operatives, and this is the second 
largest box manufactory in Detroit. All boxes 
and special packages used by the company are 
here manufactured and are of the highest 
grade. In the glass works are manufactured 
all the small glass appliances utilized in the 
laboratories, as well as special containers and 
anti-toxin tubes. The machinery of the great 
power plant is operated by individual motors 
whenever practicable, and one hundred motors 
are thus utilized. The entire plant is operated 
by electricity, and the total power generated 
is equal to that of two thousand horses. The 
plant has a separate pumping station and the 
most effective apparatus and facilities for fight- 
ing fire. Mr. Wilkie is in full control of all 
these departments, with the title of mechanical 
superintendent. It is needless to say that 
manifold and great responsibilities rest upon 
him, but he has proven equal to every emer- 
gency and is one of the most valued of the 
many executives of the great concern with 
which he is thus identified. His invention of 
the capsule machinery places him in the front 
rank of mechanical experts and inventors. He 
was one of the organizers of the Massnick 
Manufacturing Company, of Detroit, and was 
treasurer of the same in 1904-5. 

In politics Mr. Wilkie gives his allegiance 
to the Republican party, and he and his wife 



672 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



are members of the New Jerusalem church 
(Swedenborgian). Mr. Wilkie has attained 
to the thirty-second degree in Scottish Rite 
Masonry, being identified with the Scottish 
Rite bodies in Detroit, and also with the ad- 
junct organization, the Ancient Arabic Order 
of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. 

In 1876 Mr. Wilkie was united in marriage 
to Miss Adah Zillah Warren, daughter of 
John L. Warren, one of the pioneer manufac- 
turers of capsules in America, and they have 
five children, — Warren, who is individually 
mentioned on other pages of this work ; Edith 
Louise; Hazel Belle; John Chester, who is a 
member of the class of 1908 in the engineer- 
ing department of the University of Michigan; 
and Adah Mary. 



RONALD SCOTT KELLIE. 

As a representative member of the bar of 
Michigan, a recognized authority on chancery 
and admiralty law, and as a citizen of the city 
of Detroit who for some thirty years has been 
actively identified with its growth and devel- 
opment, Mr. Kellie merits distinctive recog- 
nition in this publication. He is especially for- 
tified in his wide and comprehensive knowl- 
edge of the science of jurisprudence and he has 
attained a noteworthy reputation in profes- 
sional circles. 

Ronald Scott Kellie was born in Glasgow, 
Scotland, on the ist day of January, 1843, ^""^ 
is a son of the late Rev. John and Isabella 
(Scott) Kellie. His parental ancestors were 
Scotch Highlanders inhabiting the island of 
Isla, among whom were the Erskines, McKin- 
leys, McDougals, McFarlanes and Blairs. 
John Kellie, great-grandfather of our subject, 
was gardener to the Lord of the Isles and 
called "Ian Mor," meaning "Big John." His 
wife was born in Kintyre, Argylshire. Gaelic 
was their native and only tongue. They later 
became residents of Gourock on the Firth of 
Clyde. Three sons came to them : — Dugald, 
Collin and Ronald. Ronald was graduated 
from the medical department of the University 



of Glasgow and attained prominence in his 
profession and in the sciences. He was one of 
the pioneers in electrical experimentation and 
succeeded as early as 1824 in lighting his 
work room by electric current. He married 
Christina Brown of Stratchlachlan, Loch, 
Fyne Side, near Inverary, her tongue being 
also Gaelic. They had two children, Lachlan 
and John. John Kellie studied law and was 
admitted to practice in Glasgow. He was 
closely identified with the Chartist movement 
in Great Britain, which had for its object the 
enforcement of political reforms in the British 
government that have since been granted as a 
result of this movement. Although a young 
man at this time he was in the fore front of 
the struggle and strenuously preached the 
motto displayed upon the banner of the Chart- 
ists, — "peacefully if we can, forcibly if we 
must." After the treason of Peter Bussey, 
one of the committee of three for the United 
Kingdom, who disclosed their plans to the 
government and through whose treachery the 
rising in Wales was prematurely begun, and 
many lives were sacrificed; and after the sen- 
tence of John Frost, Zephiniah Williams and 
William Jones, the leaders of the movement 
in Wales, was cummuted to simple banish- 
ment, he left Scotland and came to the United 
States and settled in Sanilac county, Michi- 
gan, where he resumed the practice of his 
profession. He was one of the most active 
factors in the organization of that county and 
was appointed one of a committee to make re- 
search and extract such matter as was perti- 
nent from the records of St. Clair county from 
which it was formed. After several years of 
legal practice he studied for the ministry and 
was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and in this profession he performed 
work of great and lasting value. He was for 
several years stationed in the city of St. Clair 
and during his pastorate there he was instru- 
mental in the building of the present church 
edifice. He also labored in Bay City and 
Marysville. He was acknowledged as the most 
gifted extemporaneous speaker of his confer- 




^1^ 




/t^cc/.^ k/c/^ </(^^^^ 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



673 



ence and this gift, as well as his early legal 
training, made him a powerful factor in debate. 
Possibly his most notable effort in the cause of 
his church was the six-day debate at Memphis, 
Michigan, in 1865. The Adventist sect had 
obtained a strong foothold in that town and 
the Christian Sabbath had ceased to be ob- 
served to a large extent. He was ordered by 
the Detroit conference to Memphis in the in- 
terests of his church. At his suggestion a 
committee of three was appointed to pass judg- 
ment upon a debate of the question at issue, 
viz., the proper day to be observed as the Sab- 
bath. The conmiittee consisted of two mem- 
bers of the Adventist faith and one other, 
recognized as one of the most representative 
citizens of the town. The question was de- 
bated for six days, Mr. Kellie representing the 
Christian Sabbath, and the unanimous verdict 
of the committee was in his favor, and the 
Christian Sabbath was observed from that 
time on. In 1894 Mr. Kellie retired from the 
active duties of the ministry and became a resi- 
dent of Detroit, where he passed the remain- 
der of his life. Some time after locating in 
Detroit, he was called up to fill a vacancy in 
the Grosse Pointe church, whose members 
comprised all denominations. After consid- 
erable urging he was persuaded to remain as 
its regular pastor and continued to fill its pul- 
pit for ten years. During his pastorate he 
succeeded in securing the funds needed to build 
the present edifice of the congregation and in 
this labor was strongly supported by the late 
Joseph H. Berry, who became a warm per- 
sonal friend. His last years were spent at his 
home on Fourteenth avenue, Detroit, enjoying 
the reflections of a life spent for the benefit 
of his fellow men. Mr. Kellie died on the 8th 
day of July, 1902. He is survived by his 
widow and his two sons, Ronald and John 

Dr. John Kellie, brother of the subject of 
this sketch, was graduated from the literary 
department of the University of Michigan in 
the class of 1881 and from the medical depart- 
ment in 1884. Subsequently he engaged in 
the practice of his profession in San Fran- 



cisco, California, and from 1887 to 1902 was 
in charge of Riverside Sanitarium there. In 
1902 he removed to Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, 
where he assumed charge of the Whitwell 
Sanitarium. In 1904 he located in Detroit and 
engaged in general practice. 

The maternal ancestors of Ronald Scott 
Kellie were natives of the Lowlands of Scot- 
land, and among whom were the Rintouls, 
Turnbulls, and Scotts, names together with 
those of his paternal ancestors, that have fig- 
ured prominently for centuries in Scotland's 
history. Robert Scott, his grandfather, lived 
upon his estate in Falkirk and was known as 
the laird. His daughter, Isabella, was edu- 
cated by private tutors in her father's home, 
as was the custom of the time. She married 
John Kellie and removed with him to Glas- 
gow. She bore him two sons, Ronald Scott 
and John, as previously stated. 

Ronald Scott Kellie received his early edu- 
cation in the public schools of Glasgow and in 
the summer season lived with his highland 
relatives in Gourock, Rothsay (on the Isle of 
Bute), and in Dunoon. In 1856 he came to 
Michigan, where his father had preceded him. 
At the age of sixteen he began teaching school, 
and he followed that occupation in several 
towns on the shore of Lake Huron. Desiring 
to further equip himself for this profession he 
entered the Michigan State Normal College, 
at Ypsilanti, and was graduated therefrom in 
1863. The following two years were spent 
in this vocation, when ill health compelled him 
to abandon the work. In the summer of 1865 
he was appointed manager and attorney for 
the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company, of 
Hartford, Connecticut, for the state of Michi- 
gan. He was also engaged by the committee 
of Detroit citizens, which included Hon. 
Thomas W. Palmer, T. W. Tillman and John 
Owen, and which had been appointed for the 
purpose of securing funds for the erection of a 
suitable monument to the soldiers and sailors 
of Michigan, to aid them in securing funds 
for that purpose, in furtherance of which ob- 
ject he delivered patriotic addresses through- 



674 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



out lower Michigan, co-operating with the 
late General Byron M. Cutcheon and the Rev. 
Mr. Taylor. The result was the erection of 
the Soldiers' Monument on the Campus, Mar- 
tius, Detroit. In 1873 he entered the law de- 
partment of the University of Michigan and 
was graduated therefrom, with the degree of 
LL. B., in the class of 1876. Shortly after- 
ward he was admitted to the bar and located 
for practice in Detroit. In his law practice 
Mr. Kellie has gained much prestige and suc- 
cess, having a representative clientage and ap- 
pearing in connection with important litiga- 
tions in both the state and federal courts. He 
is recognized as an authority on chancery and 
admiralty law, branches in which he has 
specialized to a great extent. 

Mr. Kellie is a man of strong character and 
powerful individuality, an orator of no mean 
power and in argument logical and convincing. 
He is a man of broad culture and is admirably 
fortified in knowledge of the questions and 
issues of the hour. He has ever been a loyal 
and progressive citizen of his adopted country 
and a firm believer in the future advancement 
of Detroit, as in the past he has been an active 
worker in her development. He has been a 
lifelong Republican, active in the work of his 
party and of influence in its councils. Office 
has never appealed to him, and though often 
solicited to accept nomination he has refused. 
He is a member of the American, Michigan 
State and Detroit Bar Associations and the 
Detroit St. Andrew's Society. In 1906 Mr. 
Kellie made an extended trip to the British 
Isles, visiting the spots familiar to his youth, 
and while there enjoyed the hospitality of 
Andrew Carnegie as his invited guest at Skibo 
Castle. 

Mr. Kellie married, on the 26th of Decem- 
ber, 1866, Miss Lucy A. Jenness, daughter of 
the late Hon. John S. Jenness, of Detroit. 
Mr. Jenness was for many years the most 
prominent merchant in Almont, Michigan, 
and served as a member of both branches of 
the state legislature. Mr. and Mrs. Kellie are 



the parents of one daughter. Brownie, the wife 
of Cyrenius A. Newcomb, Jr., personal men- 
tion of whom is printed elsewhere in this 
volume. 



JOHN OWEN, JR. 

Bearing the full patronymic of his honored 
father, one of the distinguished pioneers and 
influential citizens of Detroit and one to whom 
a special memoir is dedicated in this volume, 
the subject of this sketch has the management 
of the large family estate and is one of the 
popular citizens and business men of his na- 
tive city. Due record concerning the family 
history is given in the sketch of the life of his 
father, so that a repetition of the data is not 
demanded in the present connection. 

A son of John and Jane (Cook) Owen, the 
subject of this review was born in Detroit, on 
tiie 1 8th of August, 1861. His educational 
training was secured in the public schools of 
Detroit and under the direction of private tu- 
tors. In 1879, at the age of eighteen years, he 
became a clerical employe in the office of the 
Detroit Dry Dock Company, of which his 
father was president, and he continued to be 
identified with the affairs of this corporation 
in an executive capacity until 1883, after 
which he passed eighteen months in European 
travel. Upon his return to Detroit he became 
private secretary to his father, of whose ex- 
tensive real-estate interests he became man- 
ager, thus continuing until the death of his 
father, on March 20, 1892, when he became 
manager of the entire estate, having familiar- 
ized himself with all details regarding the 
same during his years of active association as 
private secretary. He is also secretary and 
treasurer of the Cook Farm Company and has 
various and important capitalistic interests of a 
personal order. 

In politics Mr. Owen is aligned as a sup- 
porter of the cause of the Republican party, 
and he is a member of the Detroit Club, the 
Detroit Athletic Club, the Detroit Boat Club 
and the Detroit Raquet and Country Clubs, — 
all representative social organizations of his 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



675 



native city. He lias been prominent in athletic 
circles for a number of years and at one time 
held the world's championship as an amateur 
sprinter for a distance of one hundred yards. 
On the 4th of June, 1891, Mr. Owen was 
united in marriage to Miss Blanche Fletcher, 
daughter of Charles T. Fletcher, head of the 
Fletcher Hardware Company, of Detroit, and 
they have two children, — Helen and John, Jr. 



HOMER S. JOHNSON. 

Among the sterling and aggressive young 
business men typically representative of that 
progressive spirit which is making for the de- 
velopment of the larger and greater Detroit, 
the name of the subject of this sketch shines 
abov-e the industrial horizon in no uncertain 
way. He is vice-president, secretary and gen- 
eral manager of the Penberthy Injector Com- 
pany, of which important manufacturing- 
concern due record is made on other pages 
of this work, and he is a son of the company's 
president, S. Olin Johnson, who likewise is the 
subject of a specific sketch in this volume, so 
that a further review of the industry and the 
genealogy are not demanded in the present 
connection. 

Homer S. Johnson was born in the city of 
Brooklyn, New York, on the 21st of June, 
1880, and he was thus about four years of age 
when, in 1884, his parents took up their resi- 
dence-in Detroit. In the public schools of this 
city he secured his preliminary educational dis- 
cipline, after which he continued his studies in 
the Detroit School for Boys. In 1898 he was 
matriculated in the academic department of 
Columbia University, New York city, in which 
institution he remained a student until 1900, 
when he withdrew from the same to enter upon 
his career in connection with practical business 
affairs. He entered the employ of the Pen- 
berthy Injector Company, and his experience 
in connection therewith covers every depart- 
ment, from the moulding floor to the oftice and 
sales departments and executive direction. In 
1902, having shown himself amply qualified 
for the responsibility involved, he was placed 



in charge of the branch establishment of the 
company in Windsor, Ontario, and he did a 
splendid work in building up the Canadian 
business of the concern. In 1905 he was elect- 
ed vice-president and secretary of the Detroit 
company, and a year later he was made gen- 
eral manager of the business, being undoubt- 
edly one of the youngest, if not the youngest, 
man in Detroit to assume the supervision of so 
extensive and important an industry. His 
course since assuming these offices has amply 
justified the wisdom of the preferment accord- 
ed, and he has shown his mettle as a thorough, 
discriminating and broad-gauged young busi- 
ness man. He is intuitively practical and con- 
servative in his executive and administrative 
capacity, and his progressive attitude places 
him among the foremost of the younger gen- 
eration of business men in the Michigan me- 
tropolis. He is democratic and cordial in his 
makeup, ready to take all men at their true 
value, and he has a wide circle of loyal friends 
in the city which has been his home from his 
childhood days to the present. 

In politics Mr. Johnson is aligned as a sup- 
porter of the cause of the Republican party, 
and he is a member of the Detroit Club, De- 
troit Boat Club, Detroit (]olf Club, Old Club, 
at St. Clair Flats, and the Detroit Athletic and 
Detroit Cricket Clubs. In the annual tourna- 
ments of the last mentioned he has been an ac- 
tive participant for several years past, and he 
has otherwise been a factor in athletic affairs 
in a direct way. While in Columbia Univer- 
sity he was a member of its track team which 
won the relay races in 1898-9, and during his 
freshman year he was president of his class. 
He is a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fra- 
ternity. 

FREDERICK G. SKINNER. 
Among those who are rendering a due quota 
of aid in the laudable work of building up the 
greater and larger industrial Detroit Mr. Skin- 
ner occupies a place of no secondary promi- 
nence, since he is identified in a capitalistic and 
executive way with a number of important 
manufacturing enterprises and is recognized 



676 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



as an alert, progressive and public-spirited citi- 
zen. 

Mr. Skinner is a native of the beautiful lit- 
tle city of Hamilton, province of Ontario, Can- 
ada, where he was born on the 2d of Septem- 
ber, 1861. He is a son of Dr. Ormond Skin- 
ner, who was born in St. Lawrence county, 
New York, and who was graduated in the 
medical department of McGill University, in 
the city of Toronto, Canada. He became one 
of the leading physicians and surgeons of the 
city of Hamilton, where he continued in the 
practice of his profession until his death, which 
occurred in 1875. His wife, whose maiden 
name was Margaret Riddle, was born at Mon- 
treal and still survives him. Their five chil- 
dren are all living. 

The subject of this sketch was afforded the 
advantages of the public schools of his native 
city and in 1875 he was graduated in the 
Waterdown Collegiate Institute, at Water- 
down, Ontario. His business career was in- 
itiated by his taking a clerical position in the 
offices of Charles Cameron & Company, whole- 
sale hardware and dealers in brass goods, in 
Hamilton, and through effective and faithful 
service he passed through various grades of 
promotion, and finally, in 1880, became a trav- 
eling representative of the concern. This po- 
sition he retained until 1883, when he resigned 
the same and came to Detroit, where, through 
the late lamented Governor Hazen S. Pingree, 
he was given a position as traveling salesman 
for the wholesale shoe house of Pingree & 
Smith. He made an excellent record with this 
well known Detroit concern, with which he 
remained until 1887, when he accepted a simi- 
lar position with D. Armstrong & Company, 
manufacturers of shoes, in Rochester, New 
York. For this house he covered territory in 
the west and he continued in its employ until 
1892, when he took up his permanent resi- 
dence in Detroit. In that year he purchased 
an interest in the business of the McRae & 
Roberts Company, manufacturers of steam, 
water and gas goods and appliances of brass. 
He assumed charge of the sales for the eastern 



territory and did much to forward the growth 
of the enterprise. The Sterling & Skinner 
Manufacturing Company is the result of this 
work, and he is now secretary and treasurer of 
the company, of which specific mention is made 
on other pages of this work. It was largely 
through his advice and efforts that this com- 
pany was organized and incorporated, in 1902, 
and under the new regime its functions have 
been amplified and its business greatly expand- 
ed. He is also vice-president of the Detroit 
Motor Castings Company, president of the 
Manufacturers' Power Building Company, and 
vice-president of the corporation of Cowles & 
Danziger, manufacturers of steel barrels. 
Each of these Detroit institutions is individual- 
ly mentioned in this publication. He is also a 
stockholder in the Buick Motor Company. 

In connection with national and state affairs, 
where definite issues are involved, Mr. Skinner 
is arrayed as a staunch supporter of the prin- 
ciples and policies for which the Republican 
party stands sponsor, but in local politics he 
maintains an independent attitude. He and 
his wife are communicants of St. Paul's 
church, Protestant Episcopal, and he is a mem- 
ber of the Detroit Board of Commerce, the 
Detroit Club, the Detroit Golf Club, and the 
Masonic fraternity, including Moslem Temple 
of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of 
the Mystic Shrine. 

Mr. Skinner is married to Miss Jennie Nel- 
son, daughter of Robert Nelson, who was for 
many years engaged in the jewelry business in 
St. Thomas, Ontario. 



WARREN WILKIE. 

As assistant superintendent of the capsule 
department in the great laboratories of Parke, 
Davis & Company, of whose history a review 
is given in this publication, Mr. Wilkie is one 
of the many enterprising and capable young 
business men whose services are enlisted in 
connection with this celebrated Detroit insti- 
tution. He was born in Detroit, on the 9th 
of February, 1879, and is a son of James 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



677 



Wilkie, who is mechanical superintendent of 
the plant of Parke, Davis & Company and who 
is the subject of an individual sketch on other 
pages of this volume. 

Warren Wilkie was aflforded the advantages 
of the public schools of his native city, and 
was graduated in the central high school as 
a member of the class of 1896. Shortly after- 
ward he entered the employ of the T. B. Rayl 
Company, retail hardware dealers of Detroit, 
with whom he remained until 1898, when he 
secured a position in the formula department 
of the establishment of Parke, Davis & Com- 
pany. In 1900 he was sent to the same de- 
partment of the New York branch of the in- 
stitution, and there he remained until 1903, 
when he was called back to Detroit and given 
his present position of superintendent of the 
capsule department. His efficient efforts have 
not lacked appreciation, as the above state- 
ments clearly indicate, and he is practically as- 
sured of still further advancement. He is iden- 
tified with various social and fraternal organi- 
zations in his home city. 



THOMAS R. PUTNAM. 

One of the able and popular officials of the 
city of Detroit is Thomas R. Putnam, who is 
superintendent of meters and inspection for the 
water-works department and who is recog- 
nized as a faithful and discriminating execu- 
tive. 

Mr. Putnam was born in Dorchester, Mid- 
dlesex county, Ontario, Canada, on the 9th of 
February, 1841, and is a son of Joshua Put- 
nam, who was a native of Charlestown, New 
Hampshire, as was also his father, Seth Put- 
nam. The latter was a leal and loyal soldier 
in the Continental line during the war of the 
Revolution, and was a third cousin of the re- 
nowned General Israel Putnam, who achieved 
so much of distinction in the great struggle 
for independence. Joshua Putnam first came 
to Detroit in 1820, and here he remained for 
a brief time with his brother William, who 
was killed in Windsor, Ontario, in 1837, while 



serving as a soldier in tlie Patriot war. He 
met his deatii wlien an attempt was made by 
Detroit men to capture the village across the 
river from the Michigan metropolis, which was 
then but a small town. Joshua Putnam later 
settled in Middlesex county, Ontario, at a place 
now called Nilestown, where the pioneers 
were largely i.mmigrants from the states of 
Vermont and Massachusetts. In the early 
'30s Joshua Putnam established a stage line 
between Sandwich and Hamilton, Ontario, and 
this line at that time afforded the principal 
means of transporting freight and passengers 
between these two points and to intermediate 
villages. He eventually disposed of this busi- 
ness and the closing years of his life were 
passed at Nilestown, where he was a citizen of 
prominence and influence. There also occurred 
the death of his wife, whose maiden name was 
Mary Barrows, and of their children four are 
now living. 

Thomas R. Putnam, the immediate subject 
of this review, was afforded the advantages of 
the common schools of his native county, and 
there he was employed at farm work the major 
portion of the time until 1859, when he came 
to Detroit and engaged in the insurance busi- 
ness, in which connection lie traveled extensive- 
ly. In 1 86 1 he made permanent location in 
Detroit, where he became identified with the 
general offices of an insurance company, un- 
der the management of Colonel Arndt. In 
1867 Mr. Putnam became clerk in the city of- 
fices of the city assessor, and in 1873 he en- 
gaged in the furniture business at 197 Wood- 
ward avenue, in company with Albert and 
John Pixley. He had charge of the books o'. 
the concern, whose business was prosecuted 
under the title of Pixley Brothers. In the 
same year he was appointed clerk in the office 
of the receiver of city taxes, and somewhat 
later he became bookkeeper in the office of the 
city treasurer, E. C. Hinsdale. On the ist of 
January, 1875. he was appointed collector for 
the city water departmenl, and he remained in 
tenure of this position until 1889, when he was 
given further recognition of his faithful and 



678 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



able service in being appointed to his present 
office of superintendent of meters and inspec- 
tion. The water meters were first installed in 
the city in the year mentioned. He has since 
continued to handle the duties of this impor- 
tant office with marked carefulness and dis- 
crimination, and his long retention of the po- 
sition is the best voucher of appreciation. In 
a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Michi- 
gan Society of the Sons of the American 
Revolution. 

In the year 1859 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Putnam to Miss Elizabeth Van 
Vliet, daughter of Alvin Van Vliet, who was 
a native of Pennsylvania, and who became a 
prominent citizen of La Colle, province of 
Quebec, Canada. Mr. and Mrs. Putnam have 
two children, — Herbert J., who is western sales 
manager for the Thompson Meter Company, 
of Brooklyn. New York, and who maintains 
his home in Detroit; and Howard E., who is 
president of the Gies Gear Company, of which 
specific mention is made in this publication. 



WILLIAM M. PAGEL. 

It can not be other than gratifying to note 
to how great an extent young blood has been 
infused into the industrial life of Detroit, and 
the great progress made by the city along all 
lines of business activity within the past decade 
is largely due to the fact that young men of 
distinctive ability and of aggressive enterprise 
have been enlisted in the work. The subject 
of the sketch at hand is distinctly worthy of 
classification among the representative busi- 
ness men of the younger generation in the 
Michigan metropolis, and he has been one of 
the two dominating factors in building up the 
fine business enterprise now conducted under 
the title of the Gordon-Pagel Bread Company, 
of which concern he is secretary and treasurer. 
An article adequately descriptive of the com- 
pany and its business is incorporated in another 
department of this publication. 

Mr. Pagel finds much of satisfaction and 
pride in referring to Detroit as the place of his 



nativity. He was born in this city, on the 3d 
of June, 1874, and is a son of Christian Pagel, 
who was born and reared in Germany, whence 
he immigrated tc America when a young man 
He located in Detroit prior to 1867, and here 
followed the trade of stone cutting until 1895, 
since which year he has Jived virtually retired. 
His wife, whose maiden name was Maria 
Schroeder, is likewise a native of Germany. 
Both are members of the Lutheran church and 
in politics he is a supporter of the Republican 
party. 

William M. Pagel was afforded the advan- 
tages of the unrivaled public schools of De- 
troit and in 1892 he was graduated in the 
Detroit Business University. In 1887 ^e had 
assumed the position of clerk in the retail 
grocery of Max Koch, on Joseph Campau ave- 
nue, and after his graduation from the busi- 
ness college he was admitted to partnership in 
the business, under the firm name of the Koch 
Grocery Company. In 1895 he retired from 
this firm and established himself individually 
in the retail grocery trade, at 222 Field ave- 
nue, where he built up a most successful enter- 
prise. He continued this business until 1900, 
when he disposed of the same to enter into 
partnership with James C. Gordon, under the 
firm name of Gordon & Pagel. They forth- 
with established a bakery at the corner of 
Chene and Hendricks streets, and by their 
careful management and progressive methods 
they made the venture one whose success was 
insistently cumulative. The final result was 
that it was found expedient, to meet the ever 
increasing demands placed upon their institu- 
tion, to form a stock company, and in July, 
1907, the Gordon-Pagel Bread Company was 
organized and incorporated. Mr. Pagel be- 
came the secretary and treasurer upon the in- 
corporation of the business and he lias since 
had the supervision of tlie finances and also 
the sales department. By reference to the ar- 
ticle descriptive of the concern an idea of its 
importance and success may be gained. The 
firm hold membership in the National Bakers" 
Association. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



679 



In his political adherency Mr. Pagel is found 
arrayed as a stalwart supporter of the cause 
of the Republican party, and in a fraternal 
way he is identified with Detroit Lodge, No. 
2, Free & Accepted Masons; Monroe Chapter, 
No. I, Royal Arch Masons; and Monroe Coun- 
cil, No. I, Royal & Select Masters. 

On the 6th of November, 1903, Mr. Pagel 
was united in marriage to Miss Ida P. Lesch- 
ner, of Detroit, and they have one child. Mar- 
guerite, who was born on the 17th of July, 
1905. 

HOWARD E. PUTNAM. 

One of the representative young business 
men identified with industrial interests in De- 
troit is Mr. Putnam, who is president of the 
Gies Gear Company, of whose business a re- 
view is given on other pages of this work, in 
which also appears a brief sketch of the career 
of his father, Thomas R. Putnam. 

Howard E. Putnam was born in Detroit, on 
the 31st of May,- 1872, and here he attended 
the public schools until he had attained to the 
age of fifteen years, when he initiated his busi- 
ness career by securing a clerkship in the offices 
of the Detroit water-works department, with 
which his father has been identified for the 
past thirty-five years. At the age of nineteen 
years the subject of this sketch became a clerk 
in the oflice of Michigan Car Company, and 
later he became bookkeeper in the Vail & 
Crane branch of the National Biscuit Com- 
pany, in Detroit. For this great concern he 
later became a traveling salesman and finally 
was promoted to the responsible office of audi- 
tor, with general offices in Chicago. This 
preferment he retained until September, 1905, 
when he returned to Detroit, and in the early 
part of the following year he became one of 
the organizers and incorporators of the Gies 
Gear Company, of wliich he has since been 
president, giving to the affairs of the company 
the major part of his time and attention and 
being known as an aggressive and successful 
young business man and an able executive. 



He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and 
the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks. 



CONRAD PFEIFFER. 

As president and founder of the C. Pfeiffer 
Brewing Company, one of the successful con- 
cerns of the sort in the city of Detroit, Mr. 
Pfeiffer holds precedence as one of the able 
and representative business men of the Michi- 
gan metropolis and is a citizen who is em- 
phatically and insistently loyal, showing deep 
interest in all that tends 10 conserve the prog- 
ress of the greater and larger city, both in 
material and civic lines. 

From the great empire of Germany America 
has drawn largely in the recruiting of her citi- 
zenship, and from this source the republic has 
had much to gain and nothing to lose. The 
German-American has figured largely in the 
industrial development of our nation and no 
element has shown greater appreciation of our 
national institutions nor done more to uphold 
and foster the same. The subject of this brief 
sketch is one of the honored representatives of 
this element in Detroit, and his able efforts, 
directed along normal and legitimate channels 
of business enterprise, have redounded to his 
credit and to that of the city. He was bom in 
Calderon Kreiss, Marburg, province of Hesse- 
Cassel, Germany, on the 7th of March, 1854, 
a scion of families long established in that fa- 
vored section of the empire. He is a son of 
Conrad and Elizabeth (Schneider) Pfeiffe^, 
both of whom passed their entire lives in the 
fatherland, where the father followed the voca- 
tion of farming. In the schools of his native 
province Conrad Pfeiffer secured his early edu- 
cational discipline, which was limited, and in 
1871, when seventeen years of age, he set forth 
for America, having become convinced that 
here were afforded superior advantages for the 
attaining of independence and definite success 
through individual effort. Soon after his ar- 
rival he located in Detroit, where he entered 
upon an apprenticeship at the trades of lock- 
smith and machinist, in the establishment of 



680 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



John Mohn. He mastered the intricacies of 
these trades and, as a journeyman machinist, 
he was employed some time in the Riverside 
Iron Works. In 1881 he entered the employ 
of Philip Kling, the well known Detroit brewer, 
in whose plant he learned the brewing trade, 
giving careful attention to gaining a knowl- 
edge of all practical details as well as the sci- 
entific principles and processes involved. He 
remained with the Kling brewery for a period 
of three years, and then resigned his position 
to accept that of engineer of the Charles En- 
driss brewery. He retained this incumbency 
until 1889, when he engaged in the brewing 
business on his own responsibility, establishing 
the present plani on Beaufait avenue and later 
making many improvements in buildings and 
equipments, as shown in the article descriptive 
of the business, appearing on other pages of 
this work. The entire charge of the business, 
executive and practical, was vested in him until 
1902, when he found it expedient to organize 
a stock company, which, in February of that 
year, was duly incorporated under the present 
title of the C. Pfeiffer Brewing Company. He 
is president of the company and has charge of 
the manufacturing department of the business, 
and the general supervision of the sales and 
purchasing department, while he has able coad- 
jutors in Messrs. Martin Breitmeyer and 
Henry C. Dietz, who are respectively vice- 
president and treasurer, and secretary of the 
company. He is a member of the National 
Brewers' Association, the Michigan State 
Brewers' Association, the Detroit Brewers' As- 
sociation, the Detroit Board of Commerce, the 
Harmonic Society and the Turn Verein. Mr. 
Pfeiffer is a stockholder in the Detroit Steel 
Cooperage Company, and for a number of 
years he served as a member of its directorate. 
He has valuable real-estate holdings in his 
home city and has various other capitalistic 
investments. He is in the most significant 
sense the architect of his own fortunes, and his 
rise has been along the legitimate lines of nor- 
mal industry, while his course has ever been 
guided and dominated by the strictest integrity 



and honor. He has read wisely and well, 
studying the best literature of his native tongue 
as well as the English, and is a man of broad 
general information and strong intellectuality. 
He is genial and courteous and has a wide 
circle of friends in both business and social 
lines. 

In national and state affairs Mr. Pfeiffer 
maintains a staunch allegiance to the Repub- 
lican party, taking a deep interest in the ques- 
tions and issues of the hour. In local matters 
he holds himself aloof from partisan lines, re- 
serving to himself the right to support the 
men and measures meeting the approval of his 
judgment. While he has been an active worker 
in behalf of his party he has never consented to 
permit the consideration of his name in con- 
nection with candidacy for public office. 

In 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Pfeiffer to Miss Louisa Cramer, daughter of 
Dr. Louis Cramer, of Detroit, who was a 
veterinary surgeon by profession and who 
served as such in the Union army during the 
civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Pfeiffer became the 
parents of three sons and two daughters. The 
daughters, Lillian and Louise, remain at the 
parental home, and the three sons, Walter, 
Louis, and Edgar, are deceased, none of the 
number having attained to years of maturity. 



HENRY W. PATON. 

Identified with one of the important manu- 
facturing industries of Detroit, Mr. Paton has 
gained a secure place in the business circles of 
the Michigan metropolis and stands representa- 
tive of that progressive class of citizens 
through whose aggressive efforts has been con- 
served the marked commercial advancement of 
the city within the past decade. He is secre- 
tary of the Detroit Carriage Company, manu- 
facturers of automobile bodies, and as a spe- 
cific description of the enterprise is given on 
other pages of this work it is not necessary to 
enter again into details concerning the same, 
as ready reference may be made to the article 
in question. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



681 



Mr. Paton was born in the village of Ar- 
mada, Macomb county, Michigan, on the ist 
of November, 1866, and is a son of Rev. John 
H. and Sarah (Wilson) Paton, the former of 
whom was born in Scotland and the latter in 
St. Clair county, Michigan. Rev. John H. 
Paton came with his parents to America in 
1852, at which time he was nine years of age. 
The family settled in Lapeer county, where 
his father became a successful farmer and 
passed the remainder of his life, as did also his 
wife. There Rev. John H. Paton was reared 
to maturity, receiving the advantages of the 
common schools of the locality and period. In 
1866 he married and removed to Macomb 
county, where he remained about eighteen 
months, at the expiration of which he returned 
to Lapeer county, where he purchased and lo- 
cated on a farm. He remained on the farm 
four years and then took up residence in 
A.lmont, that county, where he has since re- 
mained. After taking up his abode in Lapeer 
county he studied for the ministry of the Bap 
tist church and was finally ordained as a clergy- 
man in the same. Later he became a minister 
of the Larger Hope Association, with which 
he is still identified. He has been engaged in 
active ministerial work for many years and has 
been an extensive writer and publisher of ar- 
ticles on evangelical subjects. He and his wife 
maintain their home in the village of Almont 
and are held in affectionate regard by all who 
know them. Rev. John H. Paton signalized 
his loyalty to his adopted country by tendering 
his services in defense of the Union when its 
integrity was thrown into jeopardy by armed 
rebellion. Soon after the outbreak of the civil 
war he enlisted as a private in the Twenty- 
second Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and he 
continued in service until the close of the war, 
having been promoted to the ofifice of sergeant 
and having been identified with the signal- 
service department during the greater portion 
of the time. 

Henry W. Paton, the immediate subject of 
this review, secured his preliminary educational 
training in the public schools of Almont, La- 



peer county, after which he took a course in 
the Michigan Slate Normal School at Ypsi- 
lanti. From 1882 until 1890 he was engaged 
in the general merchandise business in Almont, 
and in the latter year he removed to Ypsilanti, 
where he remained until August, 1892, when 
he took up his residence in Detroit. Here he 
accepted the position of bookkeeper for the 
Rumsey Manufacturing Company, and later he 
assumed a similar position with the Detroit 
Carriage Manufacturing Company, of which 
he was made manager in April, 1900. Of this 
company the Detroit Carriage Company is the 
direct successor and of the latter he was vice- 
president from the time of its organization and 
incorporation, in 1903, until September i, 
1907, since which time he has been its secre- 
tary. He has the general supervision of the 
financial department of the business and is 
known as an able and discriminating executive 
officer. He is independent in his political 
views, is affiliated with Palestine Lodge, No. 
357, Free & Accepted Masons, is a member of 
the Fellowcraft Club, and both he and his wife 
are zealous members of the Congregational 
church. 

On the 19th of July, 1893, Mr. Paton was 
united in marriage to Miss Caroline Hardy, 
daughter of Rev. Seth Hardy, of Ypsilanti, 
and they have four children, — Henry Donald, 
Muriel J., Elizabeth C, and Caroline H. 



PRANK A. THOMPSON. 

The promoter of one of the important in- 
dustrial enterprises of Detroit, the subject of 
this sketch merits recognition in this work. 
He is treasurer and general manager of the 
corporation of F. A. Thompson & Company, 
manufacturing chemists, a description of whose 
business appears on other pages of this work, 
so that a repetition of the data is not demanded 
in this more specifically personal review. 

Mr. Thompson is a native of the village of 
Pittsfield, Washtenaw county. Michigan, 
where he was born on the 8tli of April, 1863, 
and he is a son of John W. and Zoraida A. 



682 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Thompson, the former of whom was born in 
the state of New York and the latter in Michi- 
gan. The father came to Michigan and set- 
tled in Washtenaw county in the pioneer days, 
and for a number of years he was engaged in 
the harness and saddle business in Ann Arbor, 
as a member of the firm of Thompson & Spoor. 
Later he became one of the prominent and suc- 
cessful farmers of the county. He was in- 
fluential in public affairs and was a leader in 
the ranks of the Republican party in his sec- 
tion of the state, having served as a member 
of the board of aldermen of the city of Ann 
Arbor and also having been called to other 
offices of local trust. He died in Ann Arbor 
in 1891, and his wife died at Pasadena, Cali- 
fornia, in 1904. 

Frank A. Thompson, the immediate subject 
of this sketch, received his early educational 
discipline in the public schools of his native 
county, and after completing the curriculum of 
the same he was matriculated in the University 
of Michigan, in which he was graduated as a 
member of the class of 1881, with the degree 
of Pharmaceutical Chemist. After leaving the 
university he was employed in Goodyear's drug 
store, Ann Arbor, until January i, 1883, when 
he came to Detroit and became assistant chem- 
ist in the great pharmaceutical laboratories of 
Parke, Davis & Company. He served under 
Dr. A. B. Lyons until the latter's resignation, 
on the 1st of January, 1887, and was then ap- 
pointed chief chemist to succeed Dr. Lyons. 
In this important and exacting office he con- 
tinued to serve until June i, 1897, when he 
resigned, to engage in business on his own re- 
sponsibility. In June of that year he organized 
the firm of F. A. Thompson & Company and 
initiated the fine business enterprise with which 
he has since bee a identified. The concern was 
incorporated under the laws of the state in 
March, 189S, since which time he has been 
treasurer and general manager. The capital 
stock of the company is now seventy-five thou- 
sand dollars, and the present finely equipped 
plant was ereced in 1901. Mr. Thompson is a 
recognized authority in the domain of prac- 



tical chemistry and has direct supervision of 
the chemical department of his concern, besides 
being general manager of the entire business. 
Many of the preparations manufactured by the 
firm were devised by him, as well as machinery 
and processes involved in the special lines of 
manufacture. He is well known in the circles 
of his profession and is recognized as one of 
Detroit's progressive business men and public 
spirited citizens. He holds membership in the 
Detroit Board of Commerce, the American 
Pharmaceutical Association and the Michigan 
Retail Druggists' Association. He is affiliated 
with the Masonic fraternity, is a Republican in 
politics and is a member of the First Presby- 
terian church. 

In December, 1892, Mr. Thompson was 
united in marriage to Miss Mary Helen Camp- 
bell, daughter of Abner Campbell, of Hamil- 
ton, Ohio. Thev have no children. 



JOHN C. WIDMAN. 

One of the representative business men of 
the Michigan metropolis is he whose name 
initiates this sketch. He is president and gen- 
eral manager of the corporation conducting 
business under the title of J. C. Widman & 
Company, and in the manufacturing of art 
mirrors, dining room and hall furniture this 
concern is the most extensive of its kind in the 
country. Its business is of W'ide scope and the 
enterprise contributes materially to the indus- 
trial precedence of the city of Detroit. 

John C. Widman was born in the city of 
Rochester, New York, on the 30th of Novem- 
ber, 1848, and his educational advantages were 
those afforded by the public schools. At the 
age of sixteen years he entered upon an ap- 
prenticeship at the trade of cabinet making, 
under the direction of his father, with whom 
he eventually became a partner in business. In 
1867 he came to Detroit, in company with his 
brother, Cosmos D. Widman, and they here 
engaged in the manufacturing of furniture, 
with which line of enterprise he has since con- 
tinued to be identified, while he has so directed 
his efforts as to gain a success of unequivocal 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



683 



order and to gain recognition as one of the 
representative business men of Detroit. The 
firm of J. C. Widman & Company was organ- 
ized in 1899, and in 1905 the concern was in- 
corporated under the original title. At the 
time of incorporation John C. Widman was 
made president and general manager of the 
company, and of this dual office he has since 
remained incumbent. He is essentially pro- 
gressive and public-spirited, is a Republican in 
his political adherency, is identified with the 
Detroit Board of Commerce, and is affiliated 
with Palestine Lodge, No. 357, Free & Ac- 
cepted Masons, and King Cyrus Chapter, No. 
133, Royal Arch Masons. 

In Rochester, New York, in 1870, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Mr. Widman to Miss 
Lena Kiefhaber, a native of Germany, and 
they have six children, namely: Frank E., C. 
David, Charles H., George H., Arthur W., and 
Flora J. The last named is now the wife of 
William S. Gibbs, of Detroit. 



LEWIS C. WALDO. 

Prominently identified with lake marine traf- 
fic is Mr. Waldo, who is incumbent of the 
office of secretary, treasurer and general man- 
ager of the old and well known corporation 
designated as the Northwestern Transporta- 
tion Company. Of this concern specific men- 
tion is made on other pages of this work, and 
reference may be made to the article for fur- 
ther particulars in regard to Mr. Waldo's 
identification with the same. 

Lewis C. Waldo is a native of the old Em- 
pire state of the Union, having been born in 
the city of Ithaca, New York, on the 12th of 
August. 1854, and being a son of Albert G. 
and Sarah (Kennedy) Waldo, who removed 
from New York to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 
when he was about eighteen months of age. 
The father's vocation during the greater por- 
tion of his active career was that of superin- 
tendent for E. P. Allis & Company, and both 
he and his wife continued residents of Wis- 
consin until their death. 



The subject of this review was reared to ma- 
turity in the metropolis of Wisconsin, where 
he was afiforded the advantages of the public 
schools, including the high school. He initi- 
ated his business career by assuming the po- 
sition of bookkeeper in the establishment of 
T. A. Chapman & Company, then the largest 
dry-goods concern in the city of Milwaukee. 
He retained this position two years, at the ex- 
piration of which, in 1874, he came to Michi- 
gan and took up his residence in Ludington, 
M-here he was engaged as a bookkeeper, and 
eventually he became interested in the lumber 
trade in the northern part of the state, iiaving 
been concerned in the operation of a number 
of mills. His initial connection with the lake- 
marine business was made in the purchase of a 
lumber schooner, which, on her second trip, 
was wrecked and lost in a storm, off the 
Twenty-second street pier of Chicago. Tn 
1889 he became associated with others in the 
building of the steamer "George W. Roby," 
which was then the largest craft of the sort on 
the lake system, the same having been com- 
pleted at a cost of one hundred and twenty- 
five thousand dollars and having a capacity of 
twenty-five hundred tons' burden. This vessel 
was put into commission in the transportation 
of grain, coal and ore, and did a successful 
general traffic business for a period of seven 
years under the direction of Mr. Waldo. The 
boat was sold at the expiration of the period 
noted, and in 1896 Mr. Waldo built a ste^ 
vessel of five thousand tons' capacity, one of 
the largest on the lakes at the time of its 
launching. This boat, which bears his name, 
he still owns and operates. Of his connection 
with the Northwestern Transportation Com- 
pany due record is made in the article descrip- 
tive of that company. He is also vice-presi- 
dent of the company owning and operating the 
White Star line of passenger steamers, plying 
between Detroit, Port Huron and Toledo, and 
president of the White Star Portland Cement 
Company, whose extensive properties are lo- 
cated near Manistee, Michigan. He is a lib- 
eral and progressive business man and takes a 



684 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



lively interest in all that tends to conserve the 
upbuilding of the "Greater Detroit," having 
maintained his home in this city since 1S90. 

In his political allegiance Mr. Waldo is a 
stalwart Republican, and he is identified with 
various fraternal, business and social organi- 
zations. While a resident of Ludington he 
served two terms as city treasurer, but he has 
never been a seeker of public office. 

In the year 1876, at Ludington, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Mr. Waldo to Miss 
Mary E. Roby, who was born in the state of 
Ohio, and they liave one son and four daagh 
ters, namely: Ida R. (King), John R., Cathe- 
rine R., Mary R., and Eloise R. 



NATHANIEL E. SLAYMAKER. 

Mr. Slaymaker is the incumbent of impor- 
tant offices in connection with railroad inter- 
ests, being real-estate and tax agent for tlie 
Michigan Central Railroad and land commis- 
sioner for the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw 
division of the same system. He maintams his 
home in Detroit and is recognized as an able 
executive and public-spirited citizen. 

Nathaniel Ellmaker Slaymaker can have 
reason for naught but pride and satisfaction in 
that he is able to refer to the old Keystone stat-e 
of the Union as the place of his nativity. Pe 
was born in Paradise township, Lancaster 
county, Pennsylvania, on the 21st of February, 
1844, and is a son of Nathaniel E. and Mary 
(Mcllvain) Slaymaker, both of whom were 
likewise natives of Lancaster county and the 
former of whom was of sterling German an- 
cestry; the Slaymaker family was founded in 
Pennsylvania in che early pioneer epoch, the 
name being anglicized from Schleiermacher. 
The father of the subject of this review was a 
farmer by vocation and was a man of jronii- 
nence and influence in his community. He 
owned and operated a fine landed estate in his 
native county, where l>oth he and his wife con- 
tinued to reside until their death. They were 
devout and zealous members of the Presby- 
terian church. They became the parents of 



three sons and three daughters, and of these 
the three daughters are living and the one 
son to whom this article is dedicated and 
who is the only representative of the family in 
Michigan. 

Nathaniel E. Slaymaker passed his boyhood 
days on the homestead farm and was afforded 
the advantages of the common schools of his 
native county, after which he was matriculated 
in Jefferson College, at Canonsburg, Pennsyl 
vania. In 1866 he was graduated in Wash- 
ington & Jefferson College, with the degree ot 
Bachelor of Arts. The institution last named 
was the direct successor of the Jefferson Col- 
lege. After leaving college Mr. Slaymaker 
began reading law under the preceptorship of 
his cousin, Nathaniel Ellmaker, of Lancaster, 
one of the prominent members of the bar of 
that section of the state, and in 1868 he was 
admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. In Lancas- 
ter he served his novitiate in the active work of 
his profession, having there been engaged in 
practice until 1873, when he took up his resi- 
dence in Silverton, Colorado, in which state he 
remained until 1889, in which year he came to 
Detroit and entered the service of the Michigan 
Central Railroad Company in a semi-profes- 
sional capacity. He has been real-estate and 
tax agent for that company since the year last 
mentioned and since 1899 has also been land 
commissioner for the Jackson, Lansing & Sagi- 
naw Railroad Company, whose lines are oper- 
ated by the Michigan Central Railroad Com- 
pany. In the latter office he has charge of tiie 
company's various landed holdings and other 
incidental business. 

In politics Mr. Slaymaker gives a staunch 
allegiance to the Republican party, and while 
he has never been a seeker of public office, the 
importunities of his party friends and others 
proved sufficient to bear him into the office of 
mayor of Silverton, Colorado. He served one 
term and gave a most able and progressive 
administration. 

In the year 1879, in Pennsylvania, Mr. Slay- 
maker was united in marriage to Miss Annie 
Russel, a daughter of Abram W. Russel, and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



685 



the four children of this union are : Nathaniel 
E., Jr., Abraham R., George Duflield, and 
Robert Kepler. 

THOMAS E. REEDER. 

Having gained a position as one of the rep- 
resentative factors in the business life of the 
city of Detroit, Mr. Reeder is well entitled to 
consideration in this publication. He is vice- 
president and general manager of the Har- 
greaves Manufacturing Company, an adequate 
description of whose business is given on other 
pages of this work. 

Mr. Reeder is a native of the city which is 
now his home, and the date of his birth was 
November 4, 1861. He is a son of Edwin and 
Elizabeth Reeder, both of whom were born in 
England. Edwin Reeder was reared and edu- 
cated in his native land, where he remained 
until 1848, when he came to America, making 
Detroit his destination. Here he accepted a 
position with the Detroit & Lake Superior Cop- 
per Company, and he was identified with the 
smelting operations of this concern until it dis- 
continued business : he was one of the principal 
stockholders of the company and was its treas- 
urer for a number of years prior to its with- 
drawal from business. He was prominent in 
connection with the early industrial develop- 
ment of Detroit, was a man of marked business 
acumen and of sterling integrity of character, 
while he was ever honored as a loyal and 
worthy citizen. He and his wife were zealous 
and devout members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church and were active in the various de- 
partments of its work. Mr. Reeder made judi- 
cious investments in local realty and through 
the appreciation in its value gained a comfor- 
table fortune. He had numerous real-estate 
holdings, including the well known Reeder 
farm, which is now within the corporate lim- 
its of the city. He retired from active busi- 
ness in 1893 and passed the residue of his life 
in Detroit, where his death occurred in 1901. 
Edwin Reeder is survived by three children, 
the second of whom is the subject of this 
sketch. Lillie B. is the wife of Frank P. X. 



Oldfield. well known in the field of advertis- 
ing in Detroit. 

Thomas E. Reeder was afforded the advan- 
tages of the public schools of Detroit and he 
fully availed himself of the opportunities thus 
presented, after which he completed a thorough 
course in the Mayhew Business College, which 
was then the leading institution of the sort in 
Detroit. Mr. Reeder's entire business career 
has been one of identification with the enter- 
prise with which he is now connected in so 
prominent a way and in whose upbuilding he 
has been a most potent force. In 1876 he en- 
tered the employ of the Hargreaves Manufac- 
turing Company, manufacturers of picture 
mouldings, frames, etc., and dealers in all kinds 
of pictures, and his first position was that of 
bill clerk, from which he was promoted to 
that of bookkeeper. In 1884 he was made 
ofiice manager and he rendered most efficient 
service in this capacity until 1890, when he 
became a stockholder and director of the com- 
pany and assumed the general management of 
the business. His thorough and comprehen- 
sive knowledge of all details and his distinc- 
tive administrative power, already well proven, 
suggested him as the most eligible of candi- 
dates for the office of manager, and the wis- 
dom of his selection has been fully justified 
in the splendid results which have been gained 
under his direction. He is essentially a work- 
er and realizes that consecutive application is 
the sesame to the door of success, so that he- is 
consistently to be termed a captain of indus- 
try, for he has exemplified the progressive 
methods and policies which have so signifi- 
cantly marked latter-day advancement in the 
world of business. 

In 1895 Mr. Reeder effected a reorganiza- 
tion of the company, and at this time he in- 
creased his holdings by the purchase of many 
of the stock interests hfid by others. With 
the institution of these ciianges he was elect- 
ed vice-president and general manager of the 
business, of which dual office he has since con- 
tinued incumbent. It is primarily due to his 



686 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



efforts that the enterprise has gained prestige 
as one of the largest and most far-reaching of 
the sort in the country, and the business repre- 
sents one of the extensive and substantial com- 
mercial and industrial enterprises of the city 
and state. A more perfect idea of the extent 
of the business may be gained through a 
perusal of the specific article devoted to the 
same on other pages of this volume. 

Liberal, progressive and public-spirited as a 
citizen, Mr. Reeder has come to the front 
right loyally to render co-operation and influ- 
ence in support of measures and enterprises 
tending to advance the material and civic pros- 
perity of his native city. He was one of the 
organizers and incorporators of the Detroit 
Board of Commerce, which vital body is do- 
ing a most excellent work in promoting the 
development of the "Greater Detroit," and the 
organization has no adherent who is more 
loyal and enthusiastic than is Mr. Reeder. He 
is a member of the Detroit Club, of which old 
and representative organization he was a di- 
rector from 1902 to 1905, inclusive, and he is 
also identified with the Detroit Boat Club and 
the Detroit Automobile Club. He holds mem- 
bership in the Picture Frame Manufacturers' 
Association of America and the Detroit Man- 
ufacturers' Association, and in a fraternal way 
he is affiliated with Union Lodge, No. i, Free 
& Accepted Masons. His political allegiance 
is given to the Republican party and both he 
and his wife are communicants of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal church, being members of the 
parish of beautiful old St. John's church. 

Mr. Reeder is specially fond of sports afield 
and afloat and stands as a type of the loyal 
sportsman, by discountenancing all illegitimate 
or questionable methods. He owns a hunt- 
ing lodge at Deford, Tuscola county, and finds 
much pleasure each season in his hunting and 
fishing incursions. He has gained a high rep- 
utation as a breeder of the best type of Point- 
er dogs, and his kennels at Deford have pro- 
duced a number of prize-winners, including 
"Fightfield Joe," the winner of sixteen first 



prizes in bench shows of the principal cities 
of the Union. "Teddy R.," a son of the prize- 
winner just mentioned, also promises to equal 
the prestige of his sire. Mr. Reeder main- 
tains an average of twenty dogs in his kennels, 
does his own breaking for field work and is 
known as one of the most expert and success- 
ful trainers in the country. His services in 
this line are frequently requested by those who 
wish to gain the best coaching for fine dogs, 
— in fact he is entirely unable to respond to the 
many overtures thus made to him by friends 
who wish to avail themselves of his talent. 
The attractive family home of Mr. Reeder 
is located at 396 Jefferson avenue and the same 
is a recognized center of gracious hospitality. 
On the 7th of January, 1885, was solem- 
nized the marriage of Mr. Reeder to Miss 
Elsie Libeau. Her father was an officer in 
the French army and her mother died at the 
time of Mrs. Reeder's birth. The latter was 
reared in the home of her maternal grand- 
father. Colonel Walter Wiley, who was for 
several years custodian of the historic Tower 
of London, England, and who later was in 
command of the British troops in Western 
Ontario, Canada, during the Fenian raids. 
Mrs. Reeder was born in the city of London 
and was reared and educated in Montreal. 
She was afforded the best advantages and is 
a woman of culture and gracious personality, 
while her lineage on both the paternal and ma- 
ternal sides is of distinguished and patrician 
order. Mr. and Mrs. Reeder have one son, 
Harold W., who was born in Detroit, on the 
1 6th of June, 1886. He was graduated in the 
Detroit University School as a member of the 
class of 1906 and was prominent in its athletic 
affairs while pursuing his under-graduate 
work, having been a member of the track and 
baseball teams of the institution. After leav- 
ing this school he continued his preparatory 
academic work in Groff Preparatory School, 
New York city, and in the autumn of 1907, he 
was matriculated in Yaie University, where he 
is now a student in the scientific department. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



687 



JAMES T. WHITEHEAD. 

In the department of this publication de- 
voted to the representative industrial and com- 
mercial enterprises of Detroit and Wayne 
county is given a description of the White- 
head & Kales Iron Works, of which the sub- 
ject of this sketch is president and treasurer 
and of which he was one of the founders. He 
has risen to prominence as one of the progres- 
sive and representative business men of his 
native county and is well entitled to consid- 
eration in this volume. 

Mr. Whitehead was born in the village of 
Wyandotte, Wayne county, Michigan, on the 
28th of September, 1864, and is a son of James 
and Mary (McEvoy) Whitehead, natives re- 
spectively of Edinborough, Scotland, and Hali- 
fax, Nova Scotia. His parents are now 
deceased, his father having devoted the major 
portion of his active business career to mer- 
chant tailoring. 

James T. Whitehead gained his educational 
training in the public schools of Wyandotte 
and Detroit, and in 1879, at tlve age of fifteen 
years, he entered the employ of Rathbone, 
Sard & Company, of Detroit, manufacturers 
of stoves and ranges. He here gained valuable 
business experience. In 1888 Mr. Whitehead 
purchased from John B. Dyar the plant of 
the Detroit Sheet Metal & Heating Works, 
and here he continued individually in the busi- 
ness until 1893, when he sold an interest in the 
enterprise to Henry B. Lewis. Thereupon 
was formed the firm of Whitehead & Lewis, 
and this alliance continued until 1897, when 
Mr. Whitehead retired from the firm and es- 
tablished himself in the same line of business 
at 42-6 Randolph street, under the title of J. 
T. Whitehead & Company. In 1899 he ad- 
mitted to partnership William R. Kales and 
they continued the business under the firm 
name of Whitehead & Kales until 1905, when, 
to meet the exigencies of the constantly in- 
creasing demands placed upon the institution, 
the enterprise was incorporated under its 
present title of the Whitehead & Kales Iron 
Works. Mr. Whitehead has been president 



and treasurer of the company from the start, 
and the success which has since continued to 
mark the same has been in large measure due 
to his wise executive policy. For further data 
reference may be made to the previously men- 
tioned resume of the company's history. Mr. 
Whitehead is also a member of the directorate 
of the Michigan Copper & Brass Rolling Mills 
and is a director of the Peninsular Savings 
Bank of Detroit. He is president of the 
Reinke & Shirray Manufacturing Company, 
manufacturers of stamped-metal novelties, and 
is a citizen of progressive ideas and much pub- 
lic spirit. 

In politics Mr. Whitehead is found arrayed 
as a stalwart supporter of the cause of the 
Republican party, and he is identified with 
the Detroit Board of Commerce, of whose 
board of directors he became a member in 
1907. He holds membership in the Detroit 
Club, the Country Club and the Detroit Boat 
Club, and both he and his wife are communi- 
cants of St. Paul's church, Protestant Episco- 
pal, in which he is a member of the vestry. 

In April, 1885, was solemnized the marriage 
of Mr. Whitehead to Miss Ida Marie Frazer, 
daughter of Abram C. Frazer, who was for 
many years an influential citizen of Detroit 
and prominently identified with financial af- 
fairs in this city. Mr. and Mrs. Whitehead 
have four children, — James Frazer, Thomas 
Cram, Mary Elizabeth, and Walter Kellogg. 



FRED J. SIMMONS. 

Himself numbered among the oldest busi- 
ness men in Detroit, Mr. Simmons has here 
passed the major portion of his life, being a 
representative of one of the well known and 
honored pioneer families of the city and stand- 
ing high in the confidence and esteem of the 
people among whom he has so long lived and 
labored to goodly ends. 

Mr. Simmons is a native of the old Empire 
state of the Union and a scion of families 
founded in America in the colonial days. He 
was born at Oriskany Falls, Oneida county, 



688 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



New York, February lo, 1846, and is a son 
of Alfred and Julia (Church) Simmons, both 
of whom were born and reared in Madison 
county, New York, where the respective fam- 
ilies were founded in the pioneer epoch. The 
father was born in 1818 and the mother in 
1820. The former was a son of Durphy Sim- 
mons, who likewise was born in Madison coun- 
ty and who was a soldier in the war of the 
Revolution, having taken party in the battle 
of Sackett's Harbor, near the close of the 
great struggle for national independence. He 
continued to be engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits in the state of New York until his death. 
The Simmons family is of sterling English 
lineage. In the maternal line the genealogy 
of the subject of this review is traced back to 
one Captain Church, of Rhode Island, who 
had command of a company in King Philip's 
Indian war. 

Alfred Simmons was reared to maturity in 
his native county, where he learned the trade 
of miller and whence he eventually removed 
to Oneida county, locating at Oriskany Falls, 
where he operated a water-power grist mill 
for a number of years and where he also 
served in the office of justice of the peace. 
In 1854 he removed with his family to De- 
troit, making the trip by way of the canal and 
Great Lakes. Within the same year he began 
the manufacturing of melodious, in company 
with W. r. Blackman, this having been be- 
fore the days of the present cabinet organs, 
and the factory was located on the site now 
occupied by the American Express Company. 
Some years later the business of the firm of 
Simmons & Blackman was sold, in the mean- 
while the manufacture of organs having been 
developed, but Mr. Simmons continued in the 
same line of enterprise until about 1868, the 
firm eventually becoming Simmons & Whit- 
ney. The junior member was the late C. J. 
Whitney, who in later years became so prom- 
inent in connection with musical interests in 
Detroit and who had been engaged in ped- 
dling melodeons prior to his admission to part- 
nership with Mr. Simmons, about 1864. Six 



years later a dissolution of partnership took 
place, when the subject of this sketch pur- 
chased the business. His father thereafter 
lived virtually retired until his death, which 
occurred in 1896: the devoted wife and mother 
passed away in the following year. Alfred 
Simmons was a man who in his day was 
prominent and influential in the business and 
civic life of Detroit, and his name merits a 
place on the roll of its honored pioneers. His 
political support was given to the Republican 
party, and both he and his wife held member- 
ship in St. John's Episcopal church. Of their 
two children the subject of this review is the 
younger, the other being Julia A. Hubbard, 
of Detroit. Alfred Simmons was one of the 
organizers and incorporators of the company 
which placed in operation the Fort street rail- 
way and he had other capitalistic interests of 
importance. 

Fred J. Simmons secured his rudimentary 
education in the schools of his native place and 
was a lad of eight years at the time of the 
family removal to Detroit, where he contin- 
ued his studies in the public schools until he 
was eligible to matriculation in the University 
of Michigan, which he entered in 1863, be- 
ing graduated as a member of the class of 1866 
and receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
He made his first independent venture by en- 
gaging in the jewelry business, in Woodward 
avenue, and he finally sold this and purchased 
the business which had been founded by his 
honored father. This change was made in 
1870, as already stated, and he continued the 
manufacturing of organs until 1873, after 
which he lived retired for some time. He 
then engaged in the produce-commission busi- 
ness and also became state agent for the Equi- 
table Life Insurance Company, of New York. 
In 1878 he engaged in the grain-commission 
business, in which he has continued during the 
long intervening years and in which he has 
built up and controls a large and prosperous 
trade. 

Mr. Simmons has ever manifested a loyal 
interest in all that has concerned the welfare 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



689 



of the city which has been his home from his 
boyhood days, and his co-operation has been 
given to the promotion of various industrial, 
civic and pubHc enterprises which have made 
for the substantial progress of the city. He 
was president of the Detroit Board of Trade 
three years and at present is administrator of 
the same. He was the founder of the Lake 
Orion resort, and was the first to erect a cot- 
tage there. He is commodore of the boat club. 
For the past thirty years Mr. Simmons has 
spent his winters in Florida and he is known 
as the "Indian river fisherman," having caught 
as high as nineteen hundred bass in nineteen 
days. Though he has never been an aspirant 
for public office he is aligned as an unswerv- 
ing supporter of the principles and policies for 
which the Republican party stands sponsor, 
and both he and his wife are communicants of 
the Protestant Episcopal church, holding mem- 
bership in the parish of St. John's, whose beau- 
tiful edifice is located on Woodward avenue 
at the head of High street. 

In 1872 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Simmons to Miss Emma Petrie, whose 
father served for forty-four years as an engi- 
neer on the Michigan Central Railroad. Mr. 
and Mrs. Simmons have two children : Harry 
B., who is engaged in the lighting supply 
business in Detroit, and Edith, who is the 
wife of Charles Wilson, of New York city. 



LEWIS F. STARKEY, M. D. 

This brief memoir touches upon the life his- 
tory of one who was a pioneer physician and 
surgeon of Detroit and a citizen of marked 
prominence and influence in the early days. 

Dr. Lewis Franklin Starkey was bom at 
New Lisbon, New York, July 28, 1801, and 
his death occurred at Kalamazoo, Michigan, 
April 19, 1848. He was a direct descendant 
of John Starkey, who immigrated to America 
from Standish, Lancastershire, England, in 
1667, and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. In 
1674 he removed to Maiden, that colony, and 
in 1689 he took up his residence in Pemaquid, 
Massachusetts. He had learned tlie weaver's 



trade in his native land, and to this he devoted 
his attention after coming to the New World, 
also doing business as a manufacturer of and 
dealer in clothing. 

The subject of this memoir, who was the 
founder of the family in Michigan, was afford- 
ed the advantages of the common schools of 
his native place and then took up the study of 
medicine under the preceptorship of Dr. Pack- 
ard, a prominent physician of Oxford, New 
York. He made rapid progress in his absorp- 
tion and assimilation of technical knowledge 
and in order to qualify himself as best possi- 
ble for the responsible work of his chosen pro- 
fession, he entered Fairfield College of Medi- 
cine, in New York state, in which institution 
he was graduated in 1824, with honors, and 
from this college he received his well earned 
degree of Doctor of Medicine. 

After his graduation Dr. Starkey was en- 
gaged in the practice of his profession for a 
short interval at Bainbridge, New York, 
whence he removed to Binghamton, that state, 
in 1829. There he was associated in practice 
with Dr. Silas West until the following year, 
when he returned to New Lisbon, his native 
village. In the ensuing year, 1831, he was ap- 
pointed surgeon in the United States army, 
but was unable to accept the office, owing to 
an accident in which he suffered a broken an- 
kle. From New Lisbon he removed to Ox- 
ford, New York, where he was engaged in 
active professional work until 1836, when he 
came to Michigan, which was not admitted to 
the Union until the following year. 

Dr. Starkey came directly to Detroit and 
here, on the nth of May, 1836, he was grant- 
ed a license to practice medicine and surgery. 
He established his office and home at 149 Jef- 
ferson avenue, and he became associated in 
practice with Dr. Theller, who also conducted 
a drug store, at 140 Jefferson avenue. In 
1842 Dr. Starkey removed to Kalamazoo, 
which was then a small village, and there he 
continued in the practice of his profession 
during the residue of his life. He died April 
19, 1848, as has already been stated. He was 



690 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



a man of fine intellectuality and exceptional 
professional attainments for his day, and he 
wielded a beneficent and distinctive influence 
in civic affairs in the new state of Michigan. 
Soon after taking up his residence in Kala- 
mazoo the Doctor was elected a member of the 
state senate for that district, and he rendered 
most valuable service in that body during the 
legislative sessions of 1843-4. In the latter 
part of 1844 he was appointed deputy United 
States marshal for the western district of 
Michigan, and he was called upon to serve in 
various offices of local trust. 

In 1825, at Binghamton, New York, was 
solemnized the marriage of Dr. Starkey to 
Miss Olivia Patrick, a daughter of Robert 
W. Patrick, of Stillwater, that state. She 
preceded her husband to the life eternal, hav- 
ing died May 4, 1847, at Kalamazoo, about 
one year prior to the demise of the doctor. 
They became the parents of four sons and one 
daughter, concerning whom the following 
brief data are entered : Richard Peters, who 
learned the printer's trade, was the first city 
editor of the Detroit Free Press, and was a 
valiant member of a Michigan regiment in the 
civil war; Henry M. is the subject of an in- 
dividual sketch in this volume; Lewis Cass 
Starkey was a soldier in the Mexican war; 
Mary A. became a popular school teacher in 
Kalamazoo; and Eugene Franklin likewise did 
effective service as a soldier in a Michigan 
command in the war of the Rebellion. All are 
now deceased. 



ALBERT U. WIDMAN. 

On other pages of this work appears a brief 
review of the history of the well known cor- 
poration of C. D. Widman & Company, of 
which the subject of this sketch is secretary 
and general manager, and in the same article 
is given a resume of the career of his honored 
father. Cosmos D. Widman, the founder of 
the business. By reason of this fact it is not 
necessary to repeat the data in the present 
sketch, as ready reference may be made to the 
same in the article mentioned. 



Albert U. Widman is recognized as one of 
the alert and progressive young business men 
of Detroit and he is essentially and deeply 
loyal to his native city, in whose still greater 
industrial and civic advancement he is a firm 
believer. He was born in Detroit, on the 22d 
of September, 1872, and after completing the 
curriculum of the public schools he was for 
four years a student in Kenyon Military Acad- 
emy, at Gambier, Ohio. After leaving school 
he entered the employ of the firm of C. D. 
Widman & Company, of which his father was 
the head, and he started at the foot, working 
his way upward and gaining a thorough knowl- 
edge of all departments of the business. In 
1894 he became one of the corps of traveling 
salesmen for the firm, and in this capacity he 
continued to be engaged until 1899, doing a 
most successful work in his assigned territory. 
In the year last mentioned he became superin- 
tendent of the factory, and since 1900 he has 
been secretary of the company and had the 
general supervision of the manufacturing and 
purchasing departments. He is a member of 
the Detroit Board of Commerce and is a char- 
ter member of the Milwaukee Avenue Manu- 
facturers' Association, of which he was vice- 
president in 1907. He is affiliated with the 
Masonic fraternity, in which he has completed 
the circle of the York Rite bodies, being iden- 
tified with Detroit Commandery, No. i. 
Knights Templars, and also being a member 
of the Moslem Temple, Ancient Arabic Or- 
der of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He 
holds membership in the Detroit Fishing & 
Hunting Association and the Detroit Athletic 
Club, and is active in the affairs of both of 
these popular organizations. His political pro- 
clivities are indicated by the staunch allegiance 
which he accords to the Republican party, and 
both he and his wife are communicants of St. 
Andrew's church, Protestant Episcopal. 

In November, 1901, Mr. Widman was unit- 
ed in marriage to Miss Ida M. Yerge, of De- 
troit, and they have two daughters, — Evelyn 
Gertrude and Marguerite Elizabeth. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



691 



ROBERT MORTON. 

Continued success is the ultimate criterion 
of merit and reliability in the industrial and 
commercial world, and judged from this stand- 
ard the enterprise of which the subject of this 
review is the head is justly to be designated as 
one of the most important specific industries 
in the city of Detroit. He was the founder of 
the Morton Baking & Manufacturing Com- 
pany, whose operations are of great magni- 
tude, and is known as one of the loyal and 
public-spirited citizens and progressive busi- 
ness men of the Michigan metropolis. A brief 
review of the history of the Morton Baking & 
Manufacturing Company is incorporated on 
other pages of this volume, and a repetition of 
the data is not demanded in the present con- 
nection. He retired from the presidency of 
the company in 1908, being succeeded by his 
son, Robert M. 

Mr. Morton was born at Dunoon, Argyle- 
shire, Scotland, on the 17th of September, 
1844, 'ind is a son of James and Jean (Mc- 
Dougall) Morton, both representatives of old 
and sterling Scottish lineage. The father and 
grandfather were bakers by trade and voca- 
tion, and the former continued to be identified 
with this line of industry in his native land 
until 1856, when he immigrated with his fam- 
ily to America, where he eventually estab- 
lished a bakery in Brooklyn, New York. There 
he continued in active and successful business 
for many years, — in fact, up to the time of 
his death, in 1903, at the venerable age of 
eighty-two years. He was a man of impreg- 
nable integrity and distinctive business acu- 
men, and possessed to the full the admirable 
traits which distinguish the sturdy race of 
which he was a worthy scion. His wife died 
in 1901, and of their children seven are now 
living. The parents were both consistent mem- 
bers of the Presbyterian church, and the father 
was a Republican in his political proclivities. 

Robert Morton secured his rudimentary ed- 
ucation in his native town and was about 
twelve years of age at the time of the family 
removal from Scotland to America. He there- 



after continued his studies till sixteen in the 
public schools of the city of Brooklyn, where 
he was reared to maturity and where he learned 
the baker's trade under the able direction of 
his honored father. In 1877 Mr. Morton 
took up his residence in Windsor, province of 
Ontario, Canada, where he established him- 
self in business. He became the owner of a 
well equipped bakery and by his enterprise and 
conscientious business methods he built up c 
prosperous trade. In 1883 he removed to De- 
troit, and established himself in the same line 
of enterprise. The success of the business has 
been of the most unequivocal order, as is evi- 
dent when it is stated that the Morton Bak- 
ing & Manufacturing Company now repre- 
sents the leading industry of its kind in the city. 
For further particulars in regard to the same 
reference should be made to the article descrip- 
tive of the company. 

In politics Mr. Morton is aligned as a loyal 
supporter of the principles and policies for 
which the Republican party stands sponsor; 
he and his family hold membership in the 
Trumbull Avenue Presbyterian church, and he 
is affiliated with the following named Masonic 
bodies: Ashlar Lodge, No. 91, Free & Ac- 
cepted Masons; Peninsular Chapter, No. 16, 
Royal Arch Masons; Damascus Commandery, 
No. 42, Knights Templar; Michigan Sover- 
eign Consistory of the Ancient Accepted Scot- 
tish Rite; and Moslem Temple, Ancient Arabic 
Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. 
Mr. Morton is an active and appreciative mem- 
ber of the Detroit Board of Commerce, aftd 
is identified with the Detroit Yacht Club, the 
Detroit Motor Boat Club, and Rushmere Club, 
at St. Clair Flats. He is an enthusiast in 
aquatic sports and is a prominent figure in 
local yachting circles. He is the owner of 
a fine fifty-foot sailing yacht, the "La Reine," 
in which, in 1906, he made a trip to Florida, 
making the voyage by way of the Great Lakes, 
the Erie canal and down the Atlantic coast. 

On the 22d of October, 1867, was solem- 
nized the marriage of Mr. Morton to Miss 
Marion Riddell, of Brooklyn. New York, and 



692 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



concerning their children the following brief 
data are given : Robert M., of whom individ- 
ual mention is made on other pages of this 
work, is president of the Morton Baking & 
Manufacturing Company ; William A. is man- 
ager of one of the celebrated Childs restau- 
rants in New York city; Marion M. is the 
wife of William Robertson, of Port Huron, 
Michigan ; Evelyn H. is the wife of Jesse 
Morris, who is employed in the retail clothing 
establishment of F. G. Clayton & Company, of 
Detroit; and Helen A. is the wife of Albert C. 
Couch, the well known Detroit restaurateur. 



ORRIN WARDELL. 

As the founder and head of the firm of O. 
Wardell & Sons, of which specific mention is 
made in this publication, Orrin Wardell has 
for more than thirty-five years been promi- 
nently identified with real-estate operations in 
Detroit, and his dealings have been of large 
scope and importance, while he has at all times 
so directed his course as to retain the unequivo- 
cal confidence and esteem of all with whom 
he has been associated in business transac- 
tions. The high reputation which this hon- 
ored pioneer thus holds has been the potent 
influence in gaining and retaining to his firm 
its distinctive precedence and prestige. 

Mr. Wardell was born at Rainham, prov- 
ince of Ontario, Canada, on the ist of April, 
1836, and is a son of Solomon and Mary War- 
dell, who continued to reside in the province 
mentioned until they were summoned from the 
scene of life's endeavors, the father having 
been a farmer by vocation. The original 
progenitor of the Wardell family in America 
was Timothy Wardell, who immigrated from 
Wales to this country prior to 1760. He even- 
tually became the owner of large tracts of land 
in Vermont, with the annals of which com- 
monwealth the name was conspicuously iden- 
tified for several generations and from which 
state members of the family went forth to es- 
tablish the Canadian branch. 

The subject of this review received his early 
educational training in the common schools of 



the section in which he was born and when but 
fourteen years of age he was apprenticed to 
the harnessmaker's trade, in Gowanda, Cat- 
taraugus county. New York, where he re- 
mained for five years. In 1855 he returned 
to Canada and established himself in business 
as a harnessmaker, at Wellington Square, On- 
tario. In 1858 Mr. Wardell came to Detroit 
and here he engaged in the retail dry-goods 
business, on Gratiot avenue, whence -he later 
removed to a place on Jefferson avenue, near 
Randolph street. He here continued in busi- 
ness until 1 86 1, when he sold out and removed 
to the city of Toronto, Canada, where he was 
engaged in the same line of business until 1864, 
when he came again to Detroit. Here he 
formed a partnership with Thomas Walsh, un- 
der the firm name of Wardell & Walsh, and 
they engaged in the general commission busi- 
ness, having their headquarters on what is now 
Cadillac Square. With this enterprise Mr. 
Wardell continued to be actively identified un- 
til 1870, when ill health compelled him to re- 
tire for a period of recuperation, and he sold 
his interest in the business to his partner. For 
the ensuing three years he was not in active 
business, but at the expiration of that period, 
in 1873, he established himself in the real- 
estate business, in which he has since contin- 
ued with ever increasing success, and he thus 
became the founder of the enterprise now con- 
ducted under the firm name of O. Wardell & 
Sons. As real-estate auctioneers this firm now 
takes precedence of all others in the state, and 
the magnitude of its business indicates the re- 
liability and high standing of the concern. Mr. 
Wardell was one of the first to lend co-opera- 
tion in the development and upbuilding of the 
northwestern section of the city, having erect- 
ed for his own use the third residence to be 
built on Lincoln avenue, and since that time he 
has purchased a considerable amount of im- 
proved property in that section. He owns at 
the present time three of the four corner lots 
at Lincoln avenue and Brainard street, and 
his faith in the security of real-estate invest- 
ment in Detroit is best demonstrated in the 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



693 



fact that practically his entire capitalistic in- 
vestments are in realty. He was the promoter 
of the attractive resort known as Mount View 
Park, comprising fifty acres on a fine lake 
in Oakland county, and the same has been 
developed in a most effective way. About 
twenty representative citizens of Detroit now 
have summer cottages in this park. 

In politics Mr. Wardell gives his support to 
the Republican party, and he and his wife are 
zealous members of the Trumbull Avenue 
Presbyterian church. He was one of the most 
active and potent factors in connection with 
the erection of the fine church edifice, and he 
has been president of the board of trustees of 
the church from the time of its formal organ- 
ization, in 1888. 

Mr. Wardell is a great lover of horses, and 
he still finds the driving horse his chief medium 
of recreation. He is one of the last of the 
"Old Guard" who made Lafayette avenue, and 
later Cass avenue, a center of observation when 
good sleighing prevailed. He is the owner 
of several valuable roadsters, has personally 
bred several speedy animals of this type, and 
since the completion of Grand boulevard he 
has been one of its most frequent and apprecia- 
tive devotees. While a resident of Toronto, 
from 1861 to 1864, he was the owner of the 
Davie race course near that city. Several im- 
portant trotting and pacing events were decid- 
ed on this track, and the purses were the larg- 
est ever offered in the dominion of Canada up 
to that time. The site of the old race course 
is now solidly built up with attractive resi- 
dences. Though he has attained to the age of 
three score years and ten Mr. Wardell is es- 
sentially alert, active and enthusiastic, show- 
ing in both physical and mental powers that 
he retains the spirit of perennial youth. He is 
a man of the most gracious personality, urbane 
and courteous, and stands as a true type of the 
gentleman of the old school. 

In the year 1856 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Wardell to Miss Mary Pennock, 
daughter of Richard Pennock, who was in 
early days a well known cattle dealer at Ham- 



ilton, Ontario. Mr. and Mrs. Wardell have 
five children: Charles R. and Fred, the jun- 
ior members of the firm of O. Wardell & Sons, 
are individually mentioned on other pages of 
this work; Edgar O. is engaged in the ad- 
vertising business in Detroit; Jennie is the 
wife of Albert V. Phister, Jr., of this city; 
and Ida is the wife of Rev. George Evans, a 
clergyman of the Methodist church, and they 
reside at Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, at the time 
of this writing, in 1908. 



THORNTON A. TAYLOR. 

The business career of Mr. Taylor has been 
one of consecutive progress, and this advance- 
ment has been made through the application of 
his own energies and powers, not being the 
result of fortuitous advantages. He was one 
of the organizers of the Peninsular Milled 
Screw Company, and has been secretary and 
treasurer of this admirable and successful De- 
troit manufacturing concern since 1904. He is 
recognized as an alert and enterprising busi- 
ness man, a capable executive officer and a 
loyal and public-spirited citizen. 

Mr. Taylor was born at Sophiasburg, Prince 
Edward county, province of Ontario, Canada, 
on the 5th of July, 1867, and is a son of Albro 
and Lucy Olive (Cole) Taylor, both likewise 
natives of the province of Ontario. The father 
was born May 3, 1833, and his death occurred 
in February, 1905. He was for a number of 
years a contractor and builder, being success- 
ful in this line of enterprise, and later he gave 
his attention principally to agricultural pur- 
suits. His widow still maintains her home in 
Prince Edward county. Daniel Taylor, grand- 
father of the subject of this sketch, was like- 
wise a native of Prince Edward county, where 
he was born March 18, 1800, and where he 
passed his entire life, having been a farmer by 
vocation. He died in the year 1884. He was 
a son of Nathaniel Taylor, who was born in 
the state of New York, where his father, a na- 
tive of England, located in the early colonial 
days. Nathaniel Taylor was loyal to the Brit- 



694 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ish crown at the time when the war of the 
Revolution was initiated, and his attitude in 
this regard led to his final removal to the Do- 
minion of Canada. He received from King 
George III patents to six hundred acres of land 
in Prince Edward county, Ontario. 

Thornton A. Taylor, to whom this brief 
sketch is dedicated, duly availed himself of 
the advantages of the public schools of his na- 
tive place and later continued his studies in the 
Ontario Business College, at Belleville, where 
he completed a thorough course and thus fur- 
ther prepared himself for the active duties 
and responsibilities of life. In 1885-6 Mr. 
Taylor had charge of his father's farm, and 
in the following year he had the supervision of 
the plant and business of a cheese factory in 
his native county. In 1889 he took up his 
residence in Detroit. In June of that year 
he assumed the position of assistant bookkeep- 
er in the office of the Detroit Screw Works, 
and about two months later he became shipping 
clerk for the concern. In January, 1890, he 
was promoted to the position of entry and bill- 
ing clerk, and in 1895 he became chief clerk 
and purchasing agent for the company, retain- 
ing this dual office until 1893, when he became 
a general traveling representative of the com- 
pany. In 1 90 1 he became identified with the 
Standard Screw Company in a similar capac- 
ity, and in the following year he resigned and 
became one of the organizers of the Peninsular 
Milled Screw Company, of whose business he 
became manager. In 1904 he was elected sec- 
retary and treasurer of the company, of which 
he is one of the principal stockholders, and he 
has since served most efficiently in these of- 
fices. His keen discrimination, excellent busi- 
ness training and marked administrative abil- 
ity have proven potent factors in connection 
with the upbuilding of the successful industry 
with which he is thus identified. He is a mem- 
ber of the Detroit Employers' Association and 
the Detroit Credit Men's Association. 

In politics Mr. Taylor is aligned as a loyal 
supporter of the cause of the Republican party, 
but he has never been active in political aflfairs. 



He and his wife are members of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal church, and he is affiliated with 
Zion Lodge, No. i. Free & Accepted Masons; 
Monroe Chapter, No. i. Royal Arch Masons; 
Damascus Commandery, No. 42, Knights 
Templars ; and Moslem Temple, Ancient Arab- 
ic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. 
He has also been prominent in the Knights of 
Pythias, being identified with Myrtle Lodge, 
No. 4, in which he served several terms as pre- 
siding officer. 

On the 24th of June, 1896, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Taylor to Miss Lavilla 
Wildman, who' was born and reared in Prince 
Edward county, Ontario, and who is a daugh- 
ter of James Wildman, a prominent contractor 
and builder of that section. Mr. and Mrs. 
Taylor have one child, Thornton Arthur, Jr., 
who was born on the 4th of June, 1898. 



H. KIRKE WHITE, JR. 

In the enlisting of the efforts and energies 
of young men of distinctive resourcefulness 
and ability has Detroit made so great advance- 
ment along industrial and commercial lines 
within the past decade, and a typical represent- 
ative of this class is the subject of this sketch, 
who is president and general manager of the 
Kemiweld Can Company, a description of 
which is given in this work and the business 
of which has developed into an industry of 
very important order, both in the character of 
output and the extent of operations. By re- 
ferring to the article descriptive of the com- 
pany more adequate idea may be gained of 
Mr. White's identification with the same and 
the changes and advancement that have been 
conserved under his able executive control. 

Henry Kirke White, Jr., is a native of the 
city of Detroit, where he was born on the 17th 
of October, 1867. and he is a son of Henry 
Kirke White and Christine A. (Fortier) 
White, the former of whom was born at Una- 
dilla Center, Otsego county. New York, on 
the 26th of May, 1839, and the latter of whom 
was born in Monroe, Michigan, a representa- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



695 



tive of one of the old and distinguished French 
famiHes of this state. The parents of H. Kirke 
White, Sr., were of English lineage and the 
White family was founded in Connecticut in 
the colonial era of our national history. The 
father of the subject of this sketch came to De- 
troit in the late '50s and he has been treas- 
urer and vice-president of the great seed house 
of D. M. Ferry & Company since 1879, ^^^v- 
ing been identified with the concern from the 
time when it was a small institution and hav- 
ing contributed his quota to the upbuilding of 
an enterprise which is now the largest of the 
sort in the world. He has other large capi- 
talistic interests in Detroit and is one of the 
city's representative business men and most 
honored citizens. Of his children three sons 
and one daughter are living. 

H. Kirke White, Jr., secured his preliminary 
educational discipline in the public schools of 
Detroit, where he also pursued his studies for 
some time in St. Paul's school, a private insti- 
tution. From 1884 until 1886 he was abroad, 
attending school in the city of Paris and also 
in Vevey, Switzerland, in both of which places 
he gave particular attention to the study of 
the French language, with which he is quite 
as familiar as with the English. In 1887 he 
was a student in Dummer Academy, at South 
Byfield, Massachusetts, and in the following 
year he was matriculated in Williams College, 
at Williamstown, Massachusetts, in which in- 
stitution he was graduated as a member of 
the class of 1892, receiving the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. 

In July, 1892, one month after his gradua- 
tion, Mr. White took up his residence in the 
city of Albion, Michigan, where he entered the 
employ of the Gale Manufacturing Company, 
makers of agricultural implements; his father 
was at the time one of the leading stockholders 
of this company. Mr. White learned the busi- 
ness in all its details and in 1895 was elected 
secretary of the company, retaining this office 
until 1902, when he returned to Detroit, his 
native city, and here effected the organization 
of the Gem Fibre Package Company, of which 



he became president and general manager. 
The company was incorporated with a capital 
stock of only ten thousand dollars, but this, un- 
der the present title of the Kemiweld Can Com- 
pany, has been increased to the notable aggre- 
gate of three hundred thousand dollars, and 
the enterprise has been developed into one of 
great magnitude and importance, in the man- 
ufacturing of chemically treated and cemented 
fibre cans, boxes and other containers. Since 
1904 the title of the corporation has been the 
Kemiweld Can Company, but Mr. White has 
been president and general manager from the 
start and has admirably directed the business 
policy and general affairs of the company. 

Mr. White is a Republican in his political 
proclivities but has never had any desire to en- 
ter the somewhat questionable arena of "prac- 
tical politics." He and his wife hold mem- 
bership in the Christian Science church and he 
is identified with various and representative 
fraternal and social organizations. He has 
completed the circle of York Rite Masonry 
and is also affiliated with the more purely so- 
cial adjunct of this time-honored fraternity, 
the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the 
Mystic Shrine. He holds membership in the 
Detroit Club, the Detroit Boat Club, the De- 
troit Golf and Automobile Clubs, the Univer- 
sity Club and the Chi Psi college fraternity. 
He is an appreciative and valued member of the 
Detroit Board of Commerce and takes an ac- 
tive interest in its progressive work. 

On the 7th of June, 1901, Mr. White was 
united in marriage to Miss Florence Hoag, 
daughter of Frank J. Hoag, a retired capitalist 
and representative citizen of Toledo, Ohio, and 
they have three children,— Helen, Josephine, 
and Katherine. Mr. and Mrs. White are 
prominent and popular in connection with the 
best social activities of Detroit, where their cir- 
cle of acquaintances is exceptionally wide. 

CHARLES R. WARDELL. 

In the enlisting of the energies of men of 
ability and sterling integrity every community 
must owe its advancement, and among the 



696 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



agencies brought into requisition as promoters 
of substantial progress in civic and material af- 
fairs none can hold a more important place than 
that involved in the handling of real estate. 
He whose name initiates this paragraph has 
attained to marked priority in local real-estate 
circles and has the distinction of being one of 
the three members of the firm of O. Wardell 
& Sons, one of the pioneer real-estate concerns 
of Detroit and one whose business is of wide 
and important character. Mention of the firm 
is made with somewhat specific details on other 
pages of this work, and within these pages may 
also be found a review of the career of Orrin 
Wardell, the founder and present head of the 
finn and the father of the subject of the sketch 
at hand. 

Charles R. Wardell is a native of the city 
of Hamilton, province of Ontario, Canada, 
where he was born on the 7th of March, 1858. 
In the public schools of his native city he re- 
ceived his rudimentary education, which was 
continued in the schools of Detroit, at the time 
of the family removal to which latter city, in 
1864, he was six years of age, being here 
reared to manhood, and having here gained 
his initial business experience in a general mer- 
chandise store. He eventually engaged in the 
same line of enterprise on his own account, 
and continued in the same until 1882, when he 
disposed of his mercantile interests and became 
associated with his father in the real-estate 
business, under the firm name of O. Wardell & 
Son. The business had been founded by his 
father in 1873 and is now one of the pioneer 
enterprises of the sort in the city, having been 
conducted under the title of O. Wardell & 
Sons since the admission of the younger son, 
Fred, to the firm, in 1888. Charles R. War- 
dell gives practically his entire time and atten- 
tion to the business of his firm and is recog- 
nized as one of the leaders in local real-estate 
circles and as a citizen of distinctive public 
spirit and of progressive ideas. He has shown 
great discrimination and prescience in the 
placing of realty on the market, has consum- 
mated some very important transactions in this 



line and has thereby contributed to the mate- 
rial and civic advancement of the city which 
has been the scene of his entire business career. 
He is energetic and aggressive and has done 
much to further the precedence of the old and 
popular real-estate firm of which he is a mem- 
ber. He is well known in both business and 
social circles and enjoys unqualified popularity 
in both. Mr. Wardell is aligned as a supporter 
of the principles and policies for which the Re- 
publican party stands sponsor, but the honors 
and emoluments of political office have never 
had aught of allurement for him. He has at- 
tained to the thirty-second degree of Ancient 
Accepted Scottish Rite Masonry, being thus 
identified with Michigan Sovereign Consistory, 
besides the four bodies of the York Rite and 
Moslem Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. 

On the 20th of January, 1886, Mr. Wardell 
was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Pea- 
cock, daughter of James Peacock of Toronto, 
Canada, in which city she was born and reared. 
They have no children. 



HARRY S. STARKEY. 

Mr. Starkey has long been in service as an 
official of the municipal government of his na- 
tive city and is now general manager of the 
board of water commissioners of Detroit. He 
is a representative of one of the honored pio- 
neer families of the city and concerning the 
genealogy due mention is made in the memoirs 
dedicated in this work to his father and grand- 
father. Dr. Lewis F. Starkey, and Henry M. 
Starkey, respectively. 

Harry Scovel Starkey was born in Detroit 
on the 26th of April, 1858, and in this city he 
has ever maintained his home, holding it in 
deep affection and appreciation. He is in- 
debted to the public schools of Detroit for his 
early educational training and he made good 
use of the advantages thus afYorded. After 
graduation Mr. Starkey found employment in 
the local offices of the freight department of 
the Michigan Central Railroad, and later he 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



697 



was in active service with John F. Monroe, a 
civil engineer, acquiring an excellent knowl- 
edge of the work of this profession. In 1880 
Mr. Starkey was appointed assistant city 
clerk, under Colonel Louis Dillman, and after 
the expiration of the latter's term as clerk he 
continued in the same office under Alexander 
Saenger. He continued to serve as assistant 
city clerk until 1884, when he was appointed 
assessor and collector in the employ of the 
board of water commissioners. The subject of 
this sketch assisted in the organization and 
systematization of the municipal water depart- 
ment, of which he had charge for some time. 
After the death of his father he succeeded to 
the latter's office as secretary of the board of 
water commissioners, and in 1900 he was made 
general manager. 

Mr. Starkey upheld the military prestige of 
the family name by tendering his services as 
a soldier in the Spanish-American war. On 
the 26th of April, 1898, he enlisted as a mem- 
ber of Company K, Thirty-second Michigan 
Volunteer Infantry, and he was mustered into 
the United States service as first lieutenant of 
his company. His command was not called 
into active field service, but was in reserve camp 
for some time in Tampa, Florida. He contin- 
ued with the regiment on active duty until the 
close of the war in Cuba, when he was mus- 
tered out with his comrades, receiving his hon- 
orable discharge on the 9th of November, 
1898. 

Mr. Starkey's religious faith is that of the 
Protestant Episcopal church, of which he is a 
communicant. He has attained the supreme 
degree — thirty-third — in die Ancient Accepted 
Scottish Rite Masonry, and is one of the most 
prominent members of the fraternity in the 
state. He has been deputy grand master of 
the grand lodge of the state since 1889, and 
has served as an officer in his commandery and 
as potentate of Moslem Temple, Ancient Arab- 
ic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. 
He is a bachelor. Mr. Starkey's circle of 
acquaintances in his native city and state is 



exceptionally wide and representative, and he 
enjoys distinctive popularity in both a personal 
and official way. 



CHARLES A. RATHBONE. 

On other pages of this publication is entered 
a descriptive record concerning the Buhl Mal- 
leable Company, representing one of the many 
splendid industrial enterprises of Detroit. Of 
this concern Mr. Rathbone has been general 
manager since 1903, and he is at the present 
time incumbent of this office, as well as that of 
secretary and treasurer, being one of the pro- 
gressive and popular business men of the 
Michigan metropolis and having played an im- 
portant part in the upbuilding of the fine in- 
dustry with which he is so intimately identified. 

Mr. Rathbone has the satisfaction of revert- 
ing to the old Empire state of the Union as the 
place of his nativity, having been born at Le- 
roy, Genesee county. New York, on the 4th of 
August, 1854, and being a son of William P. 
and Maria (Crane) Rathbone, both of whom 
were likewise born in New York state. The 
father came to Detroit in the early '40s and 
became one of the prominent and success- 
ful real-estate men of the state, having had 
perhaps more to do with the upbuilding of De- 
troit as a successful real-estate man than any 
one at his line in Detroit, placing on the mar- 
ket various plats and additions to the city and 
having been intimately associated for many 
years with William B. Wesson and Albert 
Crane, who were known widely as being among 
the most extensive and influential real-estate 
operators in the middle west. William P. 
Rathbone was a citizen who ever commanded 
the fullest measure of confidence and esteem 
and he continued to make his home in Detroit 
until his death, which occurred in September, 
1883. His wife died at Clifton Springs, New 
York, in 1885. Both were devoted communi- 
cants of the Protestant Episcopal church, and 
Mr. Rathbone was one of the founders of St. 
John's parish, Detroit, contributing liberally to 
the erection of the beautiful church edifice, on 



698 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Woodward avenue. He retired from active 
business in 1880, after having accumulated a 
large and valuable estate, mostly represented 
in city realty. After his retirement he and his 
wife passed considerable time in touring vari- 
ous European countries. 

Charles A. Rathbone, the immediate subject 
of this sketch, was reared to maturity in De- 
troit, and his early educational training was 
here secured in the Patterson school, after 
which he continued his studies in Genesee 
Academy, Leroy, New York, his native town 
and one of which his grandfather, General 
Israel Rathbone, was an early settler. After 
leaving the academy Mr. Rathbone returned 
to his home in Detroit, and in 1870 he entered 
the employ of Buhl, Ducharme & Company, 
wholesale hardware dealers, with whom he re- 
mained three years, in the capacity of travel- 
ing representative and salesman. Thereafter 
he was engaged with the hardware firm of 
Black & Owen of Detroit, traveling three years 
add then having charge of the sample room 
and assisting in the management of the busi- 
ness. Upon the death of his honored father 
he assisted in the management of the estate. 
For a number of years he was manager of the 
Cass Farm Company, Limited, subdividing 
the Cass farm and looking after the Ledyard 
estate matters. In 1898 he went with the naval 
reserves to the Spanish war, on the United 
States ship "Yosemite." He is still largely in- 
terested in the real-estate business in Detroit, 
having been prominently concerned, in com- 
pany with his brother, in the building up of 
West Detroit. In addition to his connection 
with the Buhl Malleable Company, as fully in- 
dicated in the sketch of that concern, he is also 
a director of the Waterman Marine Motor 
Company, the Wabash Portland Cement Com- 
pany, and McCray, Roberts & Company, im- 
portant Detroit corporations. 

In politics Mr. Rathbone is aligned as a 
staunch supporter of the principles and poli- 
cies of the Republican party, but has never 
been a seeker of public office. He is a com- 
municant of the Protestant Episcopal church. 



is identified with various fraternal and social 
organizations, including the Detroit Club, of 
whose directorate he has been a member for 
many years, as well as the Country Club, the 
Detroit Boat Club, and the Detroit Naval Re- 
serves. 



HENRY C. WIEDEMAN. 

Standing well to the forefront among the 
upbuilders of the greater industrial Detroit and 
holding the well merited honors appertaining 
to large and definite accomplishment through 
individual ability and effort, Mr. Wiedeman is 
specially entitled to recognition in this volume, 
in which will be found similar consideration 
of many others of the representative business 
men of the Michigan metropolis. Mr. Wiede- 
man is general manager and a leading stock- 
holder of the Detroit Steel Cooperage Com- 
pany, of which specific description is given on 
other pages of this work, and was one of the 
organizers and, incorporators of this important 
industrial concern. 

Henry Charles Wiedeman views with un- 
mitigated satisfaction the fact that he is a na- 
tive of the state of Michigan. He was born 
in Fair Haven, St. Clair county, on the 26th 
of August, 1873, and is a son of Henry and 
Caroline (Seelbinder) Wiedeman. His father 
was born in Germany in the year 1828, and 
was reared to maturity in his native land, in 
whose excellent schools he received his edu- 
cational training. He learned the trade of 
locksmith in Germany, and in 1850, shortly 
after attaining to his legal majority, he sev- 
ered the ties which bound him to home and 
fatherland and immigrated to America. He 
landed in New York and soon afterward came 
to Detroit, where he found work at his trade, 
to which he here gave his attention until 1852, 
when he purchased a tract of land in St. Clair 
county, in what is now Fair Haven township, 
and there instituted the herculean work of re- 
claiming a farm from the virgin forest. He 
was one of the sturdy and honored pioneers of 
that section of the state, to whose development 
and progress he contributed his quota, and he 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



699 



eventually became one of the prosperous and 
influential citizens of his community. He was 
a Republican in his political allegiance but 
never a seeker or holder of public office, though 
he was every ready to lend his influence and 
co-operation in the furtherance of enterprises 
and movements for the general good of the 
community and was a citizen of marked in- 
telligence and impregnable integrity. Both he 
and his wife were zealous and consistent mem- 
bers of the German Lutheran church. Mr. 
Wiedeman continued to reside in St. Clair 
county until his death, which occurred in 
March, 1906, and his cherished and devoted 
wife still resides at Fair Haven, Michigan. 

Henry C. Wiedeman, the immediate subject 
of this review, passed his boyhood days on the 
home farm, in whose work he early began to 
lend his aid, and he attended the public schools 
of his native county until he was thirteen years 
of age, when, in 1886, he came to Detroit and 
entered the employ of Dr. John E. Clark, a 
prominent physician and surgeon of this city. 
While thus engaged he attended night school, 
and finally he entered the Detroit Business Uni- 
versity, in which he completed a thorough and 
practical course, being graduated as a mem- 
ber of the class of 1890. Shortly afterward 
he secured the position of bookkeeper for the 
firm of F. Huetteman & Company, manufac- 
turers of marine engines and brick machinery. 
Upon the incorporation of the Huetteman & 
Cramer Company, as the successor of this firm, 
in 1894, Mr. Wiedeman was chosen secretary 
of the company, in recognition of his ability 
and his effective service with the original con- 
cern. In 1896 he also became treasurer of the 
company, in which he had secured a consider- 
able amount of stock, and in 1899 he was made 
general manager of the business, while still 
retaining the offices of secretary and treasurer. 
The rapid and substantial growth of the busi- 
ness of this company was in great measure due 
to his efforts and his wise executive policy. 

In July," 1903, Mr. Wiedeman resigned his 
association with the Huetteman & Cramer 
Company, for the purpose of perfecting the 



organization and incorporation of the Detroit 
Steel Cooperage Company, of which he became 
general manager, — an office of which he has 
since remained incumbent. This institution, a 
most valuable addition to the industrial activi- 
ties of Detroit, is adequately reviewed else- 
where in this volume, and thus a further de- 
scription is not demanded at this juncture. It 
may be said, however, that the product of the 
concern is glass-enameled steel tanks, repre- 
senting the concrete results of ideas most suc- 
cessfully developed by Mr. Wiedeman. Be- 
fore he instituted the promotion of the incor- 
poration of the company he spent about two 
years in experimental work looking to the per- 
fection of the fine and essentially superior class 
of products now turned out by the company. 
The value of this preliminary labor to the brew- 
ing and distilling interests of the world, from 
both sanitary and commercial standpoints, is 
best illustrated by the appreciative and prompt 
action shown by these interests in equipping 
their plants with the tanks manufactured by 
the Detroit Steel Cooperage Company. As the 
controlling spirit in this institution from the 
time of its formation to the present, Mr. 
Wiedeman is justly deserving of recognition as 
one of the industrial builders of Detroit. He 
is still a stockholder and director of the Huette- 
man & Cramer Company, and is a director of 
the Detroit Automatic Sterilizer Company. He 
is a member of the Detroit Board of Commerce, 
the Peninsular Brewmasters' Association, the 
Detroit Association of Stationary Engineer^ 
the Harmonic Society, the Detroit Turnverein, 
and Detroit Lodge, No. 34, Benevolent & Pro- 
tective Order of Elks. In politics he is inde- 
pendent, and he is known as a public-spirited 
citizen, progressive in his ideas, and as a young 
business man of distinctive ability and initia- 
tive. He has advanced himself through his 
own efforts, has shown executive ability of a 
high order, is a deep student of the problems 
affecting the equipment of breweries and dis- 
tilleries, and, specifically, is in full charge of 
the policy and conduct of the business of the 
Detroit Steel Cooperage Company, whose 



700 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



unique business is the result of his well directed 
labors as an industrial promoter and leader. 

On the 4th of November, 1896, Mr. Wiede- 
man was united in marriage to Miss Ida Pauli. 
daughter of the late Charles Pauli, of Detroit, 
and they have one child, — Mabel Lillian. 



FRED WARDELL. 

One of the representative real-estate men of 
Detroit, Mr. Wardell is the youngest of the 
three members of the well known firm of 
O. Wardell & Sons, of which individual men- 
tion is made on other pages of this work. 
He has been identified with business interests 
in his native city from his youthful days to 
the present and has made for himself a secure 
place in the confidence and regard of the people 
of Detroit. 

Mr. Wardell was born in the city of To- 
ronto, Ontario, March 30, 1866. He is a son 
of Orrin Wardell, a sketch of whose career 
appears elsewhere in this volume, so that a 
repetition of the family record is not demanded 
at the present juncture. Mr. Wardell prose- 
cuted his studies in the public schools of De- 
troit until he had attained to the age of fifteen 
years, and in the meanwhile, in 1881, he en- 
tered the employ of his father, one of the pio- 
neer real-estate dealers of Detroit and the 
founder of the firm which now bears his name. 
The subject of this sketch was thus engaged 
until 1885, when he embarked in the retail 
shoe business, on Michigan avenue. He dis- 
posed of his interest in this enterprise in the 
following year and thereafter was located in 
New York city until the fall of 1887, when he 
returned to Detroit and became a member of 
the firm of O. Wardell & Sons, with which he 
has since continued to be identified and in 
which he has done much to forward the suc- 
cess of the enterprise which was established 
so many years ago and which stands to-day 
representative in its line, — in scope, facilities 
and methods. He now has entire charge of 
the sales department of the firm's business and 
has had an intimate part in effecting the sale 



of a large amount of valuable realty in Detroit 
and its environs. Mr. Wardell was one of the 
organizers of the Eureka Vibrator Company, 
which was incorporated under the laws of the 
state in 1906, with a capital of ten thousand 
dollars. He was the principal promoter of the 
company and has been its president and gen- 
eral manager from the start. The company 
manufactures vibrating massage machines, and 
the enterprise has proved very successful, as 
its products have amply demonstrated their 
usefulness and their superiority over other de- 
vices utilized for the same purpose. The man- 
ufactory of this company is located on Earned 
street east, and the office and sales headquar- 
ters are at 1223 Majestic building. The main 
sales office is established at No. 1269 Broad- 
way, New York city, and the company is the 
largest concern of the kind in the United 
States. An agency is also maintained in the 
city of London and the foreign trade has 
reached large and substantial proportions. 
The company gives employment to forty per- 
sons in its factory, and here disburses in wages 
and salaries fully thirty thousand dollars an- 
nually. A. J. Stecker is vice-president of the 
company, and A. V. Maier, secretary and 
treasurer. Mr. Wardell represents the firm of 
O. Wardell & Sons on the Board of Commerce 
and the Detroit Real Estate Board. 

Mr. Wardell has never dissipated his forces 
along the turbulent channels in which prac- 
tical politics course their devious way, but he 
is essentially loyal and public-spirited as a citi- 
zen and as such takes an interest in political 
affairs, being an adherent of the Republican 
party. He is affiliated with the Masonic fra- 
ternity, in which he holds membership in the 
following named bodies : Palestine Lodge, 
No. 357, Free & Accepted Masons; King 
Cyrus Chapter, No. 133, Royal Arch Masons; 
Monroe Council, No. i, Royal & Select Mas- 
ters ; Damascus Commandery, No. 42, Knights 
Templar ; and Moslem Temple of the Ancient 
Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine. He is also identified with the De- 
troit Golf Club, and he and his wife are com- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



701 



municants of St. Andrew's church, Protestant 
Episcopal. 

On the 25th of January, 1893, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Mr. Wardell to Miss 
Helen F. Williams, daughter of Captain Will- 
iam H. Williams, of the Ogdenshurg Transit 
Company, a leading concern in lake-marine 
circles, with headquarters in Ogdenshurg, New 
York. Captain Williams is a resident of 
Detroit. 



WILLIAM J. UNEUH. 

A native son of Detroit, Mr. Unruh has 
gained prestige as one of the progressive young 
men of this city, where he is stockholder of 
the Independent Brewing Company, of which 
he was secretary and treasurer until January, 
1908, when he retired. 

Mr. Unruh was born in the family home- 
stead on Dix avenue, Detroit, on the 28th of 
October, 1876, and is a son of Eli and Louisa 
(Bachman) Unruh, the former of whom was 
born in Hessen, Germany, and the latter in 
Germany. Eli Unruh was reared and edu- 
cated in his fatherland, where he served the 
required term in the German army and where 
as a youth he learned the trade of harness- 
maker. He immigrated to America and took 
up his residence in Detroit in 1868. Here he 
engaged in the work of his trade, and at the 
same time conducted a retail liquor business, 
having his headquarters at the corner of Dix 
and Infantry avenues. He retired from active 
business in 1902 and he and his wife still 
maintain their home in Detroit. He has long 
been known as one of the representative Ger- 
man-American citizens of Detroit, where he 
has ever shown a genuine public spirit. He is 
a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Re- 
publican party and served three terms as treas- 
urer of Springwells township, besides having 
been prominent in connection with school af- 
fairs in the city which has so long represented 
his home and in which he is held in unqualified 
esteem. 

William J. Unruh was educated in the pub- 
lic schools of Detroit, and in 1891 he became 



a clerk in his father's establishment, contin- 
uing to be employed in this line for a period of 
eleven years, at the expiration of which, in 
1902, he succeeded his father in business, which 
enterprise he has since successfully continued. 
His place of business is located at the corner 
of Dix and Livernois avenues, where he owns 
a brick building, two stories and basement, 
and fifty by seventy-five feet in dimensions. 
These quarters he has occupied since October, 
1907, and he controls a flourishing business. 
He was secretary and treasurer of the Inde- 
pendent Brewing Company from the time of 
its organization and incorporation, in 1906, 
until January, 1908, and is known as a pro- 
gressive business man and loyal citizen. 

In his political allegiance Mr. Unruh is 
identified with the Republican party and for a 
number of years he has been active in public 
affairs in his ward. This is the eighteenth 
ward of Detroit, having thus been designated 
at the time when Springwells was annexed to 
the city. He served as township clerk of 
Springwells from 1902 until 1906, being in- 
cumbent of this office at the time when the 
annexation of the township occurred, thus ren- 
dering the position extinct. He is affiliated 
with River Rouge Lodge, No. 40, Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of the 
Royal Arch and the Century Club. 

In June, 1903, Mr. Unruh was united in 
marriage to Miss Emma R. Kleaver, daugh- 
ter of August Kleaver, of Detroit, and they 
have two children, — Florence G., who was 
born in March, 1904, and Raymond F., who 
was born in May, 1907. 



ARMOND H. GRIFFITH. 

The honored and popular director of the 
Detroit Museum of Art is incumbent of a po- 
sition which makes him the immediate cus- 
todian of art treasures valued at more than a 
quarter of a million dollars, and the citizens 
of the Michigan metropolis feel that the in- 
terests of their beautiful museum have been 
signally conserved and fostered by him. It 



702 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



has been said with marked consistency that "his 
work requires business sense, tact and di- 
plomacy," and that the fact that he has made 
himself one of the most popular men in De- 
troit shows how well fitted he is for the re- 
sponsibility he now holds. The interesting 
story of his life was made the basis of the fol- 
lowing context, which was published in the 
Sunday News-Tribune of Detroit and which 
is well worthy of definite perpetuation in this 
volume. The original article, with a few 
eliminations and paraphrases, is here repro- 
duced : 

Director Griffith's training has been at once 
literal and romantic. He started life in In- 
diana, met persons at various turns in the road, 
lived with them, saturated himself with their 
ideas, and on their suggestion traveled near 
and far. Without a thought of to-morrow, 
he has been able to centralize his yesterdays; 
without a plan, he has been able to build ; with- 
out a purpose, he awoke one morning to find 
that the odds and ends of material collected in 
years past nicely fitted into his future. Men 
in the counting room used to take him aside, 
years ago, and say: "Why don't you stick 
to one thing?" Clergymen shook their heads 
at his manifest contempt for the practical side 
of life. Perhaps ten times in a short life he 
deliberately threw aside a good salary and an 
assured living for the indefinable pleasure of 
wandering to a strange town, among strange 
people. 

Mr. Griffith became a rover early in life, 
and his travels took him to many parts of the 
world. Without a plan he toured Egypt ; with- 
out a purpose, he wandered aimlessly about 
Germany; he lived with the gypsies in Spain, 
with the peasants in Bavaria, and with the art 
students in the Latin quarter of Paris. He 
went on the stage, he sold goods on the road, 
he painted scenery for theaters, he frescoed 
halls and shops, he decorated church ceilings — 
and he carried a camera on his back for an 
itinerant photographer through the Yellow- 
stone National park. 

He walked the streets of London, and no 



man took him by the hand and called him 
friend. He crossed and recrossed the Atlantic 
and, it seemed, without passage money. He 
painted pictures in Germany, he rode a bicycle 
through the south, and he even wandered as 
far as Mexico — and still he had no idea, no 
care beyond the rise and set of the sun. 

Yet all this time he was unconsciously ab- 
sorbing the purposes of human life, in so far 
as these appealed to his temperament. He 
read few books, but he studied, piecemeal, the 
history of Germany as he toured the country 
on foot; it was so with the history of Spain, 
and so with -that of every other land. 

What appealed to him were tales and leg- 
ends. He was always looking for the human- 
nature element, the song, the story, the narra- 
tive, the touch of life — and in the course of 
time his brain became filled with these beauti- 
ful pieces of life. 

Asked where he gained his viewpoint of life, 
he replied : 

"Of a nervous disposition, I cannot rest in 
idleness. My descent is from a literary and 
art-loving people. My father was a Yale col- 
lege man. I am related to the Conway and 
Burgoyne families, but more closely am of 
Welsh descent. I have my coat-of-arms, but 
in this country we don't pay attention to such 
things. People here are too much in earnest 
to care for blood. The man who can do has a 
greater patent to nobility than that which 
comes to him through twenty generations of 
ancestors. My father was a lawyer, but he 
had the good sense to see his qualities were 
those of the inventor. I received a common- 
school education only, and just a glimpse of 
college life; then father was killed, and from 
that moment the world was changed for me. 
Home faded, the road divided, the path I took 
led to many disappointments, heartaches and 
sorrows ; but I never gave way to despair. I 
was blocked a hundred times ; when I wanted 
to go this way I had to go that way; if I 
wanted a piece of bread I had to earn it ; and 
if I hadn't any money for clothes, I made my 
old suit last. But my disposition has been 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



703 



never to say die, and never to complain, but 
witTi a light heart be up and doing, with the 
consciousness that there is a destiny that con- 
trols the affairs of life, regardless of what a 
mere day may brng forth." 

Mr. Griffith has a characteristic way of 
walking the floor when he is deeply interested 
in his theme. That is what he did, as he re- 
sumed his story: 

"At that time, away back," he continued, 
"some of the folk thought that I was born to be 
a great artist, and they sent me to Dusseldorf 
to study art. I hadn't been there over six 
months before I knew that their fond hopes 
were never to be realized. I think now, as I 
look back, that it was my inherited sense of 
the practical and the useful, from my father, 
that intervened to mar my progress. I was so 
poor that I kept thinking how I could turn art 
into money — and when a student is obliged to 
think that way it is a sign that he will never 
make a success in the world of art. I began 
moving about Europe, — here, there, every- 
where. I remember, one day, I was at Lake 
Geneva, sketching the Castle of Chillon, and 
that sort of thing, just to pass away the time, 
when along came some tourists in a carriage. 
'What'll you take for that ?' one asked. I 
thought a moment and said to myself, 'By 
jove, here's my chance!' Then I answered 
quickly, 'I'll take twenty-five francs.' I made 
the sale and the money saved me from starva- 
tion. Encouraged, I stayed around there for 
six weeks, I think, making those trifling bits 
of work, don't you know; they weren't art, in 
any sense, but they sold, and that satisfied me. 
It convinced me more than ever that art was 
. not my forte." 

Director Griffith has been obliged to lay 
siege to the world in many forms, and often 
enough he has been repulsed. It was a long, 
winding path that led the unknown Indiana 
boy of the '60s to the directorship of the De- 
troit Museum of Art. in the '90s. He had to 
meet many persons and to sleep among 
strangers in a dozen cities, but he always made 
friends. The leading characteristic of his life 



is her? revealed — everywhere he went, he made 
friends. He was the man to sell things, to 
persuade close fisted shopkeepers that what 
they ought to buy was what he wanted to sell ; 
he practiced diplomacy in handling men; and 
if he could not untie a knot, he never went to 
the extent of cutting it, but he just smoothed 
it away — and began again in some other town. 

Defeated in one city, he returned to the 
siege of life in some other place. He made 
many a forced march, on an empty bread box ; 
he leveled many an Alps by a mere sunny smile 
or by the grasp of a hand. 

Almost every move he made in life seemed 
to be disconnected. He made decisions in an 
hour — and they had immense influence on his 
future. But at the time he never thought of 
the future, nor dreamed of to-morrow's pos- 
sible regrets. He had that cordial, earnest 
way, that bright-eyed interest that made him 
friends wherever he roamed. His coming to 
Detroit was characteristic of a hundred changes 
in his history. 

"I had been down in Cincinnati," he said, 
"and had a good position in a book store. I 
was bothered by the hay fever. Every year it 
came back and distressed me terribly. I had 
to sit in a dark room, sometimes, with a hand- 
kerchief over my eyes. One day I made up 
my mind that I must suffer a thousand deaths 
were I to remain there another week. I re- 
signed my position on the spot. I was going 
away, anywhere, I didn't know where, but 
away from that town. The manager said; 
'Griff, you'll be back in a week or two.' I 
thanked him for his interest, took the boat for 
Kelly's Island, staid there a week, and came 
to Detroit. I didn't know a soul in town and 
hadn't the least idea what I would do for a 
living. That's eighteen years ago, and I 
haven't seen the necessity of returning to Cin- 
cinnati since." 

Director Griffith's connection with the Mu- 
seum of Art, like every other turn in his life, 
came through an unexpected road suddenly 
opening to him in the midst of the innumerable 
highways of his life. He was offered a small 



704 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



sum to become secretary to the directors, but 
instead of accepting at once, went down east, 
where he wrote "pot-boilers" for newspapers ; 
returning, he entered upon his duties. He has 
seen the museum grow from two to twenty- 
two rooms and has been instrumental in rais- 
ing money for many of the changes. 

Director Griffith's lectures have proven very 
popular. He is now in his sixteenth season, 
has spoken over two hundred times, and is 
now in demand in various parts of the country. 
The lecture course, as was the case with almost 
everything else in his life, began in an acci- 
dental way, one Sunday, when a number of 
visitors asked for a little special instruction 
about some vases. They returned the follow- 
ing Sunday, and with them a few friends; 
gradually the interest grew, and Director Grif- 
fith was obliged to lecture in one of the halls. 
The present lecture room holds seven hundred 
visitors and is jammed to the doors each Sun- 
day, while fully two thousand visitors wander 
through the various departments. From De- 
troit the Sunday lecture movement was spread 
to various parts of the country ; the good work 
of Director Griffith has thus become widely 
recognized as adding a new stimulus to art 
work in America. 

Director A. H. Griffith's style of discourse 
is pleasing. He blends romance and poetry 
with his facts; in this way he gains and holds 
the popular attention. His art talks are col- 
ored by a belief in the superstitions of the 
people, in the legends of the past, and in visions 
of the future. He understands that the ma- 
jority of mankind are controlled by their hearts 
and not by their brains. He tries to respond 
to this theory by taking the sentimental view- 
point of life. 

Here is a little illustration : Talking about 
his career and its seeming indifference to cause 
and effect, his moving about from place to 
place, and his many changes of purpose, Mr. 
Griffith said : 

"Where are you going to find a man who 
can plan out his life to its close — who can say 
without condition: 'My future is to be this? 



We live along for awhile, and meet some man 
or woman who overturns all our past theories 
of life, and we soon find ourselves traveling 
new roads, — beginning we scarcely know how, 
ending we know not where. I believe in a 
destiny that controls. I think that the world 
estimates a man at about his own valuation; 
and I am optimistic enough to believe that we 
shall receive that to which we are entitled — it 
may not be to-day, but sometime. All men 
have felt the caprices of fate. Remember the 
old English story of the son of George II., of 
whom an old fortune teller said : 'His fate is 
to be drowned!' And so they put him in a 
tower, where he was surrounded by everything 
that heart could desire, and his friends were 
sure he never would be drowned. But one 
day, during the absence of some workmen who 
were pressing grapes, he fell into the vat and 
was drowned. And that other story of the son 
who was to die, killed by a lion. His father, 
who thought he could overcome that fate, sur- 
rounded his son with everything that was beau- 
tiful and tried in every way to lead the boy's 
mind from the chase and hunt. Years passed 
and the legend of the old soothsayer was 
almost forgotten, but the boy was unhappy and 
one day, looking at a beautiful tapestry of a 
lion, said in despair: 'If it hadn't been for 
you, my life might have been different! You 
have cursed my whole existence!' With that, 
in a moment of despair, he struck at the tapes- 
try ; a nail behind, in the wall, pierced his hand, 
blood poisoning set in, and he died — a victim 
to the lion, even as the old soothsayer had 
predicted." 



WILLIAM K. ANDERSON. 

Prominently identified with financial and in- 
dustrial interests in Detroit, Mr. Anderson is 
known as one of the representative citizens of 
the Michigan metropolis. He was bom near 
Owensboro, Kentucky, on the 24th of March, 
1847, ^"d his ancestors were numbered among 
the pioneers of Virginia and other sections of 
the south. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



705 



Mr. Anderson secured his early education in 
rtie schools of his native state, and after due 
preparatory work he was matriculated in the 
University of Michigan, in which he was grad- 
uated as a member of the class of 1868, duly 
receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, while 
later he received from his alma mater the de- 
gree of Master of Arts. After his return to 
Kentucky Mr. Anderson organized the Owens- 
boro Savings Bank, of which institution he was 
chosen cashier. He continued to be identified 
with this bank for a period of seven years, and 
in January, 1877, he took up his residence in 
Detroit, where, representing the late Hon. John 
S. Newberry and the late Senator James 
McMillan, he became manager of the Detroit 
Seed Company. When this company's inter- 
ests were merged with those of D. M. Ferry 
& Company he continued with the latter for a 
few months, and then resigned to assume finan- 
cial charge of the various and important cor- 
poration interests of Messrs. Newberry and 
McMillan. In this connection he became treas- 
urer of several of these companies, notably the 
Michigan Car Company, the Detroit Car 
Wheel Company, the Baugh Steam Forge 
Company, the Detroit Iron Furnace Company, 
the Detroit Railroad Elevator Company, be- 
sides other manufacturing and navigation cor- 
porations in which he became a stockholder 
and director. He thus gave effective executive 
service until 1892, in which year he became 
treasurer of the corporation representing the 
consolidation of the Michigan and the Penin- 
sular Car Companies. He retained this office 
one year and continued to be identified with the 
other interests mentioned until 1894, since 
which time he has given the major portion of 
his time and attention to his private interests. 
He is vice-president of the Home Savings Bank 
and a director of the Detroit Savings Bank, 
both of which institutions are individually men- 
tioned on other pages of this work. 

In politics Mr. Anderson gives a staunch 
adherence to the Republican party, and in 1897 
President McKinley conferred upon him the 
appointment of United States consul at Hano- 



ver, Germany. This important post he retained 
until 1900, when he tendered his resignation 
and returned to Detroit. Mr. Anderson is a 
charter member of the Detroit Club, and also 
holds membership in the Lake St. Clair Fish- 
ing & Shooting Club and the Country Qub. 

On the 26th of January, 1877, Mr. Ander- 
son was united in marriage to Miss Cornelia 
M. Cook, daughter of the late Joseph Cook, 
of Detroit, who was for a number of years 
United States supervising inspector of steam 
vessels for this district. Mr. and Mrs. Ander- 
son have one daughter, Catherine Clarke 
Anderson. 



BENJAMIN F. GEIGER. 

One who left the impress of a righteous and 
prolific life on the annals of the city of Detroit 
was the late Benjamin F. Geiger, who was 
one of the city's foremost business men and 
who was for many years the most prominent 
figure in the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men in Michigan. At the time of his death 
he was managing partner of the well known 
firm of Theodore H. Eaton & Company. 

Mr. Geiger was of staunch German ancestry 
and was a native of Canton, Stark county, 
Ohio, where he was born on the 27th of Jan- 
uary, 1847, being a son of George Geiger, who 
was one of the sterling pioneers of that section 
of the old Buckeye state. The common schools 
of Ohio afforded the subject of this memoir his 
early educational advantages, and as a youth he 
secured employment in a drug store, for the 
purpose of learning the business. He was thus 
engaged in several towns in Ohio, where he 
remained until he had attained to the age of 
seventeen years, when he came to Detroit, 
where he secured a position in the establish- 
ment of Theodore H. Eaton & Son, manufac- 
turers of chemicals and dye stufifs. His ability 
and fidelity soon won him promotion, while his 
personal attributes of character endeared him 
to both members of the firm. In fact the atti- 
tude of the senior member of the firm toward 
him was almost that of a father, and the feel- 



706 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ing and devotion were fully reciprocated on 
his part. Mr. Geiger was finally admitted to 
partnership in the business, and thereafter its 
practical management was vested in him until 
his death, while the title of the firm remained 
unchanged. By very nature he was not a man 
to long remain in a subordinate position, for 
his capacities and ambition led him constantly 
to larger and greater things, while his impreg- 
nable integrity of purpose gained and retained 
to him inviolable confidence and esteem as 
emanating from those with whom he came in 
contact in the various relations of life. 

In his connection with the active duties of 
!ife he had no fortuitous aid aside from busi- 
ness ability of a high order and personal worth 
seldom equalled, but through these he was ad- 
vanced step by step through the appreciative 
judgment of a just employer of the strictest 
business principles and discipline, — an em- 
ployer who was a judge of men and motives 
and one to whom young Geiger made himself 
indispensable. The latter was signally faithful 
and efficient in his services, in no matter what 
capacity, and he was rational in his ambition 
and material aspirations. He ever consulted 
the interests of the firm by which he was em- 
ployed and thereby advanced his own interests. 
His relations with Theodore H. Eaton, Jr., 
both in a business and social sense, were those 
of a brother, and he became the chief adviser 
and executor with him in the settlement of the 
estate of Theodore H. Eaton, Sr., to whom 
he ever acknowledged a debt of gratitude for 
consideration, solicitude and kindly affection. 
Mr. Geiger was possessed of executive abil- 
ity of exceptionally high order, and his sys- 
tematizing of the details of the business of his 
firm was such that when their establishment 
was practically destroyed by fire, in 1905, the 
insurance adjusters stated that they "had never 
before encountered a situation where the show- 
ing was so entirely beyond question or im- 
peachment." At a bankers' meeting in Detroit 
the query was once raised as to who was the 
best business man in the city, and to Mr. 
Geiger was awarded the favorable decision. 



though a more modest man never availed hini- 
self of banking privileges. 

Next to his family and his business Mr. 
Geiger's most pronounced interest was in his 
loved fraternity, the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. He became a member of Detroit 
Lodge, No. 6, on the 29th of January, 1878, 
and on the 21st of the following May he was 
elected its recorder, — a position of which he 
remained incumbent for twenty-seven consecu- 
tive years, having been unanimously re-elected 
each successive term until impaired health and 
business responsibilities rendered it impossible 
to again accept the office. Detroit Lodge under 
his leadership became the largest in point of 
membership of all lodges of this order in the 
world. It also had the record of the largest 
class initiation of all lodges or societies of a 
fraternal character, and this honor was gained 
largely through the individual efforts and lead- 
ership of Mr. Geiger. The following resolu- 
tion was drafted and submitted by a special 
committee of the Michigan grand lodge of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen at the time 
of his death ; 
Workmen of the State of Michigan : 

Your special committee, appointed to draft 
resolutions on the death of Past Grand Master 
Workman Benjamin F. Geiger, recommend 
the following : 

Benjamin F. Geiger, past grand master 
workman, born January 27, 1847; died No- 
vember 9, 1905. 

"His life was gentle, and the elements so 
mixed in him that nature might rise up and 
say — here was a man." A member of the fra- 
ternity for twenty-seven years, for twenty- 
seven years recorder of his local lodge, the 
largest local organization of the order. 
Twenty-seven years a member of the grand 
lodge, receiving the higliest honors at its com- 
mand; supreme representative for four dis- 
tinct periods, — is surely a record of esteem and 
confidence that has scarcely a parallel in the 
development of the order represented here to- 
day. Here was a man of great heart, great 
intellect and great loyalty, — one whose sacri- 
fice and devotion bore no taint of selfishness 
or personal ambition to the detriment of the 
cause he served. 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



707 



Benjamin F. Geiger died where "manhood's 
morning ahnost touches noon and as the shad- 
ows were falHng toward the west." He was a 
grand exemplar of the highest type of man. 
This poor old world is better for his having 
lived in it. To emulate his virtues is our duty 
and our opportunity. 

Brothers, let us keep the example and rec- 
ord of Brother Geiger green in our hearts until 
we too shall be gathered to the land where our 
fathers have gone before us. 

Resolved, That this resolution be spread 
upon the records of this grand lodge and a 
copy, under its seal, be forwarded to the be- 
reaved family of our late brother. 
Fraternally submitted, 

George L. Lusk, 
Walter J. G. Dean, 
John C. Ellsworth, 

Committee. 

In politics Mr. Geiger gave his allegiance to 
the Republican party, though he was never 
active in the domain of practical politics and 
never sought or desired official preferment in 
this line. His religious life was not one of 
ostentation but was a very part of his nature. 
He was identified with various civic and social 
organizations and as a citizen was ever loyal, 
progressive and public-spirited. 

In 1865 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Geiger to Miss Rose Redmond, who was 
born at Almont, Michigan, and who is a daugh- 
ter of the late S. H. Redmond, of Almont. 
Mrs. Geiger survives her honored husband, as 
do also three daughters, — Rose Gertrude, who 
is the wife of Edwin Merrill Smith, of Detroit; 
Edith Margaret, who is the wife of Albert 
Frederick Bull, of this city; and Florence, 
who remains with her widowed mother in the 
beautiful family homestead. 

The home life of Mr. Geiger was ideal. 
Society in its accepted sense did not appeal to 
him. He loved his own and also the circle of 
friends whom he attracted. He loved the 
hearthstone and the gentle traditions that will 
always cling to it. His charities, generous 
and liberal, were such as "let not the left hand 
know what the right hand doeth." Hundreds 
of persons whom he had quietly helped felt a 
sense of deep personal loss and bereavement 



when he was called from the scenes of this 
mortal life, and it was found on settling his 
estate that many members of his fraternity, 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen, had 
been kept in good standing by his paying their 
assessments, so that they were enabled to en- 
joy the protection offered while unable per- 
sonally to make their payments. 

As before stated, Mr. Geiger was summoned 
to the life eternal on the 9th of November, 
1905, and in concluding this necessarily brief 
tribute to his memory there is consistency in 
perpetuating the following editorial which ap- 
peared in one of Detroit's leading daily news- 
papers at the time of his demise: 

"No community, however large and pros- 
perous its industries, however sturdy and loyal 
its citizenship, can suffer the death of a man 
like Benjamin F. Geiger without a genuine 
sense of loss. Beginning life as an humble 
employe of the firm in which he died a partner, 
his advance in business, by force of merit 
alone, was rapid, steady and substantial, as 
was his growth in influence and prestige in the 
commercial world. Such was the modesty of 
his disposition and the quietness of his habits, 
both socially and commercially, that he was 
personally known, perhaps, to fewer individ- 
uals than any other man who has played an 
equally important part in the local business 
world ; but his worth and capacity were almost 
universally recognized by all who did come in 
contact with him." 



RANSOM GILLIS. 

The late Ransom Gillis came to Detroit as a 
young man and here he rose to a position of 
prominence in mercantile circles, becoming one 
of the city's representative business men and 
ever maintaining a tenacious grasp upon the 
confidence and esteem of the community in 
which the major portion of his life was passed. 
He was a man of sterling integrity, rose to a 
plane of distinctive material success through 
his own efforts and ability, and made good 
use of his talents and their results. 



708 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Mr. Gillis was a native of the Empire state 
of the Union, and the annals of the nation in- 
dicate that the family was founded in America 
in colonial days. He was born in Washington 
county, New York, on the 20th of December, 
1838, and was a son of Alexander and Jane 
(Wilson) Gillis, both of whom were likewise 
natives of that county, where they passed their 
entire lives and where the father followed the 
vocation of farming throughout his entire 
active career. From the farm have come the 
vast majority of men who have in America in 
past generations risen to prominence in the 
broader fields of human endeavor and accom- 
plishment, and the discipline has ever been one 
promotive of self-reliance, courage, and in- 
sistent integrity of purpose, — attributes which 
can not but make for success. Such training 
was that received by Mr. Gillis in his youth, 
and he was afforded the advantages of the pub- 
lic schools of the locality in which he was bom 
and reared, after which he continued his studies 
in Argyle Academy. At the age of fifteen 
years he entered the employ of a dry-goods 
firm in Argyle, and he remained thus engaged 
for nearly two years. During the succeeding 
eight years he was similarly employed in the 
establishment of John Stevenson, of North 
Argyle, and he withdrew from this connection 
in December, 1864. He thereupon came to 
Detroit, where he felt assured superior oppor- 
tunities were offered for advancement through 
individual effort. Here he secured a clerical 
position in the wholesale dry-goods house of 
Thome & Shelden, which firm was later suc- 
ceeded by that of Allan Shelden & Company. 
With the latter he remained until 1872, when, 
upon the organization of the firm of Edson, 
Moore & Company, he became one of the in- 
terested principals in the latter. As a partner 
in this wholesale dry-goods concern he as- 
sumed the general management of the business. 
He devoted his splendid energies to the up- 
building of the business of his house, which 
soon gained precedence and eventually became 
the largest of its kind in the state. He was a 
prominent figure in its administrative affairs 



during the long years of his identification with 
the same. He continued an active factor in 
the business until the time of his death, which 
occurred on the 31st of December, 1901, and 
his demise marked the passing away of one of 
Detroit's most honored and substantial busi- 
ness men. He was a director of the Citizens' 
Savings Bank and was interested in other local 
enterprises. His political support was given to 
the Republican party, and while he showed a 
loyal interest in public affairs he was never an 
aspirant for political ofiice. He was one of the 
organizers of the old Michigan Club, whose 
organization' finally lapsed, to be revived in 
1908. This club was long a factor of power 
in forwarding the interests of the Republican 
party in Michigan. Mr. Gillis became a mem- 
ber of the First Presbyterian church in 1865, 
and from 1873 until his death he served as an 
elder in the same. He was ever a devoted and 
earnest worker in the church. He was for 
some time secretary of the board of trustees of 
Grace Hospital and was a man of broad human 
sympathies and philanthropic instincts. He 
was a member of the Lake St. Clair Fishing & 
Shooting Club. 

On the 20th of July, 1870, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Gillis to Miss Helen A. 
Gaylord, daughter of Silas Gaylord, a promi- 
nent and influential citizen of Pontiac, Michi- 
gan. Mrs. Gillis survives her husband and still 
resides in the old home, endeared to her 
through the gracious memories and associa- 
tions of the past. Mr. and Mrs. Gihis became 
the parents of three children, — Ransom F., 
Grace M., and Gaylord W. Grace M. is now 
the wife of David S. Carter, of Detroit. Gay- 
lord W. succeeded to his father's interest in 
the business of Edson, Moore & Company, 
with which he remains actively identified. 



t 



CHARLES H. JACOBS. 

Charles Huntington Jacobs was the second 
of six children of the late Nathaniel P. and 
Catherine M. Jacobs. His father at the time 
of his birth was a large wholesale grocer and 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



709 



President of the Common Council of Detroit. 
Somewhat later he was appointed Consul Gen- 
eral of the United States at Calcutta, India, 
where he served with distinction for ten years. 
Mr. Jacobs is a graduate of the Cass School, 
the Detroit Central High School and of the 
literary department of the University of Mich- 
igan, from which he obtained his degree of 
Bachelor of Arts at the age of nineteen years. 

Upon leaving college Mr. Jacobs entered the 
hardware jobbing business of Buhl Sons & 
Company, becoming a partner in 1 888. In the 
same year Mr. Theodore D. Buhl organized the 
Buhl Stamping Company, of which Mr. Ja- 
cobs was made Vice-President, and in 1892 he 
became its active Manager. During the fifteen 
years which he retained this position the con- 
cern grew from a factoi'y of local reputation 
with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars 
to one of national repute, with a paid-up capital 
and surplus of four hundred thousand dollars. 

In 1907 Mr. Jacobs resigned his position of 
Manager, but is still a director of the Stamp- 
ing Company and also Vice-President and a 
director of the Detroit Meter Company, a 
stockholder of the Michigan Brass & Copper 
Company, the Old Detroit National Bank and 
the Security Trust Company. He has pur- 
chased an orange ranch of two hundred and 
eighty-seven acres in Ojai valley, near Nord- 
hoff, California, which is his present residence 
and place of business. 

When asked what he considered his best 
work, Mr. Jacobs replied, "The foundation of 
the Detroit High School Scholarship Fund." 
For the past sixteen years Mr. Jacobs has been 
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of this 
fund, through the beneficence of which forty- 
five graduates of the Detroit High Schools 
have been enabled to secure an education at 
the University of Michigan. Twenty-eight 
thousand three hundred and forty-four dollars 
has been loaned to these students, of which 
fifteen thousand seven hundred and twenty-one 
dollars has been repaid, and the total expense 
of administering this fund since its establish- 
ment in 1 89 1 has been only one hundred and 



fifty-one dollars and eighty-three cents. The 
plans devised to secure the return of money 
loaned from this fund were unique and have 
been widely copied in many cities. 

In politics Mr. Jacobs is a low-tarifif Repub- 
lican. He is a member of St. Paul's Episcopal 
church, of the Detroit Club, Country Club and 
Detroit Boat Club, also of the Psi Upsilon 
Fraternity, Sons of the American Revolution 
and American Gas Institute. 

In spite of his close application to business 
Mr. Jacobs has traveled extensively through 
every state in the Union and many foreign 
countries. 

Mr. Jacobs' family consists of his wife, — 
who was Miss Mary Hubbard, daughter of the 
late Bela Hubbard, Esq.,— two sons and two 
daughters. A third son was drowned in 1905 
while a sophomore at Harvard University. 



THOMAS BARLUM. 

A sterling and well known citizen and pio- 
neer business man of Detroit is he whose name 
initiates this article. Fle is the founder of the 
firm of Thomas Barium & Sons, wholesale and 
retail dealers in meats and manufacturers of 
pork products, and to his indefatigable energy, 
wise management and correct methods is due 
the upbuilding of the fine enterprise controlled 
by this firm, though he initiated operations 
upon a most modest scale. A description of 
the business appears on other pages of this 
work. • 

Thomas Barium was born in Ireland, in the 
year 1835, and is a son of Michael Barium, a 
representative of fine old Irish stock. In 1841 
Michael Barium immigrated with his family to 
America and took up his residence in Detroit, 
where he entered the employ of the Michigan 
Central Railroad Company, with which he re- 
mained, in various departments of service, dur- 
ing the residue of his active life. He and his 
wife continued to reside in Detroit until their 
death. Both were devout communicants of the 
Catholic church. 

The subject of this sketch was about six 



710 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



years of age at the time of the family removal 
from the Emerald Isle to America, and he was 
reared to manhood in Detroit, where he at- 
tended parochial schools as a boy, his educa- 
tional advantages being somewhat limited. 
His alert mentality, however, developed sym- 
metrically under the discipline of business life 
and he has gained a wide fund of practical 
knowledge and is an able and discriminating 
business man. Mr. Barium entered the em- 
ploy of the late Martin Flannigan, who con- 
ducted a retail meat market, and he in due 
time familiarized himself with the details of the 
business in which he has personally attained to 
such definite success and prestige. He finally 
rented a stall in the historic old Central Mar- 
ket, which stood on Cadillac Square, in the very 
heart of the business center, and there he con- 
ducted a successful retail meat business until 
the demolition of the market building, when he 
secured place in the new market building, at 
the corner of Bates street and Cadillac Square. 
Here the firm still has a market, in addition to 
the finely equipped manufacturing and whole- 
sale and retail establishment in the Barium 
building, at the corner of Grand River avenue 
and Fifth street. The history of the develop- 
ment of the fine business of the firm of Thomas 
Barium & Sons is given in a specific article in 
these pages, as has already been stated. With 
the increase of his capitalistic resources, Mr. 
Barium began to make judicious investments 
in Detroit realty, and no citizen has shown 
more confidence in the development of the 
"Greater Detroit" than has he. He erected the 
Barium flat building at the location noted, uti- 
lizing the basement and ground floor for his 
business establishment, and in 1905 he and his 
sons purchased the market building occupied 
by them at the corner of Bates street and Cad- 
illac Square. He is also associated with his 
eldest son, John J., and with William B. 
Thompson and others, in the ownership of the 
hotel property, on the corner opposite from the 
market building last mentioned. This latter 
property has been extensively remodeled, at an 
expenditure of fully fifty thousand dollars, and 



is one of the valuable properties in the center 
of the city. Mr. Barium is also the owner of 
other valuable real estate in the city which has 
been his home from his boyhood days. He is 
a heavy stockholder in the Stewart Transpor- 
tation Company and the Postal Transportation 
Company, both engaged in lake-marine freight 
traffic, and is a stockholder in the Peninsular 
Savings Bank, of which he was a director for 
several years. 

In his political proclivities Mr. Barium is a 
stalwart Democrat, and while he has often been 
importuned to become a candidate for local 
office of a public nature he has invariably re- 
fused to permit the consideration of his name 
in this connection. He and his family are com- 
municants of the Catholic church and he is 
affiliated with the Catholic Mutual Benefit As- 
sociation, the Benevolent & Protective Order 
of Elks, and the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. 

Mr. Barium was united in marriage to Miss 
Bridget McNamara, who was born in Ireland, 
whence she came to America with her parents 
when she was a child. Of the children of this 
most felicitous union the following brief data 
are given : Katherine is the wife of Charles 
F. Beilman, of Detroit; John J. is individually 
mentioned in this work; Anna F. is the wife of 
George B. Greening, of Detroit; Agnes is the 
wife of Harry J. Fox; Cora is the wife of 
Tyler Packer, a well known carriage dealer in 
the city of Saginaw ; Ellen is the wife of 
George Finn; and Thomas J. and Louis P. 
are members of the firm of Thomas Barium & 
Sons. The subject of this sketch now lives 
practically retired, but he still retains a general 
supervision of his varied business and capi- 
talistic interests. He has achieved success and 
independence through worthy means and is 
well entitled to the respect and confidence so 
uniformly accorded him. 



FRED POSTAL. 

Through definite accomplishment along vari- 
ous lines it has been the fortune of Mr. Postal 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



711 



to come prominently into the white light of 
publicity, and he has not only made a high 
reputation for enterprise and public spirit, but 
has also gained a wide acquaintanceship and 
distinctive popularity, emphasized by his suc- 
cess in divers fields of endeavor. Of late ac- 
complishments none has brought to him more 
commendation and honor than the able efforts 
he has put forth and the generalship he has 
manifested in connection with the Michigan 
State Fair Association, of which he was re- 
elected president at the time of the magnifi- 
cently successful fair in the autumn of 1907, 
being re-elected in 1908. He is also president 
of the board of poor commissioners of the city 
of Detroit and is senior member of the firm of 
Postal & Morey, proprietors of the Griswold 
House and the Oriental Hotel, two of the 
leading hostelries of the Michigan metropolis. 
Perfervid public spirit animates Mr. Postal and 
among those manifesting a helpful interest in 
the promotion of the "Greater Detroit" he is 
especially entitled to consideration. 

In 1902 the firm of Postal & Morey, while 
still continuing in control of the Griswold 
House, expanded its scheme of hotel opera- 
tions in a noteworthy way, securing from Ga- 
briel Cheira the lease of the Oriental Hotel, 
on Farrar street, opposite the Detroit public 
library. This fine property, of thoroughly 
modem construction and equipped with as ele- 
gant a system of Turkish and other special 
bath rooms as can be found in Detroit, had 
been conducted at a loss for several years, but 
under the regime inaugurated by Postal & 
Morey it has been placed on a substantial and 
remunerative financial basis and is recognized 
as one of the most attractive and popular hotels 
for men only to be found in the west. It is 
needless to say, in view of the statements 
already entered, that the subject of this sketch 
has gained a position as one of the representa- 
tive hotel men of the United States. 

The ambition and energy of Mr. Postal have 
led him into other fields of activity, however, 
and these have been in character far removed 
from that pertaining to hotel management. In 



1902 he manifested the versatility of his genius 
by securing a franchise in the American base- 
ball league for the city of Washington, and he 
was the chief owner of the base ball club put 
into the field by the national capital from that 
year forward until 1905, when he retired from 
this special line of enterprise, after having 
made an excellent record in an executive ca- 
pacity under his franchise. In 1905 he was 
elected president of the Michigan State Fair 
Association, and by re-election in 1906 and 
1907 he has since remained incumbent of this 
office. The work he has accomplished in this 
position has gained to him the strongest com- 
mendation and endorsement on the part of 
those primarily interested, as well as emanat- 
ing from state officials and the general public, 
for he has been unflagging in his efforts, to 
which is largely due the magnificent success 
which has attended the annual state fairs in 
Detroit under his regime, especially those of 
1907 and 1908. The fairs of the association 
are now eminently creditable to the state and 
afford to its people many valuable privileges 
and distinctive pleasures. In 1901 Hon. Will- 
iam C. Maybury, mayor of Detroit, appointed 
Mr. Postal a member of the city board of poor 
commissioners, for a term of four years, the 
distinction being the greater from the fact that 
he is a staunch Republican and thus, in a parti- 
san way, at variance with the administration. 
In 1905 he was reappointed by Mayor Codd 
for a further term of four years, and he has 
served as president of the board for two terms. 
As a member of this important board Mr. 
Postal has not figured in any sense as a super- 
numerary or nominal official, but has taken a 
very deep interest in the work of his depart- 
ment of the municipal service, — a work which 
is significantly humanitarian in its functions. 
Aside from his hotel interests Mr. Postal 
has made judicious investments in the stock of 
manufacturing concerns and also in real estate. 
No citizen of Detroit takes more zealous in- 
terest in the development of its commercial and 
industrial supremacy; and his civic loyalty is 
shown by the exerting of his influence in the 



712 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY ^ 



upbuilding of the larger and greater city. He 
has achieved marked personal success, but is 
fully appreciative of the intrinsic opportunities 
which Detroit has offered and of which he 
availed himself. 

In 1885 Mr. Postal was united in marriage 
to Miss Minnie Southworth, daughter of 
Leonard Southwort, of Evart, Michigan, and 
they have four children, — Harry F. and 
Charles L., who are students in the Michigan 
Military Academy, at Orchard Lake ; and Mar- 
gery B. and Dorothy, who are attending school 
in Detroit. 

JAMES E. BURGESS, M. D. 

Dr. Burgess has practically retired from the 
practice of his profession, in which he attained 
to distinctive prestige and success, and is de- 
voting his time and attention to his various 
capitalistic interests. He was born at Wood- 
stock, province of Ontario, Canada, and is one 
of the many progressive citizens which the do- 
minion has contributed to Detroit. He is a son 
of Joseph L. and Harriet (Rounds) Burgess, 
both of whom were likewise born and reared in 
Ontario, where the respective families were 
early established. The founder of the Burgess 
family in America was Edward Burgess, who 
was born in England, whence he immigrated to 
the New World in 1770, becoming the owner 
of a large landed estate in the vicinity of the 
city of New York. At the inception of the war 
of the Revolution he remained loyal to the 
English crown and became a member of the 
United Empire Loyalist Society. In 1776, by 
reason of the attitude assumed by the colonists, 
he felt impelled to take up his residence in St. 
John, New Brunswick, and in that locality he 
became the owner of a fine landed estate. His 
real-estate holdings near New York were con- 
fiscated by the United States government at the 
conclusion of the war and he received no com- 
pensation for the same. His son Edward, Jr., 
grandfather of the subject of this review, be- 
came a pioneer settler of Oxford county, On- 
tario, where Burgess Lake was named in his 
honor. He was one of the prominent and in- 



fluential citizens of his community and con- 
tinued to reside in Oxford county until his 
death. His son Joseph L., father of the Doc- 
tor, well upheld the prestige of the family 
name and was a man of marked intellectuality 
and distinctive business acumen. In early life 
he was a successful teacher and eventually he 
became one of the leading general merchants 
at Drumbo, Ontario, where he dealt extensively 
in butter, cheese, apples and general farm 
produce, for which he exchanged his merchan- 
dise. He was the first postmaster of the town, 
was imbued with the highest principles of in- 
tegrity and wielded much influence in local 
affairs of a public nature. He died in Drumbo, 
in 1893. 

Dr. James E. Burgess secured his early edu- 
cational training in the public schools of 
Drumbo and later completed a course in Wood- 
stock College, in his native village, being there 
graduated as a member of the class of 1885. 
After leaving this institution he was employed 
for some time as a salesman in his father's 
store, and in the meanwhile began reading 
medicine under effective preceptorship. He 
later became traveling representative for J. C. 
Cochrane & Company, publishers of financial 
journals, and incidentally had charge of the 
firm's advertising for Michigan, Ohio, New 
York and Ontario. In 1889 he resumed the 
study of medicine, having as his preceptor Dr. 
O. Taylor, a leading physician and surgeon of 
Princeton, Ontario, and in 1890 he was ma- 
triculated in the Michigan College of Medicine, 
Detroit, where he completed the prescribed 
technical course and was graduated in 1893, 
duly receiving his well earned degree of Doc- 
tor of Medicine. He forthwith established 
himself in the practice of his profession in De- 
troit, and his novitiate was of brief duration, 
since he soon built up a large and representa- 
tive general practice in the northeastern sec- 
tion of the city, where he gained precedence of 
all others in the numerical strength of his pro- 
fessional clientage. From 1897 until 1902 Dr. 
Burgess served as health officer of the village 
of Hamtramck, and he accomplished a most 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



713 



successful work in the improving of the sani- 
tary conditions of the locality and in the gen- 
eral protection of the public health. He also 
became an active member of the American 
Medical Association, the Michigan State Medi- 
cal Society, and the Wayne County Medical 
Society, besides serving as medical examiner 
for the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Com- 
pany, the Canada Life Insurance Company, the 
Ideal Reserve Insurance Company, and the In- 
dependent Order of Foresters, in w^hich last he 
was for eight years court physician for Court 
Kirby, at Hamtramck. 

In December, 1905, Dr. Burgess retired from 
the practice of his profession, and in the fol- 
lowing month was elected treasurer of the 
Northwestern Foundry & Supply Company, in 
which he had purchased a large stock interest. 
He has shown much initiative and executive 
ability along commercial lines and is recognized 
as a thoroughly progressive business man. He 
is the owner of extensive mining interests, 
being president and general manager of the 
Spider Lake Mining Company, which owns 
and operates valuable property in the Parry 
Sound mining district of Canada. These prop- 
erties are showing excellent productions of 
gold, silver and copper, and the development 
has been pushed forward most successfully, 
very rich veins of ore having been opened and 
the property controlled being one of the best 
in the district. The Doctor is also the owner 
of about fifteen hundred acres of land in Ne- 
waygo county, Michigan, and the same is being 
rapidly developed into most productive farms. 
In politics he has been aligned as a stalwart 
supporter of the principles and policies of the 
Republican party, in whose cause he was a 
most active and effective worker until the exi- 
gencies of his business interests placed so great 
demands upon his time. The attractive family 
home is located at 1831 Woodward avenue, 
and the same is a center of gracious hospitality. 
Dr. Burgess still retains a deep interest in the 
profession in which he gained so large and 
gratifying success and has not permitted him- 
self to lapse in the matter of keeping in touch 



with the advances made in the sciences of medi- 
cine and surgery. 

In October, 1889, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Dr. Burgess to Miss Gladys H. 
Franch, daughter of William F. Franch, a 
leading general merchandise dealer at Wolver- 
ton, Ontario, and a representative of one of the 
honored pioneer families of Oxford county, 
where he is the owner of a large amount of 
valuable realty. Dr. and Mrs. Burgess have 
one son, Harold J., who is a student in the 
Eastern high school of Detroit. 



PERCY E. BOURKE, 

Among those, prominently identified with 
lake-marine interests in Detroit is Mr. Bourke, 
who is manager of the Anchor Line of pas- 
senger and freight steamers, one of the impor- 
tant lines operating out from Detroit as head- 
quarters. He is a native son of the beautiful 
old "City of the Straits," and here has ever 
maintained his home, while he has advanced to 
his present important office through his own 
well directed efforts, being one of the popular 
and progressive business men of his native city. 

Mr. Bourke was born in Detroit, on the 13th 
of May, 1867, and is a son of the late Oliver 
Bourke, who was an honored and representa- 
tive citizen. Percy E. Bourke reverts to the 
public schools of Detroit as affording him his 
early educational advantages, and in 1883 he 
entered the employ of the Detroit Free Press 
Company, being identified with the circulation 
department of its office until 1885, after which 
he entered the service of the Wabash Railroad 
Company, being employed in its local freight 
office, at the foot of Twelfth street. In Feb- 
ruary, 1897, he resigned his position and be- 
came cashier in the freight and passenger de- 
partment of the Detroit office of the Lake Su- 
perior Transit Company, thus initiating his 
connection with marine interests, with which 
he has since continued to be identified. He is 
now manager of the Anchor Line, which has a 
large fleet of substantial vessels in the freight 
service and which also operates the fine pas- 



714 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



senger steamers "Lionesta," "Juniata" and 
"Japan." The line has excellent dock facili- 
ties at the foot of Cass street and controls a 
large business in both its passenger and freight 
traffic, adding materially to the precedence of 
Detroit as one of the most important ports on 
the Great Lakes system. 

Mr. Bourke is identified with the York Rite 
bodies of the Masonic fraternity, and is past 
master of Zion Loge, Free & Accepted Masons. 



HERMAN D. KELLER. 

It has been no static energizing that has 
brought Detroit into the front rank as an in- 
dustrial and commercial center, but, on the 
contrary, the precedence has come as the re- 
sult of intelligent dynamic force brought to 
bear by business men of ability and faith and 
confidence. Among this number stands Mr. 
Keller, who was formerly president of the 
Northwestern Foundry & Supply Company, of 
Detroit, and is president of the Bellevue Pipe 
& Foundry Company, of Bellevue, Ohio. 

Mr. Keller claims as his fatherland the great 
empire of Germany, having been born in the 
kingdom of Bavaria, on the ist of November, 
1855. His parents immigrated to America 
when he was nine years of age. The family 
located in the city of Buffalo, New York, and 
there the subject of this sketch was afforded 
good educational advantages, including the 
privilege of a course of study in St. Joseph's 
College. In 1874 Mr. Keller took up his resi- 
dence in Detroit, where he entered the employ 
of the Detroit Iron & Brass Company, in whose 
shops he served an apprenticeship at the mould- 
er's trade. From 1879 to 1881 he worked as 
a journeyman moulder in the establishment of 
the Detroit Stove Works, and thereafter was 
employed, until 1883, in the stove works of 
Cribben & Sexton, of Chicago. In the year 
last mentioned he assumed a position as fore- 
man of the foundry department of the Che- 
mung Hollow Wire Works, at Elmira, New 
York, and in the following year he resigned 
this place to accept that of foreman of the 



foundry department of the stove manufactory 
of Rathbone, Sard & Company, of Albany, 
New York. In 1886 he became superintendent 
of the Fuller, Warren & Company stove manu- 
factory, at Troy, New York, and in 1889 he 
had the superintendency of the construction of 
this firm's new plant at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 
In 1 89 1 he was placed in charge of the general 
manufacturing department of this plant, where 
he remained until 1893, when he again entered 
the employ of Cribben & Sexton, in Chicago, 
whom he represented as traveling salesman 
until the following year, when he was made 
general superintendent of the plant, an in- 
cumbency which he retained until 1897, when 
he was compelled to resign on account of 
impaired health. 

In 1898 Mr. Keller rented the plant of the 
Detroit Heating & Furnace Company, which 
he utilized in making castings for said com- 
pany and also for a general jobbing business. 
In 1899 he organized the Michigan Heater 
Company, which took over the business of the 
Detroit Furnace & Heating Company, and 
upon the incorporation of the former he be- 
came president and general manager. In 1901 
the business was reorganized under the title 
of Northwestern Foundry & Supply Company, 
and the capital was increased to meet the exi- 
gencies of the rapidly growing business. Mr. 
Keller became president and manager of this 
company at the time of its formation, and his 
executive policy was a most progressive one. 

Mr. Keller promoted the organization of the 
Bellevue Pipe & Foundry Company, of Belle- 
vue, Ohio, and he has been its president and 
general manager from the start, giving a por- 
tion of his time to the direction of the enter- 
prise, which is devoted to the manufacture of 
plumbers' cast-iron specialties. Mr. Keller has 
also made judicious investments in real estate, 
being at the present time owner of about six 
thousand acres of valuable farming land in 
Newago county, Michigan. He is progressive 
and public-spirited as a citizen and is a valued 
member of the Detroit Board of Commerce, 
which body has done and is doing a most ad- 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



715 



mirable work in promoting the advancement of 
the city along industrial and commercial lines. 
His success is the more gratifying to contem- 
plate on the score that it has been achieved 
through his own efforts. He is an expert in 
his line of business and is one of the world's 
workers, realizing that skilled hands and in- 
dustry constitute the master key to the portal 
of definite success and advancement. He has 
traveled extensively, has devoted much atten- 
tion to the reading of standard literature, and 
finds much pleasure in his fine library, his at- 
tractive residence being located at 78 Hendrie 
avenue. He was reared in the faith of the 
Catholic church and the family are communi- 
cants of Holy Rosary parish. He has never 
had aught of desire to enter actively into politi- 
cal life. He is thoroughly appreciative of the 
values of education and has given his children 
excellent advantages, well fitting them for the 
practical duties of life. 

On the 9th of October, 1879, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Keller to Miss Mary J. 
Miller, whose father was a well known con- 
tractor in the city of Toledo, Ohio. Concern- 
ing the children of this felicitous union the fol- 
lowing brief data are entered : Mary A. is the 
wife of P. A. Closshey, of Detroit; Frank H. 
is individually mentioned in this work ; John G. 
is superintendent of the Bellevue Pipe & Foun- 
dry Company, of Bellevue, Ohio ; and Kathe- 
rine, Herman J. and Louis B. remain at the 
parental home. Herman J. is a student in 
Detroit College. 



THOMAS E. NEWTON. 

In the industrial and commercial department 
of this publication is entered a brief review of 
the history of the Newton Beef Company, of 
which representative concern the subject of this 
sketch was the founder and of which he is 
president and treasurer, being one of the lead- 
ing figures in this line of enterprise in the city 
of Detroit. 

Thomas E. Newton has maintained his home 
in Wayne county from the time of his birth, 



which occurred at the homestead farm of his 
parents, in Livonia township, on the 15th of 
March, 1866. He is a son of Melvin and 
Mary (Newington) Newton, the former of 
whom was bom in Rochester, New York. 
Melvin Newton was reared and educated in the 
old Empire state, where he continued to reside 
until he came to Wayne county, Michigan, 
where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. He 
also eventually became a successful dealer in 
farm lands and built up a prosperous business 
as a buyer and shipper of live stock. 

Thomas E. Newton gained his rudimentary 
education in the district school near his farm 
home and supplemented this by attending the 
public schools of Detroit. Reared on a farm, 
and early gaining a thorough knowledge of 
live-stock values, he began independent opera- 
tions as a buyer of stock when still a 
youth, instituting such operations in 1882, 
when but sixteen years of age. He purchased 
stock from the farmers in this section of the 
state and also became connected with opera- 
tions in the Detroit stock yards. In 1890 
he began handling dressed live-stock on a 
small scale, slaughtering not to exceed ten 
head a week. In that year he purchased 
the retail meat business of Captain Owen, 
in the old Central market of Detroit, and 
shortly afterward he assumed the manage- 
ment of the business of William Wreford, 
who was virtually the pioneer in the wholesale 
meat trade in Detroit. In 1901 he organized 
the Newton Beef Company, which he has de- 
veloped into one of the leading concerns in the 
meat trade in the Michigan metropolis, as is 
shown in the article descriptive of the business. 
He is practically the sole owner of the busi- 
ness and is known as one of the reliable and 
progressive citizens of the city in which he has 
gained success and prestige through his own 
well directed efforts. He was one of the or- 
ganizers of the Northern Assurance Company, 
of Detroit, and remains one of the principal 
stockholders of the same. He is also treasurer 
and general manager of the Gayety Theater 
Company, of Detroit. 



716 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



Mr. Newton is essentially public-spirited and 
he shows a lively interest in all that tends to 
promote the civic and industrial progress of 
his home city. He is an active member of the 
Detroit Board of Commerce and in politics he 
is a Republican, though in local affairs he is 
not constrained by partisan lines but gives his 
support to men and measures meeting the ap- 
proval of his judgment. He is a lover of 
horses and has exploited several fine standard- 
breds, among the number being "Harry H.," 
well known in local turf circles. 

On the 2d of March, 1893, Mr. Newton was 
united in marriage to Mrs. Ellen Ida (Weeks) 
Callan, daughter of George F. Weeks, a rep- 
resentative merchant of Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
vania. The only child of this union is Thomas 
Alfred. Mrs. Newton has two clii'.dren by her 
first marriage, — William Callan, who is secre- 
tary of the Newton Beef Company, and Ida 
May Callan, who is a graduate of the Central 
high school of Detroit and who remains at the 
parental home. 



JOHN J. BARLUM, 

One of the representative business men of 
the younger generation in Detroit is John J. 
Barium, general manager of the firm 01 
Thomas Barium & Sons, manufacturers of pork 
products and wholesale and retail dealers in 
meats, and also president and general manager 
of the Postal Transportation Company. A 
sketch of the career of his father, Thomas Bar- 
ium, as well as a description of the business of 
Thomas Barium & Sons, appears in this vol- 
ume, and in the present connection it is there- 
fore unnecessary to offer a further resume of 
the family history or of the enterprise so suc- 
cessfully conducted by the firm mentioned. 

Mr. Barium is a native son of Detroit, where 
he was bom on the 14th of April, 1866, the 
eldest of the five children of Thomas and 
Bridget (McNamara) Barium. After pre- 
liminary training in the public and parochial 
schools of Detroit Mr. Barium continued his 
studies in Detroit College, a fine institution 



conducted under the control of the Catholic 
church, and in 1888 he was graduated in the 
Goldsmith Business College, of this city, hav- 
ing completed a thorough commercial course 
and thus fitted himself for the active responsi- 
bilities of life. After leaving school he be- 
came identified with the business of his father, 
learning the same in all its details and soon 
proving an able coadjutor in the enterprise. 
In 1889 he was admitted to partnership, under 
the firm name of Thomas Barium & Son, and 
at a later time his younger brothers were ad- 
mitted to the firm, whose title then became 
Thomas Barium & Sons, as at present main- 
tained. Mr. Barium is also a stockholder and 
director of the Stewart Transportation Com- 
pany, operating a line of freight vessels on the 
Great Lakes, and in 1907 he was the chief or- 
ganizer of the Postal Transportation Company, 
which was incorporated in that year. His as- 
sociates in this corporation are Fred Postal, 
William McFall, Thomas Lewis, G. B. Green- 
ing, A. R. Lee, Captain Murray Mcintosh, 
and his father, Thomas Barium, and his two 
brothers, Thomas J. and Louis. He was elect- 
ed president and treasurer of the company at 
the time of its incorporation, and has since 
been incumbent of this dual office, as well as 
that of general manager. The first boat of 
the company's line was completed in Decem- 
ber, 1907, at a cost of three hundred and twen- 
ty thousand dollars. This vessel, the "Thomas 
Barium," is of steel construction, is five hun- 
dred feet in length and is one of the best freight 
boats on the lake system. It was constructed 
by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company and is 
of the best modern type of propellers. 

Mr. Barium is a most progressive and pub- 
lic-spirited business man and is one of the ac- 
tive and valued members of the Detroit Board 
of Commerce, in which he has rendered effect- 
ive service. In politics he gives an unswerv- 
ing allegiance to the Democratic party, in 
whose local ranks he has been a zealous and 
influential factor, being a close adviser and 
energetic supporter of his cousin, Hon. Will- 
iam B. Thompson, former mayor of the city 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



717 



of Detroit, in the latter's various campaigns. 
He is a member of the Rushmere Club, whose 
fine club house is located in the Lake St. Clair 
flats, and he is also identified with the Fellow- 
craft Club, and with Detroit Lodge, No. 34, 
Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, in 
which latter he is a member of the committee 
having in charge the erection of the new Elk's 
building. 

In March, 1892, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Barium to Miss Julia M. Lewis, 
a daughter of the late Thomas Lewis, who was 
a prominent and influential citizen of Detroit 
and a member of one of the city's old and hon- 
ored families. Thomas Lewis was a brother 
of the venerable Alexander Lewis, who served 
as mayor of the city many years ago and who 
is the subject of a memoir in this volume. Mr. 
and Mrs. Barium have three children, — Viola 
N., Lewis Thorne, and Charlotte M. Viola is 
attending the Convent of the Sacred Heart, 
Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Barium are prominent 
in the social life of their home city, where both 
enjoy distinctive popularity. 



FRANK H. KELLER. 

One of the representative young business 
men of Detroit, Mr. Keller formerly held the 
office of secretary of the Northwestern Foun- 
dry & Supply Company. He was born at Pull- 
man, Illinois, on the 7th of October, 1883, and 
is a son of Herman D. and Mary J. (Miller) 
Keller. A review of the life of his father ap- 
pears on other pages of this volume. His 
early educational discipline was secured in 
Catholic parochial schools in the city of Chi- 
cago and this training was supplemented by a 
course in St. Joseph's Commercial College, De- 
troit, in which he was graduated in June, 1900. 
In the same year he became shipping clerk in 
the works of the Northwestern Foundry & 
Supply Company, and in January, 1903, he 
was promoted to the position of time-keeper. 
Having thoroughly familiarized himself with 
the varied details of the business, he was called 
to the position of secretary in 1906, and in 



this office he showed much discrimination and 
administrative ability. 

The subject of this sketch has long been in- 
terested in sleight-of-hand work and other 
forms of the "magic art," in which he him- 
self has attained to no slight adeptness. He 
was the chief promoter of the organization of 
the Society of Detroit Magicians, in 1903, and 
has been its secretary and treasurer from its 
inception. The society has a membership of 
about thirty persons and its objects are the 
acquirement of information and facility in the 
art of magic. Many pleasurable entertain- 
ments have been given by the organization and 
by it have been entertained many of the lead- 
ing public performers in the line of magic and 
legerdemain. Mr. Keller is also an apprecia- 
tive student of standard literature and has ac- 
cumulated a valuable library, covering a wide 
range of subjects. He and his wife are com- 
municants of Holy Rosary Catholic church. 

On the 20th of June, 1905, Mr. Keller was 
united in marriage to Miss Quinnie May Havi- 
land, daughter of John Haviland, who was for 
many years engaged in the manufacturing of 
crackers in Detroit and who is now identified 
with the same line of enterprise in Lansing, 
this state. 

MARTIN BREITMEYER. 

Deeply appreciative of the beauties and the 
commercial and industrial precedence of his 
native city, Mr. Breitmeyer, is known as oue 
of the thoroughly progressive young business 
men of Detroit, and as one who is found ever 
ready to lend his aid and influence in the for- 
warding of those enterprises which make for 
the development of the "Greater Detroit." 

Mr. Breitmeyer was born in Detroit, on the 
19th of March, 1874, and is a son of Frank 
and Emma (Cramer) Breitmeyer. He found 
in the public schools of Detroit ample provision 
for preliminary educational discipline and duly 
availed himself of the privileges thus afforded, 
after which he completed a commercial course 
in the Detroit Business University. His fa- 
miliarity with the manifold details of the brew- 



718 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



ing business has been gained by thorough and 
intimate experience in connection with the 
work and operations of the various depart- 
ments. At the age of seventeen years he be- 
came a helper in the brewery of Conrad Pfeif- 
fer, and thus, in 1891, initiated his connection 
with the Hne of industry in which he has at- 
tained to so marked prestige, being now vice- 
president and treasurer of the C. Pfeiffer 
Brewing Company, which is the hneal succes- 
sor of the concern with which he first identi- 
fied himself. He gave careful attention to the 
work in hand and gained promotion through 
the various grades and departments until he 
became essentially indispensable. In 1894 he 
assumed the position of bookkeeper in the of- 
fice of the concern, and of this office he contin- 
ued incumbent until 1902, when, upon the in- 
corporation of the C. Pfeiffer Brewing Com- 
pany, he became a stockholder in the same, and 
was elected its vice-president and treasurer. 
He has since continued in charge of the fiscal 
affairs of the company and has done much to 
promote its interests and gain to it the suc- 
cess which now designates it as one of the lead- 
ing industrial concerns of its kind in the city 
of Detroit. 

Mr. Breitmeyer is well and favorably known 
in the business circles of his native city and 
here he has a host of loyal and valued friends. 
In politics he gives his allegiance to the Re- 
publican party and the only social or semi- 
business organization of which he is a member 
is the German Salesmen's Association. He 
has a delightful home and the same is the cen- 
ter of his social interests, — the place where he 
finds his greatest solace and pleasure. He and 
his wife are zealous members of the German 
Evangelical church, in whose faith he was 
reared. 

On the 2d of March, 1898, Mr. Breitmeyer 
was united in marriage to Miss Hattie Groehn, 
daughter of one of the well known German- 
American citizens of Detroit, and they have 
one son, Hazen F. G., who was born on the 
17th of December, 1898. 



JOHN COLL. 

One of the progressive business men of De- 
troit is John Coll, who is a stockholder of the 
Independent Brewing Company, of which he 
was formerly president and to which consid- 
eration is given specifically in the industrial 
and commercial department of this publication. 

Mr. Coll is a scion of staunch old German 
stock and was born on the island of Fuehr, in 
the North Sea, Germany, on the 6th of April, 
1859. He is a son of Henry Coll, who was 
born in Germany. Henry Coll came to the 
United States and settled in the state of New 
York, where he enlisted for service in the 
Union army at the outbreak of the civil war. 
He became a member of the Sixty-eighth New 
York Volunteer Infantry, and remained with 
the same, as a private, until victory crowned 
the Union arms and the integrity of the nation 
was perpetuated. He died in the year 1901, 
at Augusta, Maine, where he had been for 
some time a resident in the soldiers' home of 
that commonwealth. 

The subject of this review secured his early 
education in the excellent schools of his father- 
land, and in 1872, at the age of thirteen years, 
he came alone to the United States, and took 
up his residence with his uncle, Frederick 
Brandt, who was a shoemaker by trade and vo- 
cation. He finally entered upon an appren- 
ticeship at the carpenter's trade, in Detroit, be- 
coming a skilled workman and being employed 
as a journeyman for a number of years, after 
which he was engaged in contracting and 
building on his own account until 1884, when 
he established himself in the retail grocery 
business at the corner of Fort and Morrell 
streets. There he built up a large and substan- 
tial trade, in which he continued until 1898, 
when he sold out. He was thereafter retired 
from active business for some time and made a 
visit to his old home in Germany, where he re- 
mained several months. In January, 1903, he 
engaged in the coal business in Detroit, being 
associated therein with William C. Clark. He 
continued to be identified with this enterprise 
until 1906, when he disposed of his interest in 



DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY 



719 



the business and became one of the organizers 
of the Independent Brewing Company, of 
which he was the first president, retiring in 
1908. 

Mr. Coll is identified in a fraternal way with 
the National Union, and he and his wife hold 
membership in St. Paul's church. 

On the 1st of August, 1879, Mr. Coll was 
united in marriage to Miss Minnie Frahm, 



daughter of John Frahm, of Detroit, and they 
have two children : Bernhard, who was bom 
in 1880, was afforded the advantages of the 
Detroit public schools and 1898 he enlisted in 
the United States navy, in which he served 
four years: he is now a salesman for the In- 
dependent Brewing Company; John, Jr., who 
was born in 1886, was educated in the public 
schools and remains at the parental home. 



*s 



sOC, 






<;!. ' %^ 



^^^^. 



x*"^ "^^^ 



\V 'f. 






sOc 



'> 

vC 



